Brief Summary Of The Lottery By Shirley Jackson

“The less there is to justify a traditional custom, the harder it is to get rid of it” (Twain). The Lottery begins during the summer. A small, seemingly normal, town is gathering to throw the annual “Lottery”. In the end, the townspeople—children included—gather around and stone the winner to death, simply because it was tradition. The story reveals how traditions can become outdated and ineffective. “I suppose, I hoped, by setting a particularly brutal ancient rite in the present and in my own village to shock the story's readers with a graphic dramatization of the pointless violence and general inhumanity in their own lives” (Jackson). As humans develop as a race, their practices should develop with them. Shirley Jackson develops the

Old Man Warner, an important person in society, advocates villagers continue to participate in the dated tradition of the lottery. The result of this was an innocent citizen in the

Shirley Jackson’s use of characters is very detrimental to keeping the theme of the story lively. Whether they play a minor or significant role to the story each character reveals a lot of information about the tradition of the lottery and its intentions, varying from subtle to obvious details. One of the most important characters is Old Man Warner, an elderly man who is very conservative about the preservation of this tradition He holds it dearly to his heart, despite the fact that this tradition is slowly deteriorating in villages around him. Old Man Warner represents the stubborn nature of all the townspeople who are reluctant to

“The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson was written in 1948. The story takes place in a village square of a town on June 27th. The author does not use much emotion in the writing to show how the barbaric act that is going on is look at as normal. This story is about a town that has a lottery once a year to choose who should be sacrificed, so that the town will have a plentiful year for growing crops. Jackson has many messages about human nature in this short story. The most important message she conveys is how cruel and violent people can be to one another. Another very significant message she conveys is how custom and tradition can hold great power over people. Jackson also conveys the message of

In Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery”, the small village, at first, seems to be lovely, full of tradition, with the townspeople fulfilling their civic duties, but instead this story is bursting with contrast. The expectations that the reader has are increasingly altered. The title of this short story raises hope, for in our society the term “lottery” typically is associated with winning money or other perceived “good” things. Most people associate winning a lottery with luck, yet Jackson twists this notion around and the luck in this village is with each of the losers.

Being the oldest community member, Mr. Warren is the only character in the story who displays any sort of connection to its original intent. The younger members of the community carry out the ritual in a detached manner. In addressing the difference in attitude between Mr. Warren and the other community members, A.R. Coulthard contends that, “Old Man Warner is usually taken to be the most allegorically evil devotee of custom, but he is merely the most honest”. Old man Warner is the only community member that still wants to do the lottery for its original purpose. He believes a sacrifice will bring a good harvest, while “the others are willing to risk their own life for the sheer pleasure of an unpunished annual killing” (Coulthard, A.R.). This leads readers to question whether human nature is inherently good or bad, a theme which Jackson explores through “The Lottery”

One aspect of human nature that is examined, and that adds to the effectiveness of the story, is man's tendency to resist change. This is shown in more than one way. The first way is the way some villagers tolerate the lottery even though they know it is wrong, and it serves no purpose. They talk about how other towns have already stopped having

Traditions are widespread among many different people and cultures; It is an explanation for acting without thinking. Not all traditions are a good thing, though, and blindly following them can lead to harsh consequences. The villagers in a small town in “The Lottery” gather together annually to participate in this tradition, where one person in the town is randomly chosen in a drawing to be violently stoned to death by citizens. It has been around for seventy-seven years and everyone partakes in it. People always attend, showing the importance of tradition amongst the society. However, in the short story, “The Lottery,” Shirley Jackson uses many literary devices to show that traditions are not always meant to be followed.

Nebeker, Helen E. “The Lottery’: Symbolic Touch De Force” Short Story Criticism, edited by Jenny Cromie, vol. 39, Gale Group, 2000, 75 vols, pp. 187-90. Originally published in American Literature, vol. 46, no. 1, March, 1974, pp. 100-07.

Similarly, dramatic irony is most well represented by the characters’ ignorance surrounding the morality of stoning an innocent neighbor to death. Since the lottery has been going on for a very long time, the people have been raised knowing nothing else. As Old Man Warner walks up to grab his slip of paper, he says, “‘Seventy-seventh year I been in the lottery,.’” This means that Old Man Warner is older than seventy-seven because the young boys in the story do not draw unless his father cannot. The black box is also much older than he because it “... had been put into use even before Old Man Warner, the oldest man in town, was born… There was a story that the present box had been made with some pieces of the box that had preceded it, the one that had been constructed when the first people settled down to make a village here.” This proves that the original box, though it is only being used only once a year, was worn down to the point of needing a new box desperately enough that the town would actually make a new box rather than letting the topic fade from the town’s mind as it does with the current, worn box. The characters do not see the immorality of the lottery because they have been raised understanding that it is normal and that there is nothing wrong with it. The children are an example of being raised to believe the

The story, The Lottery, was about a town which in every year would sacrifice a citizen to keep their harvest at a rich abundance. This town has been doing this since forever, even longer than Old Man Warner who is 87 years old. When someone from the town speaks about other villages quitting this ritual, this upsets him because he's been doing this ritual all his life so he doens't quite understand why anyone would disapprove of it (pg. 31 lines 194-204 in collections book). Mrs.Hutchinson was another character who didn't understand the people. She tried to defend herself from being killed, but no one cared because she and they

A common theme of placing societal influences over personal values and beliefs can be found in Shirley Jackson’s, “The Lottery”, and Kurt Vonnegut Jr.’s “Harrison Bergeron”. These short stories describe situations in which the citizens allow the superiors to have full control, without thinking twice about the laws and traditions that require their submission. Both of these short stories are similar in theme, because each tells about a community that chooses to participate in cruel and inhumane traditions, rather than allow individuals to form their own beliefs relating to equality and unity, but in doing so, they prevent any productive growth in their communities.

Today, many people are fortunate enough to influence the government, but what if that privilege was revoked? In “The Lottery”, the characters are deprived of the ability to voice their ideas; because of this, the villagers become stuck carrying out an outdated tradition. By looking at the mindset of the characters in “The Lottery” one can see that change and freedom of speech are not accepted which is significant because Shirley Jackson alludes to the result of forcing social conformity, which is the inability to correct immoral social norms.

In the stories of “The Lottery” and “Harrison Bergeron”, written by Shirley Jackson and Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. respectively, these fictional, dark worlds have rules in place to maintain peace and order, but not just any rules. In the Lottery, every June 27th a lottery is taken. It takes roughly two hours in this small town and begins with the head of households in the families drawing pieces of paper out of a box hoping they don’t draw the one with the black mark. Then once an unlucky family is chosen, each individual family member draws. The “winner” of the lottery is then stoned and killed. This is enforced by all the people in the town; old, young, town leaders or even a family member. While in Harrison Bergeron, equality, to new heights, has become the social norm.

Her controversial story tells of an unnamed village who conducts an annual lottery in which every resident participates. With visual imagery, Jackson tricks the audience into believing this is an innocent village; however, as the story unfolds, the dark nature of these residents becomes apparent. On the day of the lottery, individuals are called to select a slip from a tattered box. Ultimately, the resident possessing a slip marked with a black dot gets stoned to death. No one questions the lottery, and the original purpose remains a mystery. Some say it is beneficial for the village’s harvest. Only when Tessie Hutchinson discovers she is the winner, does she object to the lottery and argue how the system is unfair. Her protest fails, as the villagers persist in the brutal stoning. Jackson’s story reveals the dangers of blindly following tradition and the darker aspects of human nature, such as the absolute cruelty in people’s actions. Focusing on recent mass shootings and the parallelisms in attitudes between Jackson’s villagers and Americans reveal how daily life in the United States is becoming a lottery.