Tradition And Symbols In The Lottery By Shirley Jackson

The author said, " 'Some places have already quit lotteries,' Mrs. Adams said. ' Nothing but trouble in that,' Old Man Warner said stoutly. ' Pack of young fools' " (297). Stopping this lottery was a good thought.

Summers declared the lottery open. There were lists to make up- of heads of families, heads of households in each family, members of each household in each family.” If there really is so much fussing to be done for the lottery to be declared open in the first place, a logical reason is that it is a tradition. To further the point, the text says, “Mr. Summers spoke frequently to the villagers about making a new box, but no one liked to upset even as much tradition as was represented by the black box (p. 16, lines 74-77).” This goes back to the point that the town doesn’t want to upset the tradition because they don’t even want to get rid of the black box.

Sometimes, traditions are not always meant to be carried on. Especially when they become outdated. Jackson writes, “Although the villagers had forgotten the ritual and lost the original black box, they still remembered to use the stones.” This is stating that they were not even doing it for the original reason. They were only doing it because they were so set on traditions.

For example, after Tessi is shown with the black dot, Mr. Summers says “All right folks,... Let's finish quickly.” This shows that Mr.Summers’ mind is crumbling after being the one who is controlling the black box, did not hesitate when telling others to stone Tessi. The others were not hesitant to go and stone her if anything they gave a rock to her own son. The black box and the tradition of the lottery have caused crumbling minds.

Then before we know it, by the end of the day the audience is presented by this old fashioned, gruesome death of stoning. This source is most accurately going to be used in my essay, by its citation for irony of the “stoning” itself. I quote “though the villagers had forgotten the ritual and lost the original black box, they still remembered to use stones”. Ironically no one in the community understands why they must kill a citizen each year, but in response, know “exactly” how to throw stones and kill

Mr. Warner is the oldest man in the village, and when Mrs. Adams speaks of other cities eliminating the lottery, Warner immediately warns that if the lottery ceases, society will fall into chaos. Mr. Warner represents the section of society who fear change and hold on to old prejudices out of a sense of

Catherine A. Boateng English 101 Prof. Mattew Rockwood PAPER # 2 ‘The Lottery’ is a story of fiction that demonstrates revolution and allegiance while insinuating that a lottery is part of a ritualistic ceremony. It revolves around some misguided beliefs saying that the villagers would have good crops in the next year should they sacrifice one of their people. Most villagers believe that if they fail to make the sacrifice, they would not have good crops, and would experience challenging times. People gather around for a ritualistic drawing of names, however, the winner of the drawing will lose their life. In ‘Stone Throwing in India: an annual bash, it is Pandhurna tradition, where once a year a wildly exciting festival of distraction-

Old Man Warner considers it to be foolish to stop the lottery. “‘…There’s always been a lottery,’ he added petulantly” (308). As long as he has been alive, there has been a lottery and he refuses to let that change. This repeating message of there always being a lottery supports the theme of resistant to change based on

Other villages have already stop the lottery. But not this one. Things that we can take away for the story is tradition. The people continue the lottery because it’s a ritual and maybe it leads to growing of better crops. Obviously Tessie Hutchinson is more likely to stone other people is somebody else would’ve gotten the black dot paper but now she argues that the lottery is unfair because she got the paper with the black dots.

He is completely against a request that his aunt, Tante Lou, asks of him. Since he is an educated man, Tante Lou wants him to visit the local jail and speak with Jefferson. Grant is very skeptical, saying, “He’s dead now. All I can do is try to keep the others from ending up like this—but he’s gone from us. There’s nothing I can do anymore” (Gaines 14).

The appeal to tradition clearly affects the truth of the horrendous tradition of the Lottery. The Lottery by Jackson shows the appeal to accept insanity because of tradition and respecting those that have long participated in the insanity can make you a victim of the insanity. Old Man Warner (the luckiest lottery winner in town) voices his defense of a town tradition which a few attempt to challenge with examples of other towns, but Warner rejects any change by a “pack of young fools,” with pride of his seventy-seventh lottery. Jackson explains how the tradition has survived over time and shows the pride and obligation of the people to follow the tradition without considering the consequences. The children are excited and eagerly participate

The Lottery Analytical Essay In this short story, written by Shirley Jackson, the townspeople have somewhat of violent “tradition”. The people participate in this process called stoning where someone is randomly beaten to death by stones. Shirley doesn't specifically say why they do this or why it is still happening but she does drop hints.

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.

In Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery", the black wooden box functions to set the tone of the story's unexpected outcome, in addition to, elevating the theme of fault in practicing tradition solely because it is so. The box's aesthetic appearance assists the reader in deconstructing a false association with a lottery and a positive outcome. Its surface is coated in black, being not colorful or curious to look at like modern lottery ball machines. This choice of coloring, or rather lack of, is a nod towards Jackson's dark interpretation of a lottery. This darkness is hinted also by Mr. Martin and his son, who are hesitant to approach the vicinity of the box when it is first placed on a stool by Mr. Summers, revealing their fear in what it represents.