Blindly Follow Others In The Lottery By Shirley Jackson

“The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson artfully uses foreshadowing in order to build suspense and create a shocking ending. Jackson’s success in “The Lottery” comes from her ability to keep the reader in the dark about the evils, until the very end. She has masterfully set up what the reader believes as a pleasant event. But, it is not until the ending, can the reader see the foreshadowing of the evils to come. Through the use of foreshadowing, Jackson is able to contribute to the story 's overall effect of suspense and a shocking ending.

And now it becomes meaningless, and they are just blindly following the tradition that they have always done. Old Man Warner is the oldest person in the town and have been a part of the lottery for seventy-seven years. He is the only one that strongly believes that the lottery is a good thing and they should never stop doing it. Old Man Warner says, “[There] used to be a saying about ‘Lottery in June, corn be heavy soon.’ First thing you know, we’d all be eating stewed chickweed and acorns.” (52) Old Man Warner talks about how the lottery correlates to the presence of more corn crops, and he strongly states that without the lottery, they would be eating chickweed and acorns. This is probably the original reason for why they started the lottery, it was to have good crops. Old Man Warner is the only one who truly cares about the lottery, the other villagers just do it to follow their tradition. Old Man Warner thinks that “nothing’s good enough for [the people who have stopped the tradition of the lottery.]” (52) He strongly opposes the idea of not having the lottery and he thinks that the people who have stopped it are out of their minds.

Andrew Lansley once said “Peer pressure and social norms are powerful influences on behavior, and they are classic excuses.” Most people tend to follow cultural customs because they have grown with them or it has been forced onto them with factors such as parents or their environment. However, is it always right to follow these customs even if they are in fact considered wrong? Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery” is a short story about the cultural norms of a small community and its annual lottery ritual; a stoning. Jackson overthrows the story by making the lottery a corrupt occurrence rather than a victory. The reader would probably think that the “winner” of the lottery would be benefited but in this case the victory was not so delightful. 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.

In some ways, “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson could be seen as controversial. Within the first paragraph, we are left with two main questions; “what is the lottery?” and “why does it happen?” A major theme that answers the first question is all about tradition. Yes, the lottery is a tradition in many towns. No one has ever questioned this tradition, even though it is quite inhumane. In all honesty, you could compare this story very well to The Hunger Games just because of what this tradition consists of. Imagine being in a town of around three hundred people and having your life put on the line. The lottery itself comes down to all of the townspeople meeting up, and each family name is read by Mr. Summers, and the head of the family

“Sweet, Sour, and Resentful” written by Firoozeh Dumas is an article that talks about the transition his family had to make after leaving Iran for America and the weekly  gatherings they organized for their country’s citizens the fled the iranian revolution.  It often happens when people try to escape hardship from their country of citizenship to another country. Adapting to a new society or culture has not always been easy, due to the cultural differences of that country. “The Lottery”  written by Shirley Jackson, is about a small group of villagers, how they easily forgets their traditions by slowly disregarding as the time pass.

In Shirley Jacksons story, The Lottery, a small town is stuck in a deadly tradition. A tradition that was continued in the hopes that the towns crops will be plentiful. The character Old Man Warner even talking about the old saying “Lottery in June, corn be heavy soon“ when talking about the lottery to Mr. and Mrs. Adams. The story shows a small town stuck in old ways, and the victim of mob mentality.

In “The Lottery” Shirley Jackson writes about the game lottery, which makes the story very ironic. Unlike all of the other Lottery games, in this traditional version no one wants to be chosen, because that brings them the end of their life. Jackson explains how keeping up with some traditions that are part of people’s life, may not be the best choice to embrace a particular culture. Jackson uses the Lottery as an example to express her idea about the ethical issues such as; violent murder, harming people, forcefully following a tradition, and lying. All of these ethical issues are created by blindly following tradition in “The Lottery.”

The author of “The Lottery” Shirley Jackson decided it was important to write this short story in order to inform the readers about another dimension, where a certain common tradition gets prized with something obscure. Some readers can be shocked when reading this story, because they might be surprised and even shocked with the themes that play along in the storyline. This short story “The Lottery” was so controversial at the time, because in the date it was published in June 24, 1948 there were so many themes from the stories that could relate to past events or even event that were taking place at the time.

The tradition known as “The Lottery” is an old one that almost every village would do, but by the time that the story is set in most of them had stopped doing the lottery already. Nobody in the village knew why they would do this tradition or what it meant at all. They would just stone people each time someone won for no particular reason except that its “The Lottery.” The black box used in the lottery itself was also not even the original one which shows you that the villagers didn't even know the real meaning to the tradition.

“The Lottery” was written in 1948 by Shirley Jackson. Mrs. Jackson, born in 1916, was known for her tales of horror and supernatural novels. She and her literary critic husband, Stanley Edgar Hyman lived in a little town called Bennington, Vermont. Mrs. Jackson was not accepted by the town. Her novels, especially “The Lottery”, revealed the dark side of human nature. Stephen King honored Shirley Jackson by dedicating his book Firestarter to her.

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.

Only when we are introduced to Old Man Warner, the only man in the village old enough to remember some of the traditions, do we get an idea of the purpose of the lottery. It seems to be a pagan harvest ritual, as expressed by his old saying: ??Lottery in June, corn be heavy soon?? (Jackson 369). By participating in the lottery the villages crops will prove to be bountiful. He justifies the use of the lottery simply by stating ?There?s always been a lottery? (Jackson 369).

I believe that the people in the story continue this gruesome tradition every year because they believe the sacrificing of a human being for the crops to grow and they’ve become deceptive of the tradition. On page 26 it states, “Soon the men began to gather, surveying their own children, speaking of planting and rain, tractors and taxes.” Based on this sentence we can infer that the men’s speaking of planting, rain, and tractors that these villagers are probably farmers. In the story old man Warner also quotes, “Used to be a saying about 'Lottery in June, corn be heavy soon.' First thing you know, we'd all be eating stewed chickweed and acorns. There's always been a lottery.” It clearly states that they believed if the lottery happened in June

The exact origin of the rituals and traditions in the “The Lottery” is not stated by Shirley Jackson; however, the traditions seem to be just as old as the town itself. Although most of the villagers in the short story are unaware of the old rituals, they view it as a form of spiritual cleansing. The villagers are deeply-rooted in their archaic traditions filled with superstitions human sacrifices, and crops. Old man Warner, a man who is happy to be celebrating his seventy-seventh lottery is seen as a prominent figure in the short story. Old man Warner’s character is very traditional and reluctant to change. In the eyes of the villagers, old man Warner is a winner and free from bad luck. The black box is a determinant between life

“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.