ipl-logo

Traditions Revealed In Shirley Jackson's The Lottery

437 Words2 Pages

Typically, when someone passes away. It is thought whoever did die, they were old or possibly even sick. In the short story “The Lottery”, sometimes you don’t have an opinion when to choose when to die. And it doesn’t happen in the most humane way at all, the whole village ends up throwing stones at someone until they are dead. And this is why cruelty shouldn’t be allowed due to the effects on the human brain. It’s not right for someone to die like that, It should be a peaceful and humane way at the very least. Today, I will be talking about why traditions shouldn’t always be allowed when it causes people to be in serious danger. Also why traditions should be kept because it keeps generations to be able to experience something which has been going on for a really long time. And lastly why traditions shouldn’t always be kept if it doesn’t seem relevant to modern day way of living. …show more content…

In “The Lottery”, everyone does know what could happen to them. But it’s about who is going to be picked to get stoned to death. “The tall boy came awkwardly through the crowd. Someone said “Don’t be nervous Jack.”” -pg 5. This proves how Jack as just a kid feels about going up and participating in the villages tradition. This is a feeling in which nobody should have to feel in their life. Today, everyone has an opinion and it’s not always a bad thing. In “The Lottery”, it feels like nobody really wants to do this tradition but they have to since it has been going on for such a long time. But now if people want to see change, it is able to happen because of how our country is runned. And this is how it should be for every town, city and even country because it should be about how the people feel instead of how it has been going in the

Show More
Related

  • Foreshadowing In Shirley Jackson's The Lottery

    468 Words  | 2 Pages

    The morning of June 27th approximately 10 o’clock in the town square where all town events occur. Today’s event is the lottery, which takes place on the same day every year. Even though traditions have changed the outcome stays the same year after year. The lottery may sound innocent and fun however it is not as it seems. Each year the “lucky” lottery winner is stoned to death by the people they love.

    Read More

  • The Lottery Tradition Analysis

    569 Words  | 3 Pages

    The town doesn’t care who was picked they just want death to the person and everybody involved can take part. Old man Wagoner could believe that the lottery helps with crops. But for everybody else they just do it out of blindness and evilness. This town blindly follows these customs, not because it’s a tradition but because the lottery is so ingrained in their culture that they cannot let go of it, and they don’t view killing an innocent neighbor as wrong but just “another clear and sunny, with the fresh warmth of a full-summer

    Read More

  • The Lottery Tradition Essay

    501 Words  | 3 Pages

    The Lottery itself represents a primal example of loss of innocence; portrayed through the young boys who gather at the town square to collect rocks for the horrors soon to follow. An illustration of how traditions can lose their true meanings and come to represent violence and warfare. Furthermore, “The Lottery” also represents the decaying characteristics of traditions, as symbolized by the town’s black box, in this case where every year, someone’s name is drawn out of the black box and they are stoned to death, by other members who may or may not end up to be family. Nonetheless, it ends up to be the villagers who

    Read More

  • The Ones Who Walked Away From Omelas

    747 Words  | 3 Pages

    In The Lottery the town people had already grown numb about the tradition during which they randomly chose a person through ‘the lottery’ and stoned that person to death, regardless what the person and his/her family felt

    Read More

  • The Negative Consequences Of Tradition In The Lottery By Shirley Jackson

    467 Words  | 2 Pages

    In her story "The Lottery", Shirley Jackson implies the negative consequences of blindly following tradition through the acceptance, by the villagers, of the tradition of the lottery. Jackson suggests that the people of the village are afraid to give up the little tradition they have, even if it is not good. Every year after the lottery, the conductor of the lottery, Mr. Summers suggests that they should build a new box but, “No one [likes] to upset even as much tradition as [is] represented by the box.” (Jackson, 1). The black box symbolizes ritual and tradition.

    Read More

  • Conformity In Shirley Jackson's The Lottery

    1060 Words  | 5 Pages

    Conformity is a powerful and influential behavior that can drastically affect a society’s circumstances. The morality and wellbeing of the individuals’ in a society are shaped by the everyday traditions and customs of that culture. Shirley Jackson, an award-winning author for her works in horror and mystery, unveils the perturbing effect of conformity on a society and its people in her short story “The Lottery.” In her thought-provoking story, a village situated in a warm area of England prepares to partake in a traditional crop fertility ritual that involves a paper drawing to elect a ‘winner’ who will be stoned to death. The societal conformity to continue this brutal tradition causes the life of a person to be insensitively taken away each

    Read More

  • Blind Tradition In Shirley Jackson's The Lottery

    355 Words  | 2 Pages

    Why does an individual follow a blind tradition in hopes of achieving “sameness” with the public eye or society? One is unconsciously trained to follow mindless tradition without knowing what it’s deeper meaning is. “The Lottery”, by Shirley Jackson, represents a long lost sacrifice ritual, now morphed into a blind tradition that people follow. A fictional village struggles with this concept, holding a voluntary “lottery” every year, where the “winner” is stoned to death. The villagers hold the lottery because they believe that the crops will be bountiful in the event that they do as such.

    Read More

  • Techniques Used In Shirley Jackson's The Lottery

    605 Words  | 3 Pages

    Shirley Jackson’s “The lottery” is a story based on tradition. When hearing the word tradition, most people think of team rituals before games, or something families do together annually. However, Jackson is obviously not like most people. She builds up a fair amount of tension around this ritual that is taking place to make readers wonder what is going on. She uses many different techniques to show that sometimes, traditions are not always meant to go on forever.

    Read More

  • Thesis For The Lottery By Shirley Jackson

    650 Words  | 3 Pages

    “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.

    Read More

  • The Lottery Argumentative Essay

    691 Words  | 3 Pages

    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. To begin with, like the villagers in the story, our society also partakes in valuing tradition.

    Read More

  • Tradition In Shirley Jackson's The Lottery

    593 Words  | 3 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • How Does Shirley Jackson Use Tradition In The Lottery

    649 Words  | 3 Pages

    However, it is quite opposite of what the story portrays. What the reader does not see from the beginning of the story and does not capture until midway through, is that the lottery is actually something awful. When the lottery processions proceed the story starts to develop a more serious and somber mood. The townspeople show no remorse or empathy for one another and friendships slowly diminish. This is especially true when they know they will soon have to stone to death the villager who has drawn the marked paper; for instance, when Mrs. Delacroix picks up the biggest rock to bludgeon to death, the winner, Mrs. Hutchinson.

    Read More

  • Patriarchy In Shirley Jackson's The Lottery

    798 Words  | 4 Pages

    Though essential to them, the townsfolk are unaware and begin to question why they continue to participate in such the barbaric ritual of selecting a villager at random, and stoning them to death. Peer pressure and conformity are the reasons that the clear majority of these villagers are participating. One of the frightening elements of this tradition, is that it seems eternal. The townsfolk are unaware of the origin of “The Lottery”, and by the sounds of Old Man Warner practically forcing the townsfolk to allow the ritual to continue, there seems to be no end in sight. The lack of knowledge about the tradition, shows just how strong the tradition has become.

    Read More

  • Examples Of Irony In The Lottery

    1191 Words  | 5 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Symbolism And Irony In Shirley Jackson's The Lottery

    227 Words  | 1 Pages

    The short story “The Lottery” written by Shirley Jackson, the plot in the story that it only gives people an account of drawing lots to determine the winner who shall be stoned to death for harvest. However, we get a deep impression of the characters and their fate after reading the story. Jackson indicated a prevalent theme, the indirect of characterization and using symbolism and irony to modify this horror story. The Allegorical story of “ The Lottery” is often regarded as a satire of human behavior and social institutions, and exemplifies some of the central themes of Jackson’s fiction, including the victimization of the individual by society, the tendency of people to be cruel, and the presence of evil in everyday life.

    Read More

More about Traditions Revealed In Shirley Jackson's The Lottery

Open Document