Benefits Of The Lottery

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

“Pack of young fools” (Jackson 76, par. 8-9). These quotes display the contrasting attitudes between other villages and Old Man Warner’s. Even as sick as it sounds, the lottery brings the townspeople together because they are connected by one common goal. And even though such an action as detestable as the lottery continues to happen, the townspeople want to hold onto something blindly because it has been passed down from generations. In this town the goal is the killing of an innocent soul (DiYanni 1, 5). Most of the townspeople believe it is a rash and dumb idea to do away with the lottery, proving that their view of human life is vastly distorted. They let their viewpoint be distorted because the lottery was such “as matter of fact” to them, and the lottery provides them with some sort of closure and a sense of fulfillment.

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 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 author speaks to a panel of 6 professionals varying from different backgrounds. The question, do the lottery have an economic benefit, was presented to each panelist. Two members of the panel asserted a positive outlook on the economic benefit of the lottery use of funds in education, public safety, public health to name few examples. Four members of the panel indicated that the lottery is considered a regressive tax on the poor. They strongly suggest that the lottery is not an effective means of revenue for the greater

On a beautiful summer’s day, a town of villagers have assembled in the town’s square to conduct the lottery. It is not clear at this point why this traditional gathering has taken place. The impression that someone may win a prize or gift may be envisioned. As the story progresses, subtle hints are dropped that something is amiss. Ironically, the image of perfection no longer holds true to this small town once the “winner” is revealed and stoned to death. The mob mentality of the town is unveiled as they all partake in the barbaric tradition. In “The Lottery” Shirley Jackson uses aspects of the lottery to suggest how dangerous it is to blindly follow tradition.

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.

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.”

The “Lottery” is a horrible example of the influence of an ancient civic ritual of a society, which is so great that it eradicates all forms of cognitive senses of society’s members. The townspeople have accepted human sacrifice as a part of their lives. It has been a tradition for a very long time and the town keeps it

“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.

Throughout the course of human history, people from a variety of cultures have crafted their own cultural, religious, and familial traditions based on communal beliefs. To this day, people from around the world continue to carry out rituals from hundreds of years ago that their ancestors held to be both beneficial and necessary in maintaining a thriving society. These practices, however, have the potential to be malicious and harmful to society. As one of the most famous short stories in American literature, The Lottery provides the reader with a tale about the practices of a small, fictional town that holds an annual lottery each year. Through Shirley Jackson’s use of irony, symbolism, and setting in The Lottery, I found the main theme to

“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.

So, “The Lottery” was a tradition where the head of the household, usually a man, would draw a piece of paper out of the black box; if the paper had a black spot on it the family had to draw a piece of paper each and whomever draws the black dot got stoned. The townspeople didn’t want to participate in the tradition, but at the same time they knew if they didn’t they would probably be outcast if not worse. On top of that, what if the year they didn’t have a sacrifice, the crops failed? No one wants to be the cause of that, so they all just go along with it and are okay until it is them or their family that gets picked. As you can clearly see, no matter what the tradition is, no one wants to go against their family and break traditions.

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

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.