Benefits Of The Lottery

In Shirley Jackson’s, “The Lottery,” the author demonstrates the loss of the original significance of a tradition that results from people blindly following it. For example, the author makes it blatantly clear in the beginning of the story that The Lottery, the village’s annual ritual, which involves a human sacrifice is beginning to have lesser and lesser symbolic value to the villagers as opposed to when it began due to a lack of understanding in regard to the tradition’s significance. Secondly, Jackson describes how the Lottery has a completely different atmosphere, purpose, and practice due to the fact that it was passed along several generations and had been through several decades of transition, all the while being mindlessly adhered to by every single member of the village. Lastly, the author demonstrates the process in which the village’s annual tradition has been stripped bare, and is merely used to cater to the desires of the villagers. Overall, Shirley Jackson does a wonderful job demonstrating the general process of the results of blindly following popular tradition and celebration in the modern world by characterizing a specific village’s tradition with interesting dialogue and a noteworthy plot.

The Lottery by Shirley Jackson is a story that highlights the qualities of a society, created by the author, that tip the scale between right and wrong. The beginning of the story appeared to be harmless and innocent given the title and the enlightening introduction. At the end of the story, the reader is made aware of the dark reality of the town’s annual ritual. Overall the story contained vivid details and an unexpected turn of events. The theme represented in the story are the negative consequences of ignorantly continuing a tradition. The part of the story that sets up the plot is its theme, which is supported by the author’s effective use

“Chips of wood, Mr. Summers had argued, had been all very well when the village was tiny, but now that the population was more than three hundred and likely to keep growing” (Jackson, 2). The town never had an overpopulation issue, there was never a good enough reason to continue the lottery and even less start it for that matter. The social hierarchy of the town did not allow the people to have a voice and that made them feel intimidated. The people were almost programed and expected to accept and carry this unfair tradition; not because of the meaning of it but because they were scared to ask to let it go in results of things getting worse.

The Lottery begins like any other day. Clear and sunny skies, flowers blossoming, and green grass. Seemingly nothing out of the ordinary. Then people begin to gather in the town square. What is this lottery that is taking place? Do the people of the town agree with it? These questions can only be answered by exploring the minds of the people in the town.

Tradition is a large part of life today, but decades ago it was almost a way of life and if it was not followed there were stiff consequences. The story is misleading by the title because of the normal thought of a lottery is something positive or a giveaway. The story is quite the opposite of the common thought. The main point that Jackson shows in “The Lottery” is that people can be involved with such a violent act and think nothing of it. In the story all the people are happy, “they stood together, away from the pile of stones in the corner, and their jokes were quiet and they smiled rather than laughed.”(Jackson 124). The tradition the village seams at first to be a happy scene, but later learn that it is a terrible event that is a

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.

When we analyze and juxtapose both Jackson’s story and Shield’s essay it is clear that we must question and address traditions in order to assure that their purpose is being fulfilled and they are being executed in a fair and honest way. For this to happen, personal emotion should be left out of the procedure at all times, and, we must carefully analyze beyond our perceptions, in order to assure that the process serves a clear and law-abiding purpose. I believe that when a person’s most sacred possession, life, is at stake, we must assure that every precaution and resource is exhausted in order to attribute to it the importance that it is

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,

In a lottery most people are willing to do anything to win, However in one unique town the lottery works a little different. Last week on June, 27th the villagers of Deathstown, Virginia gathered in the time square to hold their annual lottery. The lottery in DeathsTown is very unique to the town because the winner gets stoned to death with rocks. In the lottery the head of each family usually the dad, goes and pulls a piece of paper out of a black box. Then whoever draws the piece of paper on it with a black dot must make their whole family draw from the box. Then each member of the family draws a piece of paper out of the black box and whichever family member draws the piece of paper with the black dot gets killed. Some people might think this harsh but Old Man Warner, a villager of the town said,”The lottery is a necessity and we must keep it to stay civilized.”

A couple months ago on June, 27, in the town of Rumbale was no ordinary day. They had a special tradition that goes by the name of The Lottery. But this lottery isn’t like no other. You don't want to win. Why is that? Because the ‘winner’ gets stoned to death. You might be wondering why is this even a tradition? No one knows, traditions are like unwritten laws, you go with the flow if the people you surround yourself with are doing a tradition or cultural habit then they expect you do it as well.

When most people play the lottery today, they think about having wealth. Generally, people who win are happy about it whether they win one dollar or a million. The lottery in our society has grown to support education and it is often worth several million dollars. Usually, the winner of the lottery gains a lot of recognition for the money they win. But what would happen if there was a small town where people held a yearly lottery in which the “winner” was the member of the town who was not sacrificed? This question is answered in Shirley Jackson’s short story, “The Lottery.” In reading this story, and reading literary criticism about the story, there were many symbols and much symbolism in this story.

The reason that Racheal decides to come to the United States was a dream of a better future. She stated that she had a lot of family support ,but living in poverty was hard to deal with. She said that the community that she lived in population continues to grow, but no job for the growing population. Racheal remember coming home after a long day of work and had no lights and food this brought tears to her eyes. The only thing that kept her going knowing that her name had been added to the lottery. She stated the lottery is where people are giving number and when your number is called you have twenty four hours before leaving to the United State. The reason she enters the lottery was because she wanted to further her education. Her

In The Lottery a dystopian story by, Shirley Jackson the town gathers to participate in the annual lottery. Although, this lottery is very different. Everyone draws a slip of paper from the black box. The person who picks the paper with the black dot is sacrificed. Then they are killed by being stoned to death. Some neighboring towns want to give up the ritual and some have already, but Old Man Warner thinks it is necessary in order to have a plentiful year for growing crops. Throughout the story, Shirley Jackson shows that people need to be more open to change especially when their beliefs are harmful.

The town members can no longer remember exactly how the lottery is supposed to be performed, and thus either substitute different actions as part of the ritual, or do away with them altogether.

“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.