The Importance Of Tradition In The Lottery By Shirley Jackson

719 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: The importance of community in society

Throughout the story of “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson, Shirley Jackson builds suspense
Keeping traditions can be a bonding experience. Enforcing one on the other hand can be greatly detrimental, particularly on an entire society. The short story "The Lottery" by Shirley Jackson illustrates the theme of imposing a tradition on a people and how they blindly fall into its trap. The village is forced to gather yearly for lot casting were one person is selected for death. Thus (albeit) the villagers didn’t raise the awareness of actually questioning themselves what’s the origin of this lottery and they followed it nevertheless! This outrageous scenario demonstrates the foolishness of those who follow the crowd without questioning and the danger of doing so. It equally demonstrates refusing to move on can have tremendous repercussions on societies functioning. The evolution of man and of its inventions plays a big role in man interaction. Traditions are a fundamental aspect in today’s society and have a source behind it. The importance of evolving is being seen by one your surroundings progress.

The evolution of man and of its inventions plays an important role in man interaction. It is thus complicated to advance intellectually and communally while being disconnected from the surroundings. Promoting seclusion of a …show more content…

This implies that refraining from carrying out or believing in a custom, should be a free choice. In this short story of Shirley Jackson, the yearly ceremony of picking a lottery is forced upon its villagers. Everyone must attend and register their names into the black box. This unfair tradition cannot be pretested by anyone. Another theme that runs through is that of being forced to blindly follow a tradition that one may not agree with. It its absolutely unjust to impose onto humanity the belief of a custom and even more so that of a cruel

Show More
Related

  • Tradition Uncovered in Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery”

    725 Words  | 2 Pages

    One main theme in Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery” is tradition nonetheless. Although tradition is most commonly thought to be somewhat of a social glue that holds families and communities together, Shirley Jackson reveals a whole new side consisting of the dangers following traditional practices. The lottery is normalized as being an early summer ritual that proves to be consistent and promising in a plentiful harvest, as mentioned by Old Man Warner. The real purpose of the lottery is never fully explained, but it is still conducted every year without suggestion of discontinuation. There proves to be a pattern of tendency to be trapped by tradition.

    Read More

  • Tradition Is an Evil Dictator in Shirley Jackson's The Lottery

    551 Words  | 2 Pages

    Tradition is an evil dictator. Tradition can be simple or complex. Tradition has the power to force someone to do something or not do something. In Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery”, the reader gets an uneasy feeling that tradition dictates everything. Jackson makes it obvious that this village is run completely on tradition and that everyone fears change.

    Read More

  • Tradition in Shirley Jackson's The Lottery and Mending Wall by Robert Frost

    1920 Words  | 4 Pages

    Our traditions act as a compass for our human relationships and personal interactions, the qualitative experiences of our family life, and ultimately, the development of societies. As we honor traditions, so we learn to honor ourselves and each other. The poem “Mending Wall” by Robert Frost and the story “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson both contain examples of seemingly senseless traditions. The thought of people doing something senselessly, just to appease the continuance of something that was done by their forefathers seems foolish unless there is some sort of positive result from their actions. The question is what results are positive enough to go through the effort. This means that as time progresses some traditions deserve to fade while others deserve to stay bright even though the reason why may not always be evident.

    Read More

  • Tradition in Shirley Jackson's The Lottery

    799 Words  | 2 Pages

    Shirley Jackson?s insights and observations about society are reflected in her shocking and disturbing short story The Lottery. Jackson reveals two general attitudes in this story: first is the shocking tendency for societies to select a scapegoat and second is the idea that communities are victims of social tradition and rituals.

    Read More

  • Tradition and Dehumanization in The Lottery by Shirley Jackson

    637 Words  | 2 Pages

    In conclusion, Jackson’s story is one warning of the dangers of blindly following tradition and the randomness of prosecution. The author indirectly hints to the true nature of the lottery through the use of objects, settings, and symbolism. The residents of the village learn from a young age to essentially disregard reasoning when carrying out the Lottery in order to preserve tradition. Throughout the story, the villagers do not dare cross the line of questioning the ritual because that is all they know. Just like in real life, most do not question the significance of tradition until it is often too late. The lottery is an extreme example of what can happen if traditions are not examined critically by new generations.

    Read More

  • What Does The Black-Box Symbolize In The Lottery

    374 Words  | 1 Pages

    To most people, traditions are very crucial and should be maintained all the time. However, in the short story, “The Lottery”, by Shirley Jackson, it can be seen that even though traditions are important in many societies, not all traditions should be acceptable. The central idea of this short story is how mindlessly the townspeople are for accepting unreasonable actions as a part of a tradition. This can be seen through the use of symbolism. The black box used for the lottery symbolizes the tradition that the villagers have been following for a long time. According to the text, it states, “Mr.Summers spoke frequently to the villagers about making a new box, but no one liked to upset even as much tradition was represented by the black box.”

    Read More

  • Tradition in The Lottery by Shirley Jackson

    1232 Words  | 3 Pages

    Tradition; it is the back bone of every culture and civilization. It is what keeps the beliefs, philosophies, and activities of societies alive, to be passed down from generation to generation. However not all traditions are practiced with pure intentions.  Some activities become so routine, people don’t know a life outside of them. Societies become so accustomed to “tradition” that they will participate in pastimes without  questioning the ethics or morals of the situation. Ultimately when tradition takes the place of a rationalizing mind the outcome can be incredibly dangerous. The role of tradition is an underlying theme in the short story The Lottery by Shirley Jackson, forcing readers to ask themselves “At what point do people set tradition aside and realize the thoughtlessness of their actions in their practices?”

    Read More

  • The Dangers Of Tradition In Shirley Jackson's The Lottery

    846 Words  | 2 Pages

    Tradition is huge in small towns and families and allows for unity through shared values, stories, and goals from one generation to the next. Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery” carries that theme of tradition. The story follows a small town that performs the tradition of holding an annual lottery in which the winner gets stoned to death. It (tradition) is valued amongst human societies around the world, but the refusal of the villagers in “The Lottery” to let go of a terrifying long-lasting tradition suggests the negative consequences of blindly following these traditions such as violence and hypocrisy.

    Read More

  • Thesis For The Lottery By Shirley Jackson

    162 Words  | 1 Pages

    during the infamous short story called “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson. The lottery was celebrated on June 27th of every year and was created for the conflict of the village being too over crowded . What's ironic about “The Lottery” is that the beginning starts off with peaceful events making the reader blinded of what’s yet to come later on in the story. In “The Lottery,” Shirley Jackson uses different types of themes and symbols to offset the reader’s perspective view on how the story is going to end.

    Read More

  • Similarities Between The Hunger Games And The Lottery

    1000 Words  | 2 Pages

    In “The Lottery,” the town put so much importance on tradition. As the townspeople were getting ready, Mr. Summers said, “Guess we better get started, get this over with…” (Jackson 2). Even though the town is getting ready to do the lottery, the people do not like to do it. This is very odd because if people do not like to do something, people tend to stop doing the activity.

    Read More

  • Theme of Tradition in The Lottery by Shirley Jackson

    1319 Words  | 3 Pages

    The story conveys a message that traditions may be valued so highly that those in their practice may do everything they can to ensure that they continue in accordance. From this, a question arises. How far would one go to ensure their sacred traditions remain unscathed? For many, change is a cause of ignorance. Most of us fear the idea of change.

    Read More

  • An Analysis of The Lottery, by Shirley Jackson

    390 Words  | 1 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Critical Analysis Of The Lottery By Shirley Jackson

    1206 Words  | 3 Pages

    Shirley Jackson was a criticized female writer that wrote about US’s scramble for conformity and finding comfort in the past or old traditions. When Jackson published this specific short story, she got very negative feedback and even death threats. In the fictionial short story, The Lottery, by Shirley Jackson, a drawing takes place during the summer annually in a small town in New England. In this particular work, the lottery has been a tradition for over seventy years and has been celebrated by the townspeople every year. In detail, Richard H. Williams explains in his “A Critique of the Sampling Plan Used in Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery””, he explains the process of how the lottery works. “The sampling plan consists of two

    Read More

  • Ritual and Tradition in Shirley Jackson's The Lottery

    577 Words  | 2 Pages

    Everyone has their own way of solving problems; however, ritual is a form that people doing one thing in the same way. It defines as “the prescribed form of conducting a formal secular ceremony.” However if the meaning of ritual is mistaken, the consequence could be unpredictable." The Lottery" by Shirley Jackson gives us a lecture about a tortuous ritual. The story takes place in a small village with 300 citizens, they gather for a yearly lottery which everyone should participate. The story leads to a horrific ending by people forgetting the concept of ritual.

    Read More

  • Sociological Theory in The Lottery by Shirley Jackson

    412 Words  | 1 Pages

    "The Lottery" is a short story by Shirley Jackson that was published in 1948 and gave a good example of the definition of the term sociological theory. This theory is a set of ideas on how people behave and how institutions operate. The analysis of this short story and the of the work of Emile Durkheim shows the relationship of the two in the field of Sociology. There are many well defined intertwining theories that Durkheim gave to society that are also included in "The Lottery". Solidarity is the theory that will be analyzed.

    Read More

More about The Importance Of Tradition In The Lottery By Shirley Jackson

Open Document