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The Lottery Satire

687 Words3 Pages

Jackson utilizes satirical writing to criticize the tendency to stick to old traditions despite how they can be outdated, not true to their origins, and in the case of the lottery, quite senseless. He first paints a simple picture of town and a mysterious lottery that is heavily backed by tradition, which is made visible through the inclusion of Old Man Warner. Jackson also makes his point well known by mentioning on multiple occasions that the village has lost the procedure and meaning of the lottery to time. Jackson’s The Lottery seems innocent enough at first, but the included twist at the end achieves his goal of criticizing a blind adherence to tradition. In The Lottery Jackson harnesses both satirical and subtly critical language to …show more content…

It allows the reader to experience the lottery in the way that the villagers would. They don’t know any better, and it's been a part of their lives for as long as anyone remembers, and the reader experiences this too as they don’t know about the dark twist until the end. Jackson’s portrayal of Old Man Warner also makes his attitude towards blind tradition quite visible. He complains how other villages are getting rid of the lottery and claims that it will cause everyone to “go back to living in caves.” Traditionally, older people are less likely to have an open mind to change, and this trait is visible in the character of Old Man Warner. This inclusion shows Jackson’s sentiment toward old people and the role they play in preserving often senseless traditions. Old Man Warner is afraid that if the lottery is stopped, society will crumble and fail to function. This is satirization of older folks and their resistance to change. The reader then shortly after finds out what the lottery consists of in a masterful twist, which also further criticizes the resistance to change. After Mrs. Hutchison “wins” the lottery, she is shortly on the receiving end of mass amounts of stones from the villagers. Jackson shocks the reader with this event as one would not expect to win the possibility of death from a lottery. His point comes together here as the townspeople follow

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