Traditions In Shirley Jackson's The Lottery

In the mid-nineteenth century, a girl named Ni-bo-wi-se-gwe (Oona) was born in pitch darkness in the middle of the day when the sun and moon crossed paths. The book Night Flying Woman by Ignatia Broker is the biography of Broker’s great-great-grandmother, Oona. It describes Oona’s life through what Broker has learned from her grandparents when they passed down the stories. In the book, one of the main themes is passing traditions on. I chose this theme because, in the book, passing traditions on is a major part of the characters’ culture. Passing traditions on is a practice that is important to many cultures and it effectively connects generations of people through experiences and stories.

“Tradition becomes our security, and when the mind is secure it is in decay"(Jiddu Krishnamurti).The lottery is a story about horror and what can happen about having tradition for too long. What I think Shirley Jackson wants us to learn about this story is to not have a tradition for so long, be smart about my choices and not to do things that I know that are not good. Shirley Jackson wrote poetry and kept journals throughout her life. “Shirley Jackson was born in San Francisco on December 14, 1919. She grew up in California until 1933, when her family moved to Rochester, New York. In 1934 Jackson enrolled at the University of Rochester.”(Moss, Wilson). The villagers woke up on the day of the lottery. They all meet at the town center and

In the story “The Lottery”, the lottery tradition keeps society stable for the people of the village. I believe the story is a universal statement about dangerous tendencies in human nature. Jackson's "The Lottery" reveals that human beings in society are capable of committing cruel acts. Humans are often influenced by society, tradition, and even peer pressure. Cruel acts will be portrayed in society if humans are reflected by those elements. “It isn't fair, it isn't right,” Mrs. Hutchinson screamed, and then they were upon her. Jackson(315) This quote explains the feeling of how some of the people from the village feel. Many people thought it was wrong, but some saw the tradition as a normal routine throughout the village. Therefore, Tessie

Imagine a society where killing somebody for the sake of a tradition is acceptable.In the short story “The Lottery” Shirley Jackson describes an ordinary village with normal people, but as the story progress the details of their yearly practice known as “the lottery” unravels to be more disturbing.The author subverts the readers’ expiations by persuading the reader into assuming “the lottery” is a ordinary tradition until unusual details and the behavior of the characters come into place. In her short story “The Lottery,” Jackson seemingly uses ordinary details about the setting and the townspeople to characterize her theme that although society claims to be civilized, and may appear so, it is inherently barbaric.

A tradition or idea that is followed and not questioned by some could potentially be dangerous or illogical. In Shirley Jackson’s short story “The Lottery”, the dangers of blindly following a tradition is portrayed. In “The Lottery,” a village gathers around every year on June 27th to hold a lottery. Mr. Summers leads the tradition every year. This lottery is very unusual; the winner will become the loser. The Hutchinson family is chosen at this year’s lottery. The mother, Tessie says it is unfair and she is ultimately the chosen winner of the lottery. The winner of this lottery is stoned to death by their neighbors. Whether a tradition is immoral or not, some follow traditions for no apparent reason other just following what they were taught.

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.

Shirley Jackson’s short story “The Lottery,” tells us how the people of the town get together on June twenty seventh every year to perform a ritual that was started back in the day by their ancestors. The children would gather to the town square first and start piling up rocks in a corner. After the children the men would show up and then the women would show up last. Mr. Summers would call each family in alphabetic order to draw a slip of paper from the box, for the ritual. Once everyone had a piece of paper in their hands, they would look at the slips, who ever had the black dot got stoned to death. The theme of the short story is cult ritual, cause the entirety of the story reflects on their ancient ritual they have carried from the ancestors.

Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery” is an account of a tradition gone awry. In this short story the villagers of this town have a tradition where they have a “lottery” to see who gets stoned to death. The characterization and symbolism used in the story makes the reader feel as if society has crumbled with the inhumane tradition that ultimately lost its meaning. Throughout the story, Jackson uses characterization and symbolism to imply a message to society about the meaning of tradition. Through the use of characterization and symbolism Jackson establishes that blindly following traditions can be hazardous

The villagers on “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson are afraid to let go of their tradition, the lottery. They are concern of unknown consequences that will happen if they change their old customs. So, for every year, the villagers gather at the square to do the lottery at 10 AM .

“When we blindly adopt a religion, a political system, a literary dogma, we become automatons. We cease to grow” - (Anais Nin). We practice many traditions without putting much thought into it. Giving testimony in court requires an oath on the Bible; although it descended from an old English customs, it is still in place in the U.S courts. Many people become so disciplined to their tradition that they will follow it without questioning its morals. In Shirley Jackson’s novel, The Lottery, Jackson begins the story off in a sunny village, where tradition plays a significant role in keeping the village peaceful. To take part in their yearly tradition, the eager villagers gather together, waiting for the arrival of Mr. Summers and the black box. The

The old custom was to bring a good "harvest" for future seasons but every year someone from the village gets stoned to which no one questioned the validity of, "Although the villagers had forgotten the ritual and lost the original black box, they still remembered to use stones." (Jackson 6). The villagers were blindly obeying the old custom and only really remembered the stones which shows the primitiveness of the custom and the violent actions shown because of this as

In the spring of 1692 an outbreak of which craft shadowed over the town of Salem, Massachusetts. Although which craft is non-existent it didn't stop these crazed occult activists from pointing fingers at people they have known there whole life. The Crucibles is a tragedy driven story based on the horrific events that took place in Salem. Nevertheless, all this talk of witches had to come from somewhere; surprisingly, it came from a group of girls dancing naked in the forest and drinking the blood of a chicken. All of the girls in attendance seemed to be having a great time, at-least that's what it looked like to Reverend Parris who was watching from behind the bushes.

In the story, it is stated, “The people of the village began to gather in the square, between the post office and the bank, around ten o'clock; [...] the whole lottery took less than two hours, so it could begin at ten o'clock in the morning and still be through in time to allow the villagers to get home for noon dinner” (Jackson 250-251). This detail specifically entails how important this lottery is for the villagers to unite, leading them to a shocking custom of choosing who gets to be stoned to death. The villagers are aware of what atrocity they are going through, yet no one ever questions their customs because traditions are to be continued through beliefs and customs to show oneness, even if it leads to cruel-ness. The interesting part of believing in such a tradition is that the villagers never chose to believe in it, but were forced. This is because the villagers are not aware of the history of the annual lottery, but just that it has been around for a long time, and to follow such beliefs is the right thing to do rather than

In “Like Water for Chocolate” by Laura Esquivel, tells a story of a girl who lives in a household where filial piety is expected from her mother. What is filial piety? Good question. It is an institution where the child must respect, obey and care the parents, until death. Historically, this traditional came from a Confusion philosophy in China, which the child must take care of their parents until death, and utter most, respect them.

Traditions are meant to be symbolic, as well as, sacred and are mainly used to share significance with the past-however in this small town, it is determined otherwise. In the short story, “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson, it has been proven that traditions can leave one blindsided. This becomes clear when Old Man Warner thoughtlessly and mindlessly disagrees to the idea of quitting the dreadful lottery; When Tessie and Bill willingly wish to place their daughter and son-in-law in the lottery- knowing that if they had been put in the lottery, one of them would have stoned; and; When Tessie was chosen to be stoned, she suddenly became a victim and everyone (including her kids, husband and friends) was against