The Ritual In Shirley Jackson's The Lottery

Shirley Jackson's, “The Lottery,” portrays the tradition of a small town in which a member of the community must get sacrificed in order to allow for a good agricultural season. The ways in which they do so is a fair lottery where citizens draw and see if they are the “chosen one” which they end up stoning to death. All citizens must partake in the lottery, including children and the elderly. Through Jackson’s development of the story, the people seem to be in a state of excitement and thrill when being part of the lottery. The citizens are constantly gossiping, laughing, and kids playing, waiting to see who is next to be stoned.

In the short story, “The Lottery”, written by Shirley Jackson, Edgar Award Winner for best short story, the plot mainly surrounds tradition. The small village in the story is preparing for their annual “lottery”. The author uses dialogue to convey the fact that this lottery has been a tradition in their village for many years. The reader soon realizes the dark turn on this lottery. The “winner” suffers the fate of being brutally stoned to death by the rest of the villagers.

“The Lottery”, written by Shirley Jackson, is a short story about how villagers from a small town partake in a cruel tradition. They believe that they will have a bountiful harvest if they sacrifice one of their own. Throughout this story there is symbolism that shows how the tradition is kept, their fear of change, and things to come. This is shown through objects, dialogue, and even names. The villagers’ fear of the unknown stops them from changing this tradition, so it becomes a norm in their society.

Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery” is a story that centers around traditions and cultural rituals. This theme is displayed a multitude of times throughout the story; however, I believe Shirley Jackson was attempting to dig deeper by revealing the true nature of human beings. The reader’s expectations of the story are falsy set early on. The story begins with “the fresh warmth of a full-summer day; the flowers . . .

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.

In the story that the Jackson version tells us of a small town that has a lottery every year. The person chosen by this lottery is stoned to death by the inhabitants of the city. The person is described as the scapegoat, which we can relate to the purification ritual described in the Old Testament, is a person who is punished for the sins of others, which plays a thematic role in the development of history. Currently in our society, the lottery is only used as a means of luck to win awarded as a prize in the form of money, so many people who play it have a clear and obsessive goal to win.

Ritual like the lottery can be held year after year, because sometime people are to ignorant to change their ways. However even if people know better, sometimes they still choose continuating their rituals because it’s always been done this way, so they will keep do it this way. However, people sometimes just enjoy ritual like there and just don’t want anything to change. Sometimes people choose not to speak up against act such as in ''The Lottery'' By Shirley Jackson because they are afraid of being single-out, and targeted, also its easier just to look the other way.

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

Traditions are an important part of our culture and what makes us individuals. They are passed down from generation to generation through following what our parents and grandparents have done. This shows our respect for our ancestors. However, there are some traditions that have no logical need to be followed, but still are blindly followed. In “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson, the villagers follow the tradition of the lottery, even though they question why they still do it.

One can see that by examining the symbolism of the setting and the irony of a welcoming setting Shirley Jackson's The Lottery is not an archetypal horror story. Firstly one could argue against the statement that, The Lottery is not and an archetypal horror story’ but without the knowledge of The Lottery being a horror story one could most certainly fall victim to Shirley Jackson's alluring descriptions. Upon examining the quote “The morning of July 27th was clear and sunny with a fresh warmth of a full summer day” one could infer this more as a adventuring and coming of age story than a horror, it comes off as endearing more than horror, although it may have been intended that way. Further investigation of the story may push one to believe