Short Story The Lottery 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 The story reveals how traditions can become outdated and ineffective.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

It was the morning of June 27th, ten years after Tessie Hutchinson was stoned to death. So much had happened during this decade after her death. Horace Dunbar was stoned last year, and Mrs. Graves the year before. The village now consisted of about 500 citizens, and with the village growing every year the lottery became more and more necessary for the town to prosper. But still people doubted the value of the lottery and tried to preclude it. Back when the year Tessie was stoned, the Adams were talking about how other towns were giving up the lottery. Every year there were a larger amount of people opposing the lottery.

To actually have a tradition in place, it has to be followed and duplicated with very few or no change. For centuries, non-essential traditions and acts have been practiced all for the reward of approval from a group or community as a whole. Even if the tradition may be wrong and distasteful, only the people being directly affected by it will speak against it. Deadly and harsh practices such as hazing and stoning have been followed for the induction into the sororities, fraternities or society, yet does not serve a real purpose for acceptance. In Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery,” she reveals and emphasizes, through imagery and plot, that people of today and in previous eras conform to unnecessary, evil, and fake traditions because of a thirsty

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

Dystopian stories works depict a negative view of "the way the world is supposedly going in order to provide urgent propaganda for a change in direction”. Often these stories have many themes that can relate to the real world. In the dystopian story “The Lottery” written by Shirley Jackson, many themes such as false hopes,hypocrisy, ritual, and mob mentality are expressed throughout the story. In the story everyone in a small village gather in the town square for the lottery, whoever gets chosen gets stoned to death by everyone in the town including friends and loved ones. The use of different themes throughout the story relate to the literary devices and universal storytelling elements setting, verbal irony, symbolism, and social cohesion.

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.

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

Tradition is not always the best thing, despite what most people might think. In the story ‘The Lottery’ we have an example of a toxic tradition. A toxic tradition would be something that has been passed on from generation to generation, and the meaning of this tradition is then lost over the years. ‘The Lottery’ explores the topics of tradition, rebelling against the system, and mob mentality. The way the story is written is meant to shock the reader when they realize what it means to win the lottery. The reader is an outsider to the town and can see what’s wrong about the whole tradition, despite the blindness of the townspeople.

In her short story, "The Lottery," Shirley Jackson uses conformity and rebellion to convey the main theme, which is that blindly following tradition can have negative consequences. The village members show this through their actions while carrying out this “lottery” that they have done for generations. One character, Tessie, is the outlier who is a rebellion compared to the other villagers. Her character’s actions contrast the other villagers, and make what they are doing seem much more irrational. It also shows how the majority refuses to hear what one who deviates from the norm has to say. This allows them to remain in a bubble and continue to live out the same customs year after year.

There are many Americans and people all over the world that live their lives following traditions that are passed down from one generation to another. A tradition can be as simple as cooking a recipe to how you raise your children and holiday traditions. Culture plays a significant role in how people live their day to day lives. In Shirley Jacksons “The Lottery” the people that lived in the town follow a tradition every year. It's easy to understand why Shirley Jackson’s Lottery caused controversy when it was published shortly after World War II in 1948. The Lottery has been dramatized, televised and turned into a ballet. It is taught in high schools and colleges. (Whittier). The Lottery held many questions about traditions that have

“The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson is a short story that shows us how point of view and setting can influence a story. She makes the readers think about how some long standing traditions may do more harm than good. In this story on July 24th the whole village comes together to participate in the lottery. The “head of the house,” which

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?

Traditions practiced by a society greatly reveal the cultural mindset of what kind of people reside within. Tradition governs what is and is not acceptable in a society, and societal standards are perceived differently by people across the globe. As urban culture accepts the use of electrical technology, people such as the Amish would not. Tradition and its root had lived in the lives of many and adapted to live in an ever changing world. In Shirley Jackson’s short story, “The Lottery”, a village takes part in an annual lottery.

“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.

Every country has its own traditions. They all celebrate their holidays and traditions for specific reasons, beliefs and meanings. For example, Mexican people celebrate Cinco de Mayo, Day of the Dead and Las Posadas. The Vietnamese and Chinese celebrate Lunar New Year and Mid-Autumn Festival. These traditions have great values, are meaningful and do not harm anyone. Overall, these rituals and traditions hold their own values and they are good to practice; people should keep them up and pass them down to younger generations. However, not all traditions are good to practice. When not questioned, rituals can turn out cruel and scary. In the short story “The Lottery,” Shirley Jackson tries to convey the message that it is so dangerous for people to follow tradition that has lost meaning blindly without questioning it; this leads the townspeople to keep holding and participating in the cruel ritual to harm oneself and others. Jackson uses her writing style to hide how dreadful the lottery is; the story’s third person point of view is used as an outsider to tell the lottery’s original and the process of how brutal the lottery is, and she finally uses characterizations as the developments of the central character and antagonists to contribute to the story’s overall message.