In Jackson'S 'The Lottery, Custom And Tradition Institutionalize

The box is very similar to traditions. They both grow old. Each year it becomes more useless, and deteriorates with time. The next symbol in “The Lottery” are the stones used to murder Tessie. They symbolize murder. “Although the villagers had forgotten the ritual and lost the original black box, they still remembered to use the stones” (Jackson). The stones were used by the ancestors, who were more barbaric the further back they go. “Bobby Martin had already stuffed his pockets full of stones, and the other boys soon followed his example, selecting the smoothest and roundest stones” (Jackson). In the lottery, the children participate in the murder. They even select the smooth stones, which will cause a slower, more painful death. Although they are living in a seemingly sophisticated period in time, they still commit this barbaric action for no other reason than because it is tradition, and they see no wrong in doing so. They will blindly follow the tradition just as their parents had, and they will pass the tradition off to their children. “Mob psychology rules their actions. Though they appear to be sane, sensible individuals, when the time of the lottery comes, they abandon their rational nature and revert to the instincts of the herd” (Mazzeno). A stoning is a crowd generated death. By using stones for the

Tradition; it is the back bone of every culture and civilization. It is what keeps the beliefs, philosophies, and activities of societies alive, to be passed down from generation to generation. However not all traditions are practiced with pure intentions.  Some activities become so routine, people don’t know a life outside of them. Societies become so accustomed to “tradition” that they will participate in pastimes without  questioning the ethics or morals of the situation. Ultimately when tradition takes the place of a rationalizing mind the outcome can be incredibly dangerous. The role of tradition is an underlying theme in the short story The Lottery by Shirley Jackson, forcing readers to ask themselves “At what point do

The symbolism behind the stones is clear; they are not only murder weapons, but the first tools ever made by men were made of stone, which denote the savage and violent customs of ancestors.

Americans day after day live much of their lives following time-honored traditions that are passed down from one generation to another. From simple everyday cooking and raising children, to holidays and other family rituals, tradition plays a significant role on how they go by there everyday lives. In Shirley Jackson's short story, "The Lottery," the citizens of a small farming town follow one such tradition. A point is made regarding human nature in relation to tradition. The story begins on a beautiful summer afternoon. The town's citizens are eager, gathering in the town square in order to take part in the yearly lottery. With the story focused around one particular family, the Hutchinsons, who

Everyone has their own way of solving problems; however, ritual is a form that people doing one thing in the same way. It defines as “the prescribed form of conducting a formal secular ceremony.” However if the meaning of ritual is mistaken, the consequence could be unpredictable." The Lottery" by Shirley Jackson gives us a lecture about a tortuous ritual. The story takes place in a small village with 300 citizens, they gather for a yearly lottery which everyone should participate. The story leads to a horrific ending by people forgetting the concept of ritual.

     The Lottery, a short story by the nonconformist author Shirley Jackson, represents communities, America, the world, and conformist society as a whole by using setting and most importantly symbolism with her inventive, cryptic writing style. It was written in 1948, roughly three years after the liberation of a World War II concentration camp Auschwitz. Even today, some people deny that the Holocaust ever happened. Jackson shows through the setting of the story, a small, close knit town, that even though a population can ignore evil, it is still prevalent in society (for example: the Harlem Riots; the terrorist attacks on September 11; the beating of Rodney King.)

Shirley Jackson (1916-1965) was an American writer from upstate New York who published over 60 literary works and raised to four children; she published her most famous story, “The Lottery,” in 1948 (Kellman 1213). After her death, New Historicism developed as a form of literary criticism focusing on viewing works based on the important events and societal factors during the time it was written and published. It also seeks to understand aspects of society through the literary works it produces (Brizee). With an agrarian village setting, “The Lottery” is an exceptional story to understand societal conditions through New Historicism analysis because it draws parallels to Jackson’s life through its descriptions of gender roles, family units, and cultural traditions similar to those of American society following World War II.

There are many things that people do every day without questioning why they do them. These are our habits and traditions, and though for the most part they are unimportant they can be a crucial part of our culture and our interactions with each other. Sometimes there are traditions that can cause harm or are morally unacceptable. What should be done in this case? Edmund Burke, a nineteenth century politician and author, argues that it is best to stick with tradition rather than causing dramatic changes in people’s behavior. This is a key component in his argument against the French Revolution in his essay “Reflections on the Revolution in France.” In this essay he argues that the revolution will only lead the

In Shirley Jackson’s short story, “The Lottery”, it can be very dangerous to follow traditions blindly without knowing about the horrible consequences. When one follows traditions and laws and never questions or seeks to understand the reason for them, the inevitable outcome often brings sorrow. Indeed blind devotion to complying with rules that destroys the human spirit by removing choice, and continuing rituals with dark consequences, and punishing anyone who objects to following tradition. Complying with rules that helps lead to destroying the human spirit is dangerous because individuals should always have the choice to follow those rules. The blind devotion of the village participating in the town’s yearly lottery is the clear example why all rules aren’t always positive. Rituals can be looked upon as positive but they also can have a negative connotation when they lead to dangerous consequences. The village in the story has a ritual every year to hold a lottery, where the winner is stoned to death and this is a clear example how a ritual can be viewed negatively. Traditions are beliefs passed down between generations of a family or culture. They are things we do by choice because they are enjoyable and meaningful for the people involved. Traditions in the story have a dark side to it because the tradition in this village is to kill one of members of the village using a lottery system. The dark side of “The Lottery”, is substantial with many down falls of

Sometimes when a certain group of people have a tradition, no matter what the tradition is, they follow it. They don’t know how it started or who started it, which is the main reason why that is a tradition. For example, why is turkey the main food at Thanksgiving dinners? Why not other meats like, beef, or lamb? We follow this tradition every year because that's how it's always been.

Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery" satirizes barbaric traditions in a supposedly civilized village. As the story begins, the villagers appear to be fairly civilized and carry on fairly modern lifestyles. This is assumed by the men's discussion of planting, rain, tractors, and taxes. The lottery was outdated to such a degree that some may think that the tradition is primal competition of anthropoid beasts. On the other hand, some think that carrying on the tradition was necessary. The question that must be answered is: Was this a barbaric tradition or was this ritual an honest attempt to better other villager's lives?

Shirley Jackson's story, The Lottery is about a group of towns people who meet every year on the 27th of June. On this day a stoning takes place, as it washes away the sins of everyone that lived in the village. However, should the tradition of the stoning be changed when it becomes your time?

Is religion a tradition? Has it been warped so much throughout the centuries that the different opinions have lost the very essence of religion in itself? We use religion as an excuse for many of the things we do in everyday life. America was founded on Christian beliefs, but we’ve held so tight to the old traditions that we can’t see the evil. The founding fathers meant to create a guideline on how our culture should work; they never expected to create a monster.

Shirley Jackson’s short story “The Lottery” is about a village that holds an annual lottery where the chosen villager is stoned to death. The villagers treat this day as any other. They have become accustomed to this traditional event even though it ends with the murder of a random villager. As mentioned during our in-class discussion, the villagers are so accustomed to the event that everyone can participate without hesitation. For example, the Mrs. Hutchinson’s son Davy Hutchinson even partook in the stoning of his own mother. It is mind-blowing to see how this violent tradition has continued for so long. A character in the short story named Old Man Warner, a seventy seventh-time participant, implies that the tradition began as an offering

Shirley Jackson?s insights and observations about society are reflected in her shocking and disturbing short story The Lottery. Jackson reveals two general attitudes in this story: first is the shocking tendency for societies to select a scapegoat and second is the idea that communities are victims of social tradition and rituals.