Bobby has to take on the role of an adult even though he is still a kid himself. The author creates many trials for Bobby, such as learning how to deal with his lost childhood. Angela Johnson displays Bobby coming of age by using symbolism to help show him maturing. For instance, Angela Johnson uses a Game Boy as a symbol of Bobby’s childhood. In the beginning, Bobby reflects on what his mother told him, “My mom says that I didn’t sleep through the night until I was eight years old...She says she used to come into my room, sit cross-legged on the floor by my bed, and play with my Game Boy in the dark” (Johnson 3).
He makes the decisions to sacrifice many things in his life and to move only for the well being of his daughter. Another symbolic object representing Bobby's coming of age is his basketball. When K-Boy asks Bobby to play basketball in the park he almost makes it around the corner but realizes he forgot his child. Bobby runs back to the house and drops everything. "I lay my basketball down and it rolled out the door into the hall toward Mary's room.
This is shown by the senseless murders that the villagers partake in each year. Jackson's story also shows how the world she created relates to the world that we live in. A world in which people continue with ritualized traditions like putting up Christmas trees, and acting with great animosity toward one another. Subtle hints throughout the story, as well as its shocking conclusion, indicate that the villagers' tradition has become meaningless over time, like the traditions that we still follow today. What's particularly important about tradition in The Lottery is that it appears to be eternal, no one knows when it started, and no one can guess when it will end.
Traditions are prevalent, particularly in small towns, like the one in the story, as a way to link families to past generations. The lottery that is held each year concludes with the villagers taking part in a vicious murder. The villagers are not fully aware of the reasons behind the lottery only that it is tradition and it has been taking place for many years. This shows the reality and consequences that come with thoughtlessly following such a bizarre
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.
“Bobby Martin had already stuffed his pockets full of stones, and the other boys soon followed his example, selecting the smoothest and roundest stones;...” Before the drawing of the lottery starts the younger boys begin to gather rocks and put them in their pockets. We can infer that the the boys are gathering rocks in which they are going
Although the village believes that they are progressing forward, one see that the village is actually reverting back to the rituals of the past, without questioning that ritual may not be ideal for their village anymore, seen when Jackson explains, “Although the villagers had forgotten the ritual and lost the original black box, they still remembered to use stones” (Jackson 425). The stones have another meaning because they are the “most ancient of sacrificial weapons” (Nebeker 102), leading one to see the importance of the use of rocks for the
Both, “Totem” and “The Lottery” are heavy examples of conformity, the importance of tradition and how tradition blinds people. These story's take place in the 20th century but have very different beliefs about tradition. In each story their symbolism theme and irony are greatly influenced by conformity and tradition. In both stories they have strong symbols of tradition that have different characteristics. In the stories they have objects that symbolize their tradition.
I think this because from first page to the last the author states that they had lost the black box and the people of the village had to make a new one which would probably offset the original tradition. During the middle of the book I think because there are many instances that happen where it shows that people are doing this for know reason. It shows this when there are people talking about that how other towns had stopped doing the ritual or tradition. There where a los fights between younger and older people “Old Man Warner snorted. "Pack of crazy fools," he said.
The author Shirley Jackson wrote “The Lottery;” a village conducts an inhumane lottery to pick out one individual. The quote unquote “winner,” in this case, Mrs. “Tessie” Hutchinson, gets stoned heartlessly to death by all the 300 villagers, including her kin. This lottery began as a ceremony long ago to choose a villager to be sacrificed to Earth in exchange for a large harvest. Now, it became an annual tradition, a tradition that is too deep to be changed. According to the most elderly man in the village, “Old Man Warner:” “‘Lottery in June, corn be heavy soon.’” (p.22 l.260-261) The first villagers created the lottery to acquire a heavy harvest.