Pandhurna Tradition In Shirley Jackson's 'The Lottery'

Catherine A. Boateng

English 101

Prof. Mattew Rockwood

PAPER # 2

‘The Lottery’ is a story of fiction that demonstrates revolution and allegiance while insinuating that a lottery is part of a ritualistic ceremony. It revolves around some misguided beliefs saying that the villagers would have good crops in the next year should they sacrifice one of their people. Most villagers believe that if they fail to make the sacrifice, they would not have good crops, and would experience challenging times. People gather around for a ritualistic drawing of names, however, the winner of the drawing will lose their life. In ‘Stone Throwing in India: an annual bash, it is Pandhurna tradition, where once a year a wildly exciting festival of distraction- a

People are very sentimental about festivals “And such things are very important to our local voters. Had we stopped the Gotmaar this year, for example, the congress party definitely would be sent away in the next elections. (Stone Throwing pg 310)” Tradition could blind people by being destructive and creating victims through social pressure. Shirley Jackson's story ''The Lottery'' portrays an ordinary village with average citizens engaged in a deadly rite, the annual selection of sacrificial a victim by means of a public lottery. Miss Hutchinson who is the victim in the story, by showing the tradition's selfishness results while releasing her from social pressure. However, she ironically puts herself directly in the position of the sacrificial lamb because first, she goes with the tradition, but when this happen to her, it is not right anymore. The children who symbolize the future are manipulated by the elders who want them to follow the tradition without questioning its reasons. In the story tradition symbolized by the black box and also y Old man Warner is really important because it represents the ancient values and now the box had failed because tradition disappearing. People are afraid of it and they don't want to touch because it symbolizes death. As well, people's blindness towards tradition is represented by Old Man Warner's attitude because he doesn't really know what the values of the black box were before. He also wants to maintain values intact and he will do everything in his power to keep the "real"