The Lottery, By Shirley Jackson

Symbolically the battered black box represents the death that it brings to the community as well as a worn out tradition. The box is mentioned repeatedly throughout the story, which is a sign of its importance, although we are kept in the dark about its ultimate function until the very end. It is described as "…no longer completely black but splintered badly along one side to show the original wood color, and in some places [is] faded or stained." (Jackson 75). This seems to also describe the lottery itself- old, faded, and stained with the blood of all those who have died in years past. Ironically, the black box used in the story was said not to be the original box and the papers that they used were substitutes for the old wood chips. This is a sign that the tradition is so old and meaningless that it can be constantly added to or taken away from. "Mr. Summers spoke frequently to the villagers about making a new box, but no one liked to upset even as much tradition as was represented by the black box…[and] every year the subject was allowed to fade off without anything being done" (Jackson 75). Perhaps Mr. Summers's idea symbolizes a need for a new tradition.

In the short story "The Lottery," Shirley Jackson uses figurative language, symbolism, and irony to reveal her theme that things are not always what they seem to be. In this shocking short story, she reveals the corruption of human nature by telling of the ceremony they call “The lottery”.

Shirley Jackson exploits a true form of human nature in this story. The lottery, a deadly tradition, is a draw for death. The selfish need to survive is shown by all the townspeople, who stone the chosen one to death, be it their friend or family, with only the thought that they themselves survived. Every lottery, the people look at the black box, and desperately hope that they aren’t chosen. It is a gruesome reminder of what they have witnessed and taken part of; the murders of innocent

What is the difference between superstitions and traditions? «The lottery» by Shirley Jackson provides a good example how superstitions of people from a tiny town affect on those traditions. This story shows dark side of Humanity. Whole community entrusts their life with a small black box. The allegory can confuse you, because the main purpose of the «lottery» is kill one of the citizens for a strange false belief. To my mind, the author tried to explain why new generation sometimes shouldn’t continue the weird and cruel traditions.

In Shirley Jackson’s short story, “The Lottery,” a small village is preparing for an annual drawing, a tradition carried out for generations. During this ritual, the head of each household draws a blank piece of paper out of a black box. One piece of paper is marked with a single black dot and if chosen, the outcome is having the winner’s entire household draw out of the box. Whoever chooses the black dot out of the household is stoned to death by the entire village. In this instance, a husband wins to which his wife protests, and then she is the ultimate victim who is sacrificed. This story includes many literary elements like foreshadowing, warning of a future event, symbolism, symbols used in the story to represent ideas,and irony, when the contrary to what is expected to happen, occurs. Jackson uses foreshadowing, symbolism, and irony to prove the theme that it is foolish and barbaric to blindly follow tradition.

“The Lottery” was written in 1948 by Shirley Jackson. Mrs. Jackson, born in 1916, was known for her tales of horror and supernatural novels. She and her literary critic husband, Stanley Edgar Hyman lived in a little town called Bennington, Vermont. Mrs. Jackson was not accepted by the town. Her novels, especially “The Lottery”, revealed the dark side of human nature. Stephen King honored Shirley Jackson by dedicating his book Firestarter to her.

Shirley Jackson wrote the story “The Lottery” back in 1948 to show us how ridiculous it could be to blindly follow certain traditions. In this story the author uses symbolisms to warn and prepare the reader about the gruesome ending of the lottery. There are a lot of symbols in the story and the main are the items, the lottery and the character names.

A close examination of "The Lottery" by Shirley Jackson leads to understanding that utilizes symbolism to help her speak to human instinct as corrupted, regardless of how immaculate one considers himself or herself, or how pure their surroundings may appear to be. The story is extremely viable in bringing up numerous issues about the pointless way of mankind with respect to tradition and savagery. 'The Lottery' plainly expresses Jackson's emotions concerning mankind's malicious nature holing up behind tradition and

In "The Lottery" Shirley Jackson fills her story with many literary elements to mask the evil. The story demonstrates how it is in human nature to blindly follow traditions. Even though some people have no idea why they follow these traditions.

Typically, when one hears the word lottery, they think about someone winning a desirable prize. Unfortunately, this is not the case in a small American town that Shirley Jackson introduces us to in her novel, "The Lottery". In this novel, readers get to know a patriarch community that takes part in an unusual annual tradition. In this tradition, the town gathers to play a game. The head of each family in the town draws a slip from a black box. One of the slips in the black box contains a black dot. This game is the town 's form of a lottery; who ever draws the dotted slip will be stoned to death by the other town members. The story starts off serene and idyllic but by the end readers witness a murder. Shirley Jackson’s, "The Lottery”, shows how people often hold on to traditions even when they are barbaric and have lost their meaning. She does this by showing readers that members of the society will hold on to inhumane practices simply because the practice is considered tradition. In this exploration of this towns traditional "lottery", Jackson leads the reader down a savage story line. Jackson is able to draw on the ethnic appeal by focusing on the very moment of the stoning. After the stoning, the reader is able to look back and see several details they might have missed or overlooked. The tradition has taken control of the community members.

“The Lottery,” the short story by Shirley Jackson. The plot is not too hard to understand except that you do not realize what is going on until the very end. It talks about the people gather in the village square. Then they seem to be gathering up stones especially the children, and then there is the actual lottery. That means a drawing where somebody is going to “win.” Now, it turns out that after everybody pulls out their pieces of paper, and there is this elaborate ritual where family unit go and then the actual family members draw their numbers. But finally, Tessie Hutchinson, one of the house wives, one of the mothers in the community, gets the paper with the black dot on it, and she does not win anything good. In fact she is marked

Shirley Jackson’s, “The Lottery,” is a story about the need to find a sin offering to appease the community’s superstition while everyone else plays the scapegoat.

It is the human nature to make sacrifices for the people in their community, those they love, and those who they perceive less fortunate. As such, people partake in traditions which have been passed down by their own ancestors, regardless of the place of such traditions in the contemporary society. They simply do them based upon the tradition and respect. In the short story, “The Lottery,” Shirley Jackson depicts a small town whose people unquestionably cling on a tradition of human sacrifice despite of being of less significance at the time. Every year, the town sanctions the sacrifice of one individual to keep the town in God’s good graces, by stating “Lottery in June, corn be heavy soon.” (Jackson, 370). The town citizens also believe that the annual human sacrifice significantly contributes to huge harvests in the community. By conducting the sacrifice as a stoning, the town members feel connected to the ancient past, which helps to enfold the entire process in mystery and a sense of ancient evil in the society. Despite traditional rituals such as human sacrifice having traditional backgrounds, most of them are cruel and unworthy of human observance.

Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery” illustrates several aspects of the darker side of human nature. The townspeople in Jackson’s “The Lottery” unquestioningly adhere to a tradition which seems to have lost its relevance in their lives. The ritual that is the lottery shows how easily and willingly people will give up their free will and suspend their consciences to conform to tradition and people in authority. The same mindless complacency and obedience shown by the villagers in Jackson’s story are seen in human behavior throughout history and are still visible in current events seen today. Religion and higher authority are able to convince people to commit horrendous crimes against other human beings without hesitation or guilt. In religion, rituals can be a substitute for taking responsibility for one’s actions or thinking for oneself. The behavior shown by the villagers can also be compared to human beings cruel enjoyment of the suffering of other human beings. This side of human nature dates back to the scapegoat method used during the Biblical times (Whittier 351). “The Lottery” is more of a hypocritical tradition than a ritual at the point we witness in the story, but out of respect and fear for tradition, the townsfolk are more than willing to commit an act of mass violence as a scapegoat method, simply for the sake of a tradition.

In most peoples minds, the word “lottery” signifies huge winnings, but for the townspeople in the story “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson the word brings forth fear and devastation. The lottery starts off as a seemingly innocent event which immediately turns into feared, mass chaos in the town. The symbols Jackson incorporates into the story contribute to the fact that everything in this town must be replaced and that some things we must let go of to start fresh with. Although, having said that, people don’t realize when a tradition becomes outdated and when the time comes to put it behind. Shirley Jackson uses several symbols to show how traditions become obsolete and that we must have an open mind to adapt to new, plausible ones, symbols including the black box, the stones, and the townspeople.