Themes In The Lottery By Shirley Jackson

Richard Duffie

ENGL 102-3 Mrs. Willis

01 October 2015

Fear is Dangerous

Theme is the central message that an author is trying to make. A story’s theme can differ based on different types of literature. For example, Commercial Fiction will appeal to a wide range of readers, and it will be easy to pick up on. However, Literary Fiction provides a theme that deals with issues that could change society. “The Lottery”, by Shirley Jackson, is a piece of forcible Literary Fiction. Her short story deals with a fear that many Americans often face, the fear of breaking tradition. Jackson provides her readers with the reoccurring theme of fear that comes from breaking tradition; this fear brings blindness to logical thinking and

Jackson portrays this through a redundant question. She states, “Although Mr. Summers and everyone else in the village knew the answer perfectly well, it was the business of the official of the lottery to ask such questions formally” (3). The villagers must be a certain age to draw their names from the box. Jackson explains that everyone is aware of this, but it is tradition to ask the question. Clearly, there is no logic in their thinking. They are inept to think about the aftermath, because they are anxious about an unjust death that is generating from this tradition. Along with the impractical question, there is an official swearing-in that must take place. The story states: “There was a proper swearing-in of Mr. Summers by the postmaster, as the official of the lottery” (2). Repeatedly, the urge to resists the fear of dismissing a ritual allows them to be distracted from the outcome. Symbolically, this distraction represents an option to escape stress. The distraction allows a short time to forget about the destruction that is being caused by following tradition. Also, because of fear the villagers cannot slow down to think logically on how to prevent insanity. Completing activities at a faster paste is another way for humans to be distracted. After a couple names of villager are drawing their names, Mr. Summers urges them to go faster. He utters, “ Alright folks. Let’s finish quickly” (7). Doing things faster helps them to become distracted. The speed of the lottery temporarily lets the nightmare of painful death to slip their minds. One thing that that does not slip their minds is using stones for the public killings. The narrator explains, “Although the villagers had forgotten the ritual and lost the original black box they still remembered to use stones” (7). Towards the end, the readers can clearly see how irrational the villagers are. A chunk