The Nature Of Tradition In Shirley Jackson's The Lottery

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.

If you’ve ever purchased a lottery ticket, you may be shocked to learn that there is a 96.9% chance that you have purchased a losing ticket. Before you go out there and spend all of your spare income on Powerball tickets on the 3.1% chance you will win 175 million, keep in mind that the expected value of playing the game is winning $1.78, according to a Business Insider article “Three Math Facts That Every Powerball Player Needs To Know.” Most play with the hope they’ll win, but it’s all in good fun. But what about playing a lottery in which the “winning” results in your death by stoning? Chances are you would pass.

Primarily one of the main characters felt the horror of this brutal act: the so-called “winner” of the lottery, Tessie Hutchinson. On a clear and sunny day, the flowers were blossoming, and the grass was rich green, at first glance, the meeting in the square appeared to be a celebration; however, as we followed the story, we soon realized that something was terribly wrong. This so-called “lottery” was actually a dreadful process, in which the villagers chose one of their own to be stoned to death, a very dehumanizing effect, by friends, neighbors, and even

It can be argued that no one seems to want to discontinue the long lived tradition they call “The Lottery” by how our main character’s respond. One can come to conclude that the overall idea of the story is how the residents become blind to what’s right and wrong simply because of the sake of tradition. The writer shows us how a tradition in which most would find incorrect, can become correct to those whom have practiced it all their life. Throughout history we can see how traditions has become an important role in how we live and reason today. When one thinks about the word “lottery” one would usually connect it to good things such as winnings or money, but in this lottery, the winner will be brutally murdered in a primitive ritual of stoning.

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

The Lottery is a short, fictional story written in 1948 by Shirley Jackson. It was published in a magazine called The New Yorker. It takes place in a small village, on June 27th. The children had just got out of school and were piling up rocks and stones. Throughout the middle of the story, the heads of households draw their slips of paper, open them, and the Hutchinson’s redraw to see who has to face the inevitable.

“The lottery” (1948) Analysis The short story, “The lottery” by Shirley Jackson takes place in a small village. Was conducted the lottery story in 1948. In this story, the lottery is a yearly tradition that takes place in a small American Town.

The tradition of the lottery has been carried out for so long in this village that nobody even knows the reason for its occurring in the first place and nobody questions it. When Old Man Warner, the oldest man in the village, is told about other villages giving up the tradition of the lottery, he says that they are, “[A] pack of crazy fools [...]. There [has] always been a lottery [...]” (Jackson, 4). There is no reason why there has always been a lottery except that every year on June 27th, they held the lottery.

Traditions have been around for as long as we have been on the earth. As humans we don’t like change, so having a ritual that we repeat every year is the sense of normalcy we crave. People will go through the same hurtful cycle, even though they know it’s wrong or not working, simply because it is all they know. Unlike common belief, giving up harmful practices is not the same as giving up culture. People hold onto tradition because they feel that giving it up is taking them away from where they came from.

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.

“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.

Full of plot twists, and turns, “The Lottery” relies on its characters to convey a sense of normalcy throughout a majority of the story. The villagers’ acceptance of rituals allows them to act normal while knowingly partaking in a deadly tradition. Jackson’s brilliant use of deceptiveness leaves readers blind sighted as one could never predict this story’s outcome. Jackson’s work is renowned because of its unpredictable shift in tone. June 27, may appear to be a pleasant summer day, but this prediction could not be further from the truth.

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.

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 villagers are afraid to quit their outdated tradition because they think that changing their old customs will only bring trouble.

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.