Anaylsis of Jackson's The Lottery Essay

A lottery is a process that is entirely controlled by chance, whether there is loss or success is dependent on luck. “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson is a short story about a small town that holds an annual lottery. The lottery itself is an age long tradition that started so long ago the ritual had been mostly forgotten. The villages around them have shut down the lottery, because of how old and forgotten the lottery is. This shows how people will blindly follow tradition no matter the age of it.(Jackson, “Read The Lottery...”).

Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery”, is a shorty story about annual lottery drawing that has been a tradition for ages. In the lottery drawing all the town members must participate and the other members of the town then stones the “winner” of the lottery to death. The people of the town participate in this because it has been a tradition over time and no one ever stops to question how wrong this is until they are the one chosen. Tradition to this town is more sacred than human life.

On June 27, the citizens of a small town gather in the center of town to hold the annual lottery. The children who had recently ended school for the summer arrive first, the boys gathering stones into their pockets or into piles, and the girls gathering and talking among themselves. The men come, talking about crops, weather, and taxes. Next then the women, greeting each other, gossiping and eventually joining their husbands. Parents start calling their children to come join them and all the families stand and wait for the

To start with, the lottery itself is a huge symbol. Usually, lotteries are associated with winning money. Whereas, the lottery in this short story has a negative outcome of death. Notably, the lottery is a tradition in the town. Since this event has been taking place for many years, they do not even need to explain the lottery to the villagers. Old Man Warner, the oldest man in town, makes a point to everyone that there has always been a lottery. The villagers are loyal to this tradition.

The point of view of tradition in The Lottery by Shirley Jackson is the normal once of year gathering on the townspeople. This gathering is held in order to pick, via a lottery drawing, to decide who in the town is going to be stoned to death. “The people of the village began to gather in the square, between the post office and the bank, around ten o’clock; in some towns there were so many people the lottery took two days and had started on June 26th, but in this village, where there were only about three hundred people, and the whole lottery took less than two hours, so it could begin at ten o’clock in morning and still be through in time to allow the villagers to get home for noon dinner.” (Kennedy & Gioia, 2013, pp. 251). The fact

there is quiet conversation between friends. Mr. Summers, who runs the lottery, arrives with a black box. The original box was lost many years ago, even before Old Man Warner, the oldest person in the village, can remember. Each year Mr. Summers suggests that they make a new box, but no one is willing to go against tradition. The people were willing to use slips of paper instead of woodchips as markers, as the village had grown too large for the wood chips to fit in the box. A list of all the families and households in the village is made, and several matters of who will draw for each family are decided. Mr. Summers is sworn in as the official of the lottery in a specific ceremony. Some people remember that there used to be a song and salute as part of the ceremony, but these are no longer performed. Tessie Hutchinson arrives in the square late because she has forgotten what day it was. She joins her husband and children before the lottery can begin. Mr. Summers explains the lottery’s rules: each family will be called up to the box and draw a slip of paper. One of the villagers tells Old Man Warner that the people of a nearby village are thinking about ending the lottery. Old Man Warner laughs at the idea. He believes that giving up the lottery would cause nothing but trouble, and a loss of civilized behavior. A woman responds that some places have already given up the lottery. Everyone finishes drawing, and each

The Lottery, a ritual that no one has ever thought to question, which represents any action, behavior, or idea that is passed down from one generation to the next that’s accepted and followed unquestioningly, no matter how illogical, strange, or cruel. “The oldest denizen of the town, Old Man Warner, points out that this is his seventy-seventh year participating in the ritual, called simply the lottery.”(Dubose 1) The “Lottery” is so much a part of the town’s culture, that the townspeople does not truly know what the tradition means but rejoice at the it nonetheless. That is the force that drove the theme In Shirley Jackson’s the “Lottery” with her use of setting, symbolism, suspense, and characters as she exemplifies blindly following tradition with obedience can be dangerous. The lottery is an extreme example of what can happen when traditions are not questioned or addressed critically by new generations because of the infamous word tradition.

The short story, “The Lottery” is about villagers in a small community who gather together in the town square for the town lottery. The children of the village had just finished school for the summer and gather stones to put in a pile, followed by the men, and then the women. There are 300 people in this village so the lottery is only a couple hours compared to other towns. Mr. Summers is the man who conducts the lottery, who has no kids and wife is considered unpleasant. His assistant is Mr. Graves who helps Mr. Summers to the spot where a very old black box is placed. The black box contains slips of paper for everyone in town and is noted to be even older than the towns oldest citizen, Old Man Warner. Before the start of the lottery list of the heads of households, family members, and heads of

Tradition takes place in “The Lottery” in several different ways. First of all, “The Lottery” is a tradition that has been passed down from many generations. The people of the village gather in the town square each year and choose one participant to get stoned to death by the entire village, by randomly selecting a piece of paper out of the infamous black box. As cruel and inhumane as it is,

Typically, when one hears the word lottery, they think about someone winning a desirable prize. Unfortunately, this is not the case in a small American town that Shirley Jackson introduces us to in her novel, "The Lottery". In this novel, readers get to know a patriarch community that takes part in an unusual annual tradition. In this tradition, the town gathers to play a game. The head of each family in the town draws a slip from a black box. One of the slips in the black box contains a black dot. This game is the town 's form of a lottery; who ever draws the dotted slip will be stoned to death by the other town members. The story starts off serene and idyllic but by the end readers witness a murder. Shirley Jackson’s, "The Lottery”, shows how people often hold on to traditions even when they are barbaric and have lost their meaning. She does this by showing readers that members of the society will hold on to inhumane practices simply because the practice is considered tradition. In this exploration of this towns traditional "lottery", Jackson leads the reader down a savage story line. Jackson is able to draw on the ethnic appeal by focusing on the very moment of the stoning. After the stoning, the reader is able to look back and see several details they might have missed or overlooked. The tradition has taken control of the community members.

In Jackson’s short story, “The Lottery”, multiple different aspects of gothic literature are shown. In a small town, where many families met annually, the “lottery” takes place, conducted by Mr. Summers. Families gather around together, and the men of the household draw out slips of paper from a black box once their name is called. One piece of paper has a black symbol on it, which no one wants to get. It is clear in this story that there is a bleak setting, tortured characters, and dark events.

Many people live their lives following traditions that are passed down from generation to generation. From holidays to ways of eating, tradition is how most people go about their daily lives. In the short story the Lottery tradition played a vital role. The villagers followed one tradition which determined the outcome of their lives or crops. the tradition of the lottery was endemic to the towns. The tradition was a way to bring the towns together and link families. The villagers believed that in following the tradition there would be many benefits to come.

“The Lottery” a short story by Shirley Jackson, features a small town during the time of their lottery. The lottery is an annual event, organized by Mr. Summers. It is a highly important time, as the whole town comes to the town square on the day of the lottery. The guidelines are quite simple: everyone takes a slip of paper out of the symbolic black box, and the slip of paper with the black mark carved on it, is the “lucky winner”. But their definition of the lottery is different一usually, a lottery is a valuable thing to win. But when Tessie Hutchinson, the “lucky winner” gets her reward by getting stoned to death by the rest of the villagers, it is clear that winning this lottery can't be a good affair... So what is the purpose of this lottery? Rather than discontinuing the lottery, the town continues with it because they don't want to upset an old tradition.

villagers about making a new box, but no one liked to upset even as much tradition as

The Lottery tells the story of a small, insulated community that each year gathers on the same day to practice what is understood by the reader as a long standing tradition. Firstly, the head of each family selects a slip of paper. All of the slips of paper are blank with the exception of one slip which has a dark