Essay on Ritual and Tradition in Shirley Jackson's The Lottery

Traditions are based all around us. Today’s society has many traditions like family traditions, holiday traditions, southern traditions, and so many more. Although most traditions are harmless, it is not always best to follow tradition. Sometimes following tradition can be dangerous. In Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery” villagers participate in an annual drawing, and the winner gets stoned. The villagers are blind to how cruel and brutal it is because of their commitment to this tradition and to that society. Fear is what is keeping this village from breaking such an act. The fear of actually giving up this tradition and society is what is keeping this brutal act existent. Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery” is a perfect example that following tradition

“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 The story reveals how traditions can become outdated and ineffective.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

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.

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.

The odd, short story of “the Lottery” is a story that should be read by many people for any urge to find symbolic references or to just kick back and read an interesting story with a twist.

I think that the village is very grim about the tradition because they know that they have a chance of being stoned to death, but after the victim has been picked, everyone is relieved. Their respect towards the tradition is fading, since after every generation, the reason that the lottery is still carried out is only known by a few people, such as Old Man Warner. They are really starting to disrespect the lottery. Near the end of the story it says: Although the villagers had forgotten the ritual and lost the original black box… I am pretty sure they will drop the tradition when Old Man Warner dies, meaning that almost no one knows why they do it, just like the other villages who don’t have a person to encourage everyone to keep the

If the paper drawn has a block dot, that person’s family has won the lottery. The master of the lottery then places the same amount of paper as the number of family members, one being the black dot, and each member of the family draws again. The family member who draws the black dot, is then stoned to death by the community. While this tradition

In Shirley Jackson's short story "The Lottery" there are many examples of traditions. For example, the town's lottery starts in late June and most of the townspeople start gathering around 10 o'clock by the post office and bank. During the gathering, the children come first, the men follow, and the women come last. The black box that is used is also a huge tradition according to this town. When the men's names were called they were to go up to the black box and draw out a piece of paper. After everyone had their piece of paper, they were to look at it and whoever had the piece of paper that had pencil scribbles on it won the lottery. Unfortunately, when you won the lottery you were stoned to death. Based on Shirley Jackson's story "The Lottery"

The main symbol is the black box used for the drawing. That box is a portrayal of the villagers strong hold on tradition. Jackson even says that there had been talk for many years about replacing the box, but nothing was ever done. This shows that the villagers were too afraid, or fascinated to let go of the box. One may even say that the box represents the lottery itself, as both have lost there true purpose over the years and as the villagers are spooked at the very mention of either. They see the box and lottery as two terrifying things that go hand in hand and they do not stop to think that all it would take is a small group of people to stop this awful

Winning the lottery doesn’t always yield a favorable outcome. In Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery,” town members live such an example of a consequential “prize” drawing. Humans possess a hardwired trait of competition and savagery that manifests itself with an ironic competition with deadly spoils awarded to the victor. At the core of human existence lies a desire to succeed, and more importantly, to win.

The Lottery" by Shirley Jackson is a fictional story based on a small society where every person within the society lives happily and prosperously. Although behind the happiness is darkness. Throughout the story the reader learns that every summer the town holds a lottery which decides people's fate. Each individual is to draw one slip from the box and if that slip contains a black dot then that individual is stoned to death. The idea and concept behind this is that if they kill one person a year it will make their harvest heavy and farmers will have full crops. Society acts as the protagonist within the story because it creates a vicious tradition. The tradition being that one person must sacrifice there happiness in order to satisfy and bring

Being accepted as a member of a body of people results in many new customs, traditions and obligations that some patrons may or may not agree with. In the short story The Lottery author Shirley Jackson sheds light on an unethical tradition that an unknown village continues to host yearly. Traditions embody unwritten laws that favor group following and lacks individuality. This leads to organized dependency of others interpretation of why the tradition is in place and is the sole reason as to why traditions should be audited and updated often. Jackson made sure to allow the characters to express the changes that have taken place in regards to the lottery and how the original reasons for the lottery had been disregarded and or are no longer in place.

Rituals have a dark side income areas of the world. In the story “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson tells of a mortifying tale of a tradition that hosts a lottery for one unlucky winner. The head of the house picks a piece of paper from an old black box and only one paper has a black mark on it. As I read the story I was confused that the people had no true understanding of the origin of why they still performed the ritual. This sheep mentality is depressing seeing others blindly follow even if they truly wish to escape. The fear of being different stops people from starting discussions to better their society. The is slightly sad due to the older generation, the sheep mentality, and lack of care.

The Lottery In the story, “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson, it’s about a village tradition where they come together to do a lottery. It’s been a tradition that was created by the villagers’ ancestors and since the creation, it has been a yearly get-together. The villagers repeatedly go to the lottery yearly, without even knowing the reason behind the fact that it was created or why it feels like they need to go. They never question themselves on the reason they go, what they are doing during the lottery, or what they do to “celebrate” the person that wins the lottery.

What is Shirley Jackson saying about traditional rituals in “The Lottery”? Think of some ritual in our present society that you think ought to be dropped or modified. Some you might consider are: proms, weddings, Christmas gift exchanges, dating conventions, beauty pageants, boxing matches, funeral services, graduation ceremonies, fraternity/sorority pledging, etc.