The lottery is a fictional story of blindly following an old tradition, in this case to have rain fall for a good crop and harvest that year, people once a year coming together and drawing their fate if they would be sacrificed that year. This is a social problem due to blindly following from sheep mentality even stoning your own mother near the end where, “someone gave little Davy Hutchinson a few pebbles.” A small child was just carelessly asked or even encouraged to do so. The shock factor from the villagers seeing themselves as free from guilt because of the blind drawing where no one person could be at fault is a little disturbing, no one is questioning the tradition because no single person feels it is their own personal issue with murdering an innocent person. They even feel like they are obligated, running up and being even slightly enthusiastic about it, “Delacroix selected a stone so large she had to pick it up with both hands and turned to Mrs. Dunbar. “Come on,” she said. “Hurry up.”
How they store the box is kind of like sweeping it under the covers, they just hide it away out of sight and out of mind until the
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next year when the town has to drag it out for the following lottery. The banter between Mrs. Delacroix and Mrs. Graves shows how they don’t pay attention between lotteries or time is fast between them. “Seems like there’s no time at all between lotteries anymore.” Mrs. Delacroix said to Mrs. Graves in the back row. “Seems like we got through with the last one only last week. “Time sure goes fast” Mrs. Graves said. “The rest of the year, the box was put way, sometimes one place, sometimes another; it had spent one year in Mr. Graves’s barn and another year underfoot in the post office.” The original tradition has been lost to time or lack of care, the only person who vaguely remembers the old partial tradition was old man Warner where he kind of just subconsciously said part of an old rhyme, “Lottery in June, corn be heavy soon.” Warner being a bit upset about how young people are seeing that the tradition should be broken, but ignoring the fact that even though those towns broke tradition, they are not starving or running in chaos, rather just being fickle about it and saying they would lose all society structure, “Next thing you know, they’ll be wanting to go back to living in caves, nobody work anymore, live that way for a while.” Mrs. Hutchinson though ought the whole story seemed like she disliked the lottery, from showing up late to the beginning of the drawing to when her husband drew the mark, trying to talk her way out of it and going through stages of grief, “I think we ought to start over,” Mrs. Hutchinson said, as quietly as she could. “I tell you it wasn’t fair. You didn’t give him time enough to choose.” Everybody saw that.” knowing that someone in her family would get stoned, turning out to be her and pleading for a change and that it wasn’t fair. Her turmoil of working against the grain of the crowd mentality unluckily put her in the place she least wanted to be. “It isn’t fair, it isn’t right,” Mrs. Hutchinson screamed, and then they were upon her.” Maybe the town was in a darker way was optimistic to get rid of a naysayer, trying to cling to the last bit of tradition that are left over, would explain why the town refuses to replace the old box even though it has be brought up every year to no avail to have it fixed. “Every year, after the lottery, Mr. Summers began talking again about a new box, but every year the subject was allowed to fade off without anything’s being done.” The overall complications of blindly following anything over generations without critical analysis of how it can be applied in the current generation is a problem Shirley Jackson was maybe trying to address may it be how the government works or how religion can be toxic in some means.
Scaring the reader with the blatant disregard for life to the point it was a joyful event once the person was picked to be sacrificed can almost be sickening if you were to think hard enough on it. The mixture of old and new persons and how they feel about following tradition to the dot even though it has lost meaning can be a good warning on thinking for yourself and being critical of what is happening around you. Finding a way out of being guilty for wrong doing is something that is pretty predominant in our society and it’s a good look on how it can be
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Shirley Jackson's 'The Lottery', is a story that is filled with symbolism. The author uses symbolism to help her represent human nature as tainted, no matter how pure one thinks of himself or herself, or how pure their environment may seem to be. The story is very effective in raising many questions about the pointless nature of humanity regarding tradition and violence. 'The Lottery' clearly expresses Jackson's feelings concerning mankind?s evil nature hiding behind traditions and rituals. She shows how coldness and lack of compassion in people can exhibit in situations regarding tradition and values. Jackson presents the theme of this short story with a major use of symbolism. Symbolism shows throughout the setting of 'The Lottery,' the objects, the peoples actions, and even in the time and the names of the lucky contestants.
The Lottery is an excellent example of a senseless society; this is what makes the storyline crazy. In this writing the village members blindly follow the tradition of the Lottery, which entails the chosen person to be stoned to death by community members, friends, and even family. The peoples misguided knowledge makes them believe that it would be crazy not to do the lottery, this is shown when Mr. Adams says “that over in the north village they’re talking of giving up the lottery” and Old Man Warner responds by calling them a “pack of crazy fools” and saying “there is nothing but trouble in that. Warner degrades others decision to go against the tradition of the society (page. 4) General knowledge tells you that stoning a person to death simply because of tradition is wrong, most can agree that in itself is crazy. ...
The plot as a whole in “The Lottery” is filled with ironic twists. The whole idea of a lottery is to win something, and the reader is led to believe that the winner will receive some prize, when in actuality they will be stoned to death by the rest of the villagers. The villagers act very nonchalant upon arriving at the lottery; which makes it seem as if it is just another uneventful day in a small town. Considering the seriousness of the consequences of the lottery, the villagers do not make a big deal about it. Under the same note it is ironic that many of the original traditions of the lottery, such as the recital and the salute, had long been forgotten. All that the villagers seemed to remember was the ruthless killing of a random person. It also seems strange that they let the equipment for the lottery, the black box, get into such a poor condition.
Why would a civilized and peaceful town would ever suggest the horrifying acts of violence can take place anywhere at anytime and the most ordinary people can commit them. Jackson's fiction is noted for exploring incongruities in everyday life, and “The Lottery”, perhaps her most exemplary work in this respect, examines humanity's capacity for evil within a contemporary, familiar, American setting. Noting that the story’s characters, physical environment, and even its climactic action lacks significant individuating detail, most critics view “The Lottery.” As a modern-day parable or fable, which obliquely addresses a variety of themes, including the dark side of human nature, the danger of ritualized behavior, and the potential for cruelty when the individual submits to the mass will. Shirley Jackson also addresses cruelty by the citizen’s refusal to stand up and oppose “The Lottery.” Violence and cruelty is a major theme in “The Lottery.”
Every year, the lottery is held, and every year a person is killed. Each villager neglects to acknowledge the unjustness of the lottery and continue to participate because of the tradition it represents in their society. The lottery was a cultural tradition passed down from the very first settlers of the village. It makes up a huge part of the village’s history and culture. The villagers pay recognition to their culture by continuing the tradition of the lottery even though the lottery is not morally right. On page 93 it states, “There was a proper swearing-in of Mr. Summers by the postmaster, as the official of the lottery; at one time, some people remembered, there had been a recital of some sort, performed by the official of the lottery, a perfunctory tuneless chant that had been rattled off duly each year… There had been, also, a ritual salute, which the official of the lottery had had to use in addressing each person who came to draw from the box…” This quote shows the tribal-like rituals and traditions associated with the lottery. Through the years, some of the rituals of the lottery were lost, but the main elements of the lottery remained the same. The idea behind the lottery was that the ancestors, of the villagers, believed that human sacrifice would bring in good harvest. This led to the development and continuation
Humans, as a species, are flawed in the deepest sense of the word. Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery” satirizes many of these flaws. In her piece, she details a town’s tradition of gathering together once a year to have a ‘lottery’. In this lottery, each the head of each family draws a piece of paper from a black box. If the head draws a paper with a black dot in the middle, each member of the family will draw from a smaller selection of papers, once of which has a black dot in the middle. Whoever draws the paper with the black dot in the middle will be stoned to death. In her story, Tessie Hutchinson is the unfortunate recipient of the black dot. Despite her protests, she was stoned. Shirley Jackson accurately depicts the many flaws in humanity,
In Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery,” a story which demonstrates “the pointless violence and general inhumanity” in everyday life, the use of literary devices and elements of the story contribute to the final effect of shock and horror. In “The Lottery”, townsfolk are preparing for a raffle of some sort towards the beginning of the story. At the end the reader knows what the raffle is for: the prize of death. With this twisted and unexpected ending, comes the use of literary devices such as foreshadowing, irony, and other elements. In the beginning of the story, children are gathering for the event, and are playing like normal kids. However, these children are “selecting the smoothest and roundest stones” (1), for no reason that the reader is
All the townspeople knew that one of them were going to be killed but if they knew the risks they were taking then why would do the lottery? It was unfair because even though the villagers thought it was right to kill innocent people they didn't fully understand what the lottery was or what it meant. The townspeople was raised to believe in the lottery. People should be able to choose what they believe in and not have their parents telling them that they have to believe in something or else something terrible will happen. If the lottery was a choice then most or all of the townspeople would chose not to do
Should tradition be a rational for committing irrational actions in life? In Shirley Jackson's story "The Lottery", Shirley Jackson really poses the question of whether or not tradition should be a rational for committing irrational actions in life and emphasizes the point of traditions potential effect of controlling one's actions on the basis of whatever traditions that a person values. "The Lottery" is a story where the day starts out as a nice day but as the day is lived through, the result of the outcome of the village's lottery is that Tessie is stoned to death in regards to the village's tradition. Shirley Jackson does not like the lottery and its outcome by the tone she uses in the story, her description of the characters and the symbols
The Lottery by Shirley Jackson is a swipe at real life societies whose guideline for morality is skewed because of their institutionalized traditions. The Lottery is an event held every year on June 27th where a family name is drawn. Then the immediate family of which the name was drawn draws pieces of paper. The person who draws the black dot gets stoned to death by the community. This is a long held tradition of the community and the community does it this because it all they’ve grew up with. On page 300 it says, “Take a paper out of the box, Davy,” Mr. Summers said. Davy put his hand into the box and laughed.” This quote shows the little boy does not know the severity of this situation and that there is a chance he could be picked for the
“Although the villagers had forgotten the ritual and lost the original black box, they still remembered to use stones” (132). Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery” is a tale that showcases a strange yearly tradition within a small town where neither the children nor the elderly are exempt from participating. Throughout the story, Jackson lures readers into a false sense of serenity with her title where she then proceeds to illustrate a peculiar and perhaps merciless gathering of the townspeople participating in a bizarre annual lottery event. It is not surprising then that this short story could be considered barbaric and the title misleading.
“The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson was written in 1948. The story takes place in a village square of a town on June 27th. The author does not use much emotion in the writing to show how the barbaric act that is going on is look at as normal. This story is about a town that has a lottery once a year to choose who should be sacrificed, so that the town will have a plentiful year for growing crops. Jackson has many messages about human nature in this short story. The most important message she conveys is how cruel and violent people can be to one another. Another very significant message she conveys is how custom and tradition can hold great power over people. Jackson also conveys the message of how men treat women as objects.
Tessie Hutchinson was chosen to be to be killed June 27th for the sake of an old tradition. “The Lottery” written by Shirley Jackson demonstrates an extra unordinary interpretation of what she defines as a lottery. The lottery is usually a time when someone is rewarded or loses money not a time for someone to lose a life. In a small village populated by 300, each family’s last name is taken into account and put into the black box. This box is significant as it has continued to exist throughout the many years this tradition has made it through. Once there is declared a winner, chosen by chance, they will get stoned to death. Villager’s lives are then continued until the next year. Communicated well in this reading is the style, tone, and theme as well as a sense of
Consider taking a deeper look into the lottery you can see the minor peaceful village of 300 people. Throughout the story you can see the peace within the village diminish little by little. The story of the black box was constructed when the first people settled down to make the village. Although the villagers had forgotten the ritual and the original black box (Jackson,7) it wasn’t always like that. The lottery was a big event just like a school dance, Halloween program, and teen club hosted by Mr. Summers and it only took about two hours to set up (1).
This illustrates how people can be so blinded by the dangers of tradition because even though their mother or father are going to die they’re blinded by selfishness when only caring that they got saved.