Inhumane Acts of Society Illustrated in Jackson's The Lottery

“The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson is a deceptively simple story about a small town community that holds an annual lottery. Naturally, what makes the plot less simple is the way the story ends with one of the townspeople being stoned as a result of “winning” the lottery. A deeper look at the story reveals that the story is about tradition. Although tradition is often considered to be something positive, in “The Lottery,” tradition is something undesirable and even deadly.

The story started when people are gathered every end of June for the annual lottery ritual in a small village. All the head of each family are required to grab a slip a slip of paper in the box that is placed in the middle of the village. The in charge of the lottery was Mr. Summer. The conflict occurs when Tessie found out that her husband Bill was the center of the Villager’s attention. There is something on the paper that he picked. Because of that Tessie can’t even accept it and she keep on yelling that it is not fair. She believed that the time given to Bill was not enough to pick the paper that he wanted from Mr. Summer. The entire Hutchinson family, are

“The Lottery” is more ambiguous with its setting, as the exact location and year where the story takes place are omitted. The rather simple character names, and the lack of any overt accents when the characters speak make it easy to imagine the story happening almost any time and place in America. In a small nondescript village, the inhabitants practice a lottery ritual where the “winner” is stoned to death in the end. No one in town questions the absurdity of murdering one of their own. They even go as far as to include children in the stoning, showing just how far their adherence

Shirley Jackson's “The Lottery” is a short story about the annual gathering of the villagers to conduct an ancient ritual. The ritual ends in the stoning of one of the residents of this small village. This murder functions under the guise of a sacrament that, at one time, served the purpose of ensuring a bountiful harvest. This original meaning, however, is lost over the years and generations of villagers. The loss of meaning has changed the nature and overall purpose of the lottery. This ritual is no longer a humble sacrifice that serves the purpose of securing the harvest but instead is a ceremony of violence and murder only existing for the pleasure found in this violence.

In Shirley Jackson’s "The Lottery," what appears to be an ordinary day in a small town takes an evil turn when a woman is stoned to death after "winning" the town lottery. The lottery in this story reflects an old tradition of sacrificing a scapegoat in order to encourage the growth of crops. But this story is not about the past, for through the actions of the town, Jackson shows us many of the social ills that exist in our own lives.

The Lottery is another story of a seemingly perfect town that sacrifices one for the sake of many, but in this instance, the sacrifice is in vain because it is just a superstitious tradition. The citizens of this town were blinded by tradition and rituals of the town even though many have forgotten why they do the lottery. Jackson shows this when she wrote, “The lottery was conducted--as were the square dances, the teen club, the Halloween program--by Mr. Summers. who had time and energy to devote to civic activities” (The Lottery 1). It likens these common and cheerful events such as dances and Halloween programs to the sacrificing of an innocent person to better their year. The village seemed so calm and peaceful, but they were still inclined to sin and did not feel much guilt when stoning. The Lotter depicts a dystopian society because a person is being immorally killed every year and no one is stopping it. The event has become dull and repetitive but is still being followed by the families in The Lottery. This theme is very common in dystopian societies and is shown in the evilness of the Lottery.

“The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson is an uncanny short story about a tradition of the townspeople in a village. The story starts off describing the setting and how the young children are out playing making piles of rocks. The

If you lose the lottery you get stoned to death. Tessie Hutchinson drew the card with the black dot on it. If you draw that card you get stoned to death. Tessie Hutchinson is the one person in the town that got stoned to death in this lottery. “The Lottery,” Shirley Jackson uses the symbolism of the box, character’s name and the title itself to develop the theme of traditions/inhumanity.

Once upon a time there was a little village. In this village three hundred people happily farmed and played and went about their business. The children went to school while the men cut wood or farmed, and the women cooked and cleaned. Every summer in June each of villagers took part in the traditional lottery drawing and one villager was picked for the prize – a stoning. In 1948, Shirley Jackson published this short story known as “The Lottery,” in The New York Times. The story’s plot shocked readers all over America as they learned of the horror happening in such a quaint town. Jackson purposely set this tragic event in this innocent setting to emphasize humanity’s cruelty. Using her appalling short story, The Lottery,

In today's society the actions taken in this story would have been considered morally wrong and punishment for committing these crimes would be handed down by the court system. The judicial system of today would punish them with incarceration or death by leathal injection. This legal system was actually illegal, more of a marshal law. These people were ruling themselves. The best example is Mr. Summers, he made it a happy gathering, conducted all the civil activities, and then was also the executioner. He brings with all his justice and ruling, death. The purpose of the lottery is to weed out the people and learn the cycle of life is to accept democracy.

Everyone in the town including children gathered in the town square waiting quietly for the lottery to begin. After being late, Tesse Hutchison showed up to the square. Then Mr. Summers the man in charge of the lottery, told the men in charge of their to house to come up and pull out of the black box. when everyone had their turn Mr summers told them to look at their paper. Ironically, Tesse’s Husband , Bill Hutchison pulled the piece of paper with the black dot on it forcing there whole family to draw from the black box. So the Hutchison family members took turns going up and drawing out of the black box. Then Mr summers told them to look at their the piece of paper. Bill looked at his paper and their was no black dot. Next, their son looked at his and there was no black dot. Then everyone knew that Tesse had won the lottery. She is the one that was to be killed. Everyone picked up the stones that they had gathered earlier. “It’s not fair it’s not fair,” shrieked Tesse. Then the stones came and they didn't stop until she was on the ground

This is a totally and utterly inhumane tradition that I don’t seem to agree with at all. The fact that children are involved and also find pleasure into stoning someone to death makes me wonder what kind of example these people are setting for their children. I can’t imagine a tradition like this in this modern era. The author shows that the villagers was not so knowledgeable about the lottery, however, they participated to keep the tradition going. The ending did come as a surprise to me because I thought the children were gathering stones to play regular children’s game. I Think Shirley Jackson is trying to say that these people show that they were helpless to changes because nothing was forcing them to keep this tradition, the villagers

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.

As the story begins it sounds to be in a high-spirited mood. The village people, children, and elders are all excited about the lottery beginning to take place. They’ve all started to prepare while the children began to gather stones and placed them all in a pile, and in their pockets. The reader has probably made no inquiry about the children gathering the stones and predicted their actions were simply harmless.

boys gathering stones for the lottery. The rest of the villagers gather in the square. The