The Lottery Tradition Essay

Essay Prompt #3 Can you imagine going to a town meeting once a year, with all of your friends, family, and loved ones. At this meeting one person is selected to be stoned to death, not only that but EVERYONE has to help.

Throughout centuries, traditions and rituals have had the ability to control one’s behavior. In Shirley Jackson’s, “The Lottery”, she tells the reader of a small village. On the surface, this community may seem relatively normal. However, despite the picturesque appeal, this falsely serene village has a distinct deceitful flaw. On June 27th, every year, a lottery takes place. The purpose of the lottery is to continue the old tradition of sacrificing a scapegoat in order for a harvest. The scapegoat is chosen at random and then stoned to death by his/her companions. Although “The Lottery” reflects an event from the past, Jackson shows that many of the actions of the town resemble the tribulations that ensue in today’s society.

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.

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.

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

Conformity can make people do cruel things without reason. Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery” highlights a village that continues a senseless tradition of stoning the winner of a lottery. Although all the villagers initially seemed innocuous and welcoming, as soon as the winning ticket was drawn, everybody quickly turned against the winner, Mrs. Hutchinson. Through a stark, cold tone, Jackson brings attention to the dangers of unquestionable loyalty to old traditions. Jackson starts the story with antiquated characters that contribute to the blunt tone.

Many people would die to win the lottery; in the short story “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson you would do anything NOT to win this lottery. This annual lottery reveals the negative aspects of this town’s Tradition, Savagery, Barbarism, and cold-heartedness. In this paper I will show why this town blindly follows these customs, not because it’s a tradition but because of the accepting wickedness that can be shown.

Shirley Jackson’s, “The Lottery”, carries a powerful message about environmental factors, and how these factors shape human behavior. In Jackson’s story, the people live in a rural setting. The beautiful nature surrounds the tiny village where only three hundred people reside. Here, there are no filthy streets. Yet, in such a small, claustrophobic environment, it appears the villagers cannot exist without a yearly tradition.

In the story “The Lottery”, by Shirley Jackson, it tells of a story in which a town murders one person a year in order for them to have a good harvest. Some townies don’t all believe in doing the act but they continue doing it because they truly believe in continuing tradition. In the story Shirley Jackson manages to convey her ideas through the story in many ways. One way being through symbolism, this is because by including the stones, the black box, and the slips of paper it would portray the town's dedication to tradition. The stones represent the violence humans create, the black box represents the town not wanting to change tradition since they said that “ the black box grew shabbier each year”, and the slips of paper represents the

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.

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 .

The short story “The Lottery” is written by Shirley Jackson. This story takes place in a small village where everybody knows each other. In this story all the villagers gather around town for their annual lottery. Everyone in the village is compelled to follow this tradition even if the outcome ends up with someone dying. In “The Lottery”, Shirley Jackson uses conflict, theme, and irony to develop this suspenseful short story.

“The Lottery”, a short story by Shirley Jackson, is about a lottery that takes place in a small village. The story starts off with the whole town gathering in the town square, where Mr. Summers holds the lottery. Once everyone gathers, every family draws a slip of paper out of an old black box, and the family with the black mark on their paper gets picked. After that, each family member older than 3 years of age re-draws a slip of paper again and this time, the person with the black mark on their paper gets picked as the “lucky winner” of the lottery. In this short story, after the Hutchinson family gets drawn, Tessie Hutchinson is declared “winner” of the lottery, with her reward is being stoned to death. Why would such a cruel event take

Historically, in every culture, important practices exist which transmit traditional values to subsequent generations as traditions is a critical piece of our culture. They help developing and moulding the attitudes and characters of humans, forming the structure and foundation of families and our society. Notwithstanding, many traditions promote social unity and coherent, some traditions erode the integrity, psychological and physical health of individuals as can be seen in the story “The Lottery” writer by Shirley Jackson. In the story, head of the families take a lot in choosing the family that going to sacrifice one of the family members to increase the crop yield. Furthermore, the story “Looking for Rain God” written by Bessie Head reflects the belief in traditional practices, resulting in merciless death of two children. Based on these two stories, mankind followed their tradition practices and sacrificed other’s life to retrieve God’s blessing. This emphasizes that younger generation should not believe in traditional practices as some practices are illogical, irrational and will undermine social order as well as harmonious family relationships.

Contrary to the normal lottery, in this case one person is randomly selected to be killed by stoning, something the villagers believe to be good for the village. This tradition is accepted by everyone in the village, in fact, including women and children. The author of this story shows the theme of conflict and controversy that hits the lottery. The lottery’s tradition is taken in several different ways because it is unexamined.