Common Themes In The Lottery By Shirley Jackson

The Lottery Theme

The Lottery is a thrilling story written by Shirley Jackson that depicts a gruesome town that sacrifices a member each year for the purpose of good crops. Although in the beginning the town appears to be rather benign and tight-knit, we learn too soon that it’s quite the opposite. This short story possesses many promising themes, but a possible theme in this story is that change is deeply resented and feared by many, but often times, it’s better if it occurs anyway.

Even though Old Man Warner thought that it was wrong to adjust the ritual or complete it without the right intuition, he thought it would be more absurd to terminate it, saying that without the lottery, young folks would be “wanting to go back to living in caves”

Warner is the symbol of convention, there’s many pieces of evidence that support the thought that Mr. Summers represents modification and change in this short story. Mr.Summers is seen as a mood-lightening guy always open for something new. For instance, he suggests the making of a new box, but is turned down each time because no one can fathom “even as much tradition as was represented by the black box.” At other points Mr.Summers often changes himself from a “jovial” man to a seemingly austere man with a spiteful tone regarding the event. By that period of time, the ritual had been “forgotten or discarded,” but all the townspeople continued to participate it because they were unfamiliar with not doing it or the results of not doing it. Once again, this proves the theme in the sense that the civilians

This surprising story is one that reveals much about the human condition and the lengths people will go to avoid change. Villagers in the fictional town adhere to the drastic traditions suggested only because it’s all they’ve ever known and change to them is something simply incomprehensible and unaccustomed to. However, Shirley Jackson incorporates many elements of symbolism to suggest that change isn’t as terrifying as they think and to support the theme that although sometimes traditions may be hard to break, it’s more beneficial to discontinue them