In the first few years of a child’s life, every situation is important to the shaping of a child’s future. In the short story “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson, a cruel tradition occurs in towns across the nation that negatively impacts the children. Every year, the town gathers and at random chooses a member of a family to be stoned to death. Young Dave Hutchinson’s life is changed forever when his mother, Tessie Hutchinson, is chosen in the lottery. Witnessing murder at such a young age can cause mental health issues in adulthood, possibly becoming harmful to others. Also, the children will have to decide whether or not they should go against the wishes of the current adults in their community and get rid of the lottery. Finally, there are …show more content…
times when a child such as Dave, will lose a parent, and that can be damaging to their future as well. Each experience in a child’s life will alter the development of their future and what they decide to do with their future, especially a traumatic experience such as the stoning. Undoubtedly children use every experience early on to shape the way their lives will be. Each child will have different experiences and that is why everyone is so unique. Witnessing the annual stoning has a high possibility to be damaging because it involves the killing of a human being. In “The Lottery”, each child in the village is exposed to the violence of the stoning and are even encouraged to participate. The children are okay with watching and helping and even use the stoning as an end of the year event, “Bobby Martin [has] already stuffed his pockets full of stones, and the other boys soon followed his example,” (Jackson, 253). No matter what happens, someone is going to die, and the children are going to help to do it. It is a proven fact that witnessing violent assaults will be detrimental on the child. In one study, Dr. Mary E. Muscari suggests that violent exposure can have significant effects on children as they develop and form their own intimate relationships throughout their lives. While everyone is different, it is more than likely that many children in the village are examples of Dr. Muscari’s study. When the times comes for the youth of the town to start their own families, there is a higher possibility for violence to develop than a town without the lottery. Also, there would be a lot of guilt enveloping the children, knowing that they have murdered innocent people, especially their own neighbours. Guilt can then lead to depression, anxiety and other mental health problems, something that is nearly irreversible. Without the lottery, the children would not have the mental health problems by watching extreme violence at such a young age. In the situation involving the lottery, the questions remain at whether or not the children will choose to eradicate the lottery.
The violent experiences that the children experience can be detrimental in their futures, which can be a cause for change. In other towns, they have already started talking about abolishing the lottery, opening the gateway of possibility. Old Man Warner’s opinion is that the other towns are “a pack of wild fools, listening to the young folks,” (256). Children are the ones who are going to shape society when they grow up and seeing loved ones and neighbours getting murdered as a community might no longer make sense. Also they might not want the same fate of mental illness for their children. Conjointly, if the stoning only occurs to maintain healthy crop, the children, when they are adults can choose to just maintain a healthy crop with merciless murder. Therefore eradicating the lottery will ensure that no one else can be harmed by the lottery, despite what their older neighbours …show more content…
want. Furthermore, Dave Hutchinson, the youngest of the Hutchinson family, will be greatly impacted by the death of his mother for the rest of his life.
First of all, he is going to be growing up without a mother, she will never be able to teach him mannerisms, how to do housework, etc. Before the draw in the lottery, Mrs. Hutchinson states that she wouldn’t “leave [her] dishes in the sink,” (255). This quote is a good example of good mannerisms and that she knows how to do housework. But, because she is stoned to death, it also means that he is going have to help out more around the house and help his father, making more of workload. Moreover, a mother is usually the parent to teach the son how to prefect a relationship. It has already been established that the lottery can cause violent relationships, however Dave us at even more of a disadvantage. His mother will never be able to teach him what a girl likes, or how to treat a woman. Dr. Coleman, a psychologist, states that mothers teach their sons on how to treat a woman with respect, and “boys learn more from their mothers about how to love than their fathers,” (Samalonis). Unfortunately Dave Hutchinson will, like other children, be without a mother in the household, missing out on important motherly lessons in
life. Across the nation in “The Lottery” the towns’ young people are starting to get rid of the stoning tradition. As the children grow up, and their mental health is deteriorating, they will see the negative effects of the lottery and eliminate it. Later on in the children’s lives, they will be more prone to acting on violence, and guilt will ensue them for murdering innocent people. The only positive to the lottery’s harmful effects would be the push on the children to end the tradition.
“The Lottery” is a satire that is meant to shock and provoke readers with the prospect that societal contentment and tradition can evoke the emersion of illogical and harmful actions. The author, Shirley Jackson, understands that the proper use of symbolism and character archetypes is followed by a more impactful story. “The Lottery” opens with children who are out of school for summer break “[on a clear and sunny… day.” (Jackson, 1948, p. 221). Such an innocuous, familiar scene, might elicit from the reader nostalgic, whimsical memories of childhood play. Appropriately, the children in this story represent the innocent, susceptible future generation of the town. They do not seem to fully fathom the severity of the lottery or the abhorrent nature of the violence associated with the town’s traditions. For this reason, the reader most likely develops an expectation that this story will be a pleasant and optimistic one that takes place on a beautiful sunny day and involves the laughter and tomfoolery of young happy kids.
“The Lottery” is a short story about an event that takes place every year in a small village of New England. When the author speaks of “the lottery” he is referencing the lottery of death; this is when the stoning of a village member must give up his or her life. The villagers gather at a designated area and perform a customary ritual which has been practiced for many years. The Lottery is a short story about a tradition that the villagers are fully loyal to and represents a behavior or idea that has been passed down from generation to generation, accepting and following a rule no matter how cruel or illogical it is. Friends and family become insignificant the moment it is time to stone the unlucky victim.
“ The Lottery”, written by Shirley Jackson, shows the corruption in a village whose people treat life with insignificance. Through the use of literary devices, Jackson portrays how practices in traditions can be barbaric;ultimately, resulting in persecution.
The older village inhabitants did not want this practice extinct because they illogically believe that the practice maintains society stability. Old Man Warner, the oldest man in town, has participated in seventy-seven lotteries and is a staunch advocate for keeping things exactly the way they are. He dismisses the towns and young people who have stopped having lotteries as “Pack of crazy fools,"”. Generational and moral conflict about the lottery practice results because of varying perception of the readers. The year 1948 was the post-war era (2nd world war) and this may have influenced the culture in relation to capital punishment.
Shirley Jackson's “The Lottery” is a short story about the annual gathering of the villagers to conduct an ancient ritual. The ritual ends in the stoning of one of the residents of this small village. This murder functions under the guise of a sacrament that, at one time, served the purpose of ensuring a bountiful harvest. This original meaning, however, is lost over the years and generations of villagers. The loss of meaning has changed the nature and overall purpose of the lottery. This ritual is no longer a humble sacrifice that serves the purpose of securing the harvest but instead is a ceremony of violence and murder only existing for the pleasure found in this violence.
“The Lottery,” written by Shirley Jackson in 1948, is a provoking piece of literature about a town that continues a tradition of stoning, despite not know why the ritual started in the first place. As Jackson sets the scene, the villagers seem ordinary; but seeing that winning the lottery is fatal, the villagers are then viewed as murders by the reader. Disagreeing with the results of the lottery, Tessie Hutchinson is exposed to an external conflict between herself and the town. Annually on June 27th, the villagers gather to participate in the lottery. Every head of household, archetypally male, draws for the fate of their family, but Tessie protests as she receives her prize of a stoning after winning the lottery. Jackson uses different symbols – symbolic characters, symbolic acts, and allegories – to develop a central theme: the
In Shirley Jackson’s "The Lottery," what appears to be an ordinary day in a small town takes an evil turn when a woman is stoned to death after "winning" the town lottery. The lottery in this story reflects an old tradition of sacrificing a scapegoat in order to encourage the growth of crops. But this story is not about the past, for through the actions of the town, Jackson shows us many of the social ills that exist in our own lives.
In "The Lottery," by Shirley Jackson, there are a series of traditions the story revolves around. The characters in the story don't seem to follow their traditions anymore. The story begins by explaining how the lottery works. The lottery takes place in many other towns. In this town it takes place on June 27 of every year. Everyone within town would gather at the town square, no matter what age. The black box is brought out and each head of the household pulls a small paper out of it. Only one of the papers will not be blank, it will have a black-penciled spot that is put on by the owner of the coal company. The black spot will send someone, from the family who chose it, to death. This is decided by a draw. The family member who pulls out the spotted paper will be stoned to death. After a long period of time, people forget the traditions by slowly disregarding as the years pass.
Written by Shirley Jackson, “The Lottery” is a short story about a town that hosts an annual lottery that decides which person is stoned by the rest of the town. Jackson slowly and subtly builds the suspense throughout the story, only resolving the mystery surrounding the lottery at the very last moment, as the townspeople surround Tessie with their stones. The symbolism utilized helps demonstrate the overall significance of the story, such as the lottery itself. The lottery shows the way people desperately cling to old traditions, regardless of how damaging they may be. In addition, it can show how callous many will act while staring at a gruesome situation, until they become the victims.
When the story first opens up, the introductory scene that opens the story up includes children gathering stones and running to the destination where the lottery takes place. According to Linda Wagner-Martin’s journal, “The Lottery by Shirley Jackson”, she explains that the children running around provides a calm and peaceful vibe to the story. She also explains that bringing the children into the description creates a poignancy not only for the death of Tessie, the mother, but for the sympathy the crowd gives to her youngest son, Dave. She explains that it’s family members, women and children, and fellow residents that are being murdered through this ritual. The author additionally attempts to throw the reader off at first by creating a beautiful image of a town where the “flowers were blossoming profusely and the grass was richly green” which gives an innocent feel to the town; but, the story actually ends with an egregious ending. One of the children, Martin, “stuffed his pockets full of stones, and the younger boys soon followed his example, selecting the smoothest and roundest stones.” The reason behind the younger children picking up the smoothest stones was because it would allow the person that’s being stoned a slow death due to their soft edges. With this, Jackson indicates that the children define this murderous and unethical event as ethical because they help their elders murder someone
When children are born, they are innocent because their minds are essentially a blank sheet of paper. In a civilized society, adults try to protect the children from being exposed to harmful influences, such as murder or crime. However, in “The Lottery,” when Tessie Hutchinson is chosen as the winner, Jackson describes that “someone [gives] little Davy Hutchinson few pebbles” so that he can also stone his mother. In this quote, Jackson uses the world “little” to describe Davy Hutchinson, suggesting that he is young and innocent, but the villagers still give him the stone, encouraging him to kill his own mother. By intentionally arming the children with stones, the villagers are dehumanized. This quote depicts the villagers’ immorality because they are deliberately training the children to murder in order to preserve the tradition of the lottery. The moment Mrs. Hutchinson is picked as the winner, Jackson notes that “the children [have] stones already” (Jackson 7). The children’s naturally gather the stones without anyone telling them. Additionally, their action shows that the concept of murdering a person for no reason has been imprinted on their minds. Nonetheless, the children cannot be blamed because the villagers allow the children to participate in the violent ceremony, suggesting the villagers’ extreme barbarism and savagery. Through the dehumanization of the villagers, Jackson
Winning vast amounts of money can make anyone slaphappy, but unfortunately this type of wager won’t be discussed in Shirley Jacksons “The Lottery.” Jackson catches the reader’s attention by describing a typical day by using words such as “blossoming, clear and sunny skies” to attract the reader into believing a calm and hopeful setting which eventually turns dark. In this short story Jackson tells a tale of a sinister and malevolent town in America that conforms to the treacherous acts of murder in order to keep their annual harvest tradition alive. Jackson exposes the monstrosity of people within this society in this chilling tale. She allows the reader’s to ponder and lead them to believe that the lottery is actually a good thing; till she implements foreshadowing, to hint at the dreadfulness behind the lottery and its meaning. My goal in this paper is to discuss why Jackson’s “The Lottery” is a portrayed as a horror story, and the importance the townspeople used to glorify ritualistic killings, to appease to an unseeable force in return of good harvest for the upcoming year.
Would you believe that there was once a village where everyone would partake in a terrible event, but think it was innocent because of how they blindly followed a tradition? The short story, “The Lottery,” by Shirley Jackson communicates this theme by showing how the villagers participate in a lottery every year. In life, there are people who follow tradition because the have to, or they are used to following without question. The author, Shirley Jackson was born on December 14, 1916 in San Francisco, California. In 1937, Shirley Jackson attended Syracuse University where she began to write short stories. She was famous for the short story, “The Lottery,” and her best seller novel, “The Haunting of Hill House”. Shirley Jackson was famous for writing in a supernatural genre. Later on, she married a Jewish man and moved into a conservative neighborhood. She died on December 14, 1916 in North Bennington, Vermont. “The Lottery” is a profoundly ironic story where the winners really lose. The village has its own unique lottery. The winner of the game has a card with a black dot. This means the surrounding villager will stone them to death! Shirley Jackson develops her theme of the danger of blindly following tradition in her short story, "The Lottery" through the use of symbolism, mood, and irony.
These characters are not cognizant of the idea that what they are enacting every year is basically murder. They show this ignorance through a very pedestrian exchange between Mrs. Hutchinson and Mrs. Delacroix, “Clean forgot what day it was… thought my old man was out back stacking wood,” Mrs. Hutchinson went on, “and then I looked out the window…and came a-running” (141-42). This short conversation has the essence of an ordinary, every-day chit-chat between two women but in reality Hutchinson forgets that the lottery is about to start. Since the villagers do not know any different, they react to the lottery this way because they have no idea what it is to live without this ritual. Sadly, this society’s way of thinking is a fetter to them. Villagers who realize how despicable the practice really is are the ones chosen to be stoned, “It isn’t fair, it isn’t right,”Mrs. Hutchinson screamed and then they were upon her” (146). This a reaction that is purely human and is written into the story to show how surmountable it is to break the meaning of the tradition in one person. Then the villagers who have not been chosen in the lottery have no knowledge of what it feels to see your imminent death in the form of rocks. In addition, Jackson chooses the events in her to prove a point about
In Shirley Jackson's, "The Lottery", human morals and values are thrown away all for the pride of winning something. What is it that they really win? When you win the lottery in this story, you actually win death by stoning. Isn't that ironic, people actually being competitive and getting excited about death in public. What morals or values do these people really have, and how are they different from what common society is thought today?