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The Lottery, By Shirley Jackson

Decent Essays
In “The Lottery,” Shirley Jackson uses symbolism to demonstrate how even with religion present, people still conform to tradition and in this case, human sacrifice. Symbolism is when the author uses symbolism to express a certain idea or quality throughout their work. Tradition has always been important all over the world and it is something that continues to hold strong to this day. “The Lottery” within itself contains a whole other meaning to the word tradition. It is present every year, which qualifies it as a tradition, but it is not one that people normally tend to think of as a tradition. A lot of traditions today are associated with religion such as Christmas mass and or Christmas dinner and Easter that is spent with families. Yes,…show more content…
The religious outlook on this scenario is that the villagers do not really care for their religion. No one really knows if they know the true meaning of their name, but the fact that they choose to butcher their name and their name only means something. If religion were truly present, these people would understand that having a name with such high importance is an honor in their faith. Everyone’s name has a significance, and God chose these people to have this name for a reason. He wanted them to provide their people with an understanding of the crucifixion of Jesus, not to make fun of it. Jesus died for others to repent their sins not create more sins. Jackson specifically chose this family to have this name for a reason, whether it be to show that religion is not as strong as it should be, or whether religion is present at all. Even though these people do not seem to care much about their religion from their name calling and mispronunciation, other dominant characters throughout the story, including Mr. Summers portray that of a religious figure. Mr. Summers as described Jackson is someone who has “time and energy” and devotes most of his time to “civic activities.” He is the man that runs the lottery and puts it on year after year. He is the man who carries on this tradition. In some instances, Summers
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