The Lottery, By Shirley Jackson

On the surface, Shirley Jackson’s short story, “The Lottery,” reads as a work of horror. There is a village that holds an annual lottery where the winner is stoned to death so the village and its people could prosper. Some underlying themes include: the idea that faith and tradition are often followed blindly, and those who veer away from tradition are met with punishment, as well as the idea of a herd mentality and bystander apathy. What the author manages to do successfully is that she actually uses the names of historical figures to add to the underlying themes of the story. Some names include the Puritan spiritual advisor Anne Hutchinson, who is banished for speaking out against Christian beliefs and traditions, the founder of

Coulthard describes the attitude of the villagers like this: “the others are willing to risk their own lives for the sheer pleasure of an unpunished annual killing” (226). The fact that they are risking their lives for the lottery ritual pushes the nature of it from simple meanness to sadistic malice. The failure to remember the real reason for the ritual has caused this shift in human nature and motive. The ritual of the lottery should have been discontinued at this point because no real reason exists for it.

    "The Lottery," a short story written by Shirley Jackson, is a tale about a disturbing social practice.  The setting takes place in a small village consisting of about three hundred denizens.  On June twenty-seventh of every year, the members of this traditional community hold a village-wide lottery in which everyone is expected to participate.  Throughout the story, the reader gets an odd feeling regarding the residents and their annual practice.  Not until the end does he or she gets to know what the lottery is about.  Thus, from the beginning of the story until almost the end, there is an overwhelming sense that something terrible is about to happen due to the Jackson's effective

Andrew Lansley once said “Peer pressure and social norms are powerful influences on behavior, and they are classic excuses.” Most people tend to follow cultural customs because they have grown with them or it has been forced onto them with factors such as parents or their environment. However, is it always right to follow these customs even if they are in fact considered wrong? Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery” is a short story about the cultural norms of a small community and its annual lottery ritual; a stoning. Jackson overthrows the story by making the lottery a corrupt occurrence rather than a victory. The reader would probably think that the “winner” of the lottery would be benefited but in this case the victory was not so delightful. In her short story “The Lottery” Jackson seemingly uses ordinary details about the setting and the townspeople to characterize her theme that although society claims to be civilized, and may appear so, it is inherently barbaric.

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.

Tradition is a large part of life today, but decades ago it was almost a way of life and if it was not followed there were stiff consequences. The story is misleading by the title because of the normal thought of a lottery is something positive or a giveaway. The story is quite the opposite of the common thought. The main point that Jackson shows in “The Lottery” is that people can be involved with such a violent act and think nothing of it. In the story all the people are happy, “they stood together, away from the pile of stones in the corner, and their jokes were quiet and they smiled rather than laughed.”(Jackson 124). The tradition the village seams at first to be a happy scene, but later learn that it is a terrible event that is a

"It isn't fair, it isn't right, Mrs. Hutchinson screamed, and then they were upon her" (Jackson). Shirley Jackson's “The Lottery” is brimming with illustrations of how thoughtless repetition dilutes foundations that were once rock solid. The traditions of the village in the story lead to the stoning to death of one of the residents on a yearly basis. The people were not so clear as to how, when, or why this took place every year; however, this did not stop them from continuing with an encore. The limited view they had on life and of growth was the road block that prevented any major change. Traditions can overcome society's better judgement.

The villagers in Jackson’s The Lottery may have found some of the rituals of the tradition irrelevant and either absolutely rejected them or let them lapse completely. The villagers have continued an annual tradition without keeping, knowing or caring about the rituals. This is shown in two passages in the story, the first being, “Although the villagers had forgotten the ritual and lost the original black box…” (Jackson). The essential fact that the original black box was lost shows that this tradition of the lottery is not as important to them as it was to past generations. The second passage clearly shows that the villagers have slowly over generations grown less devoted to the tradition.

This is proven when it is said in the story that the other villages have stopped the lottery Old Man Warner says “Nothing but trouble in that,” then he continues to say, “Pack of young fools.” (Jackson 423). After this small interruption the lottery continues as normal. This small comment by Old Man Warner, who claims to have been in the lottery seventy-seven times, strongly points that this village is too proud of their old traditions to abandon its ways. It should also be noted that the village appears extremely judgmental when Mrs. Hutchinson hurries to appear at the lottery she is met by Mrs. Delacroix. After her many excuses such as “Clean forgot what day it was… Thought my old man was out back stacking wood,” (Jackson 421) Mrs. Hutchinson walks to the front of the crowd. While she does this, it is said that there are murmurs in the congregation about her attending after all. When this is said the reader feels doubt and judgment looming in the air. With traditional pride and judgmental villagers, it would definitely be unimaginably embarrassing if a villager proposed to end the lottery and was refused. Perhaps the pride of the villagers is bigger than their perspective of

The “Lottery” is a horrible example of the influence of an ancient civic ritual of a society, which is so great that it eradicates all forms of cognitive senses of society’s members. The townspeople have accepted human sacrifice as a part of their lives. It has been a tradition for a very long time and the town keeps it

Some may argue that the lottery was always this sick and twisted act of brutality. However, through old man Warner, we get a little insight on the purpose of the lottery in the past. During his rant about keeping the lottery, he exclaims “nothing but trouble in that” and “next thing you know, they’ll be wanting to go back to living in caves, nobody work anymore, live that way for a while” (Jackson, 246). With this we are given clues that originally, this ritual was designed as a way to punish deviant behavior and to keep the community in order, promoting a lifestyle of being a productive member of society. However, as the town became developed, there became no need, and the tradition transformed into what it was in the story. Even old man Warner states “It’s not the way it used to be” (Jackson, 248). Another aspect that supports this is the fact that no one sees the wrong in the lottery. Even with Mrs. Hutchinson, she appeared to be all in favor of the lottery until the odds were no longer in her favor (Jackson,

In the lottery by Shirley Jackson, One prevalent theme is Tradition.  In the beginning the village lottery culminates in a violent murder each year. Later everyone seems minded with a funny black box, and the lottery consists of little more than hand made slips of paper. This being said in the story traditions brings generations and families together. However, traditions practiced by the villagers of an unknown small town, a tradition appears to be as vital to the villager as New Year celebrations might be to us. Finally, as you can see traditions are really good in real life because you can see generations happen and families getting together, Also in the story “The Lottery” has so many traditions because every year there’s a violent murder,

Should we lose our humanity just for the sake of tradition? In the short story The Lottery by Shirley Jackson, she portrays a small village where the citizens gather yearly to draw the lottery. Unlike typical lotteries, this would not be one you’d want to win. This story consists of many themes, a few symbols and a changing tone that help readers fully understand the depth of this story.

In the “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson, Jackson shows the lives of the people a village as they celebrate a traditional they the called lottery. This event would start with one person calling the last name of the head of the family(mainly males) until everyone draws with the person one with the winning ticket then the family redraw until one member of the family wins in which they will get stoned to death as it will bring good luck in the harvest. This belief of the following tradition is harming the community in the long run. The characters of the story should change the follow their tradition as every character does not know why they follow their tradition.

In Shirley Jackson’s story “The Lottery,” the symbolism, tone, and irony portray the author’s perspective on the theme of transitioning from old traditions. The black box in “The Lottery” symbolized an illogical loyalty to an old tradition, how quickly family and friends can turn on a person, and the mindless killings of innocent people. From the reader’s point of view, the tradition of the lottery is absurd and irrational, but for the citizens in the town, the tradition was all they had ever known. They saw it as a way of life. Even when it was said that people in the North were thinking of getting rid of the lottery, the people in the town would not hear any of it. “Old Man Warner snorted. ‘Pack of crazy fools,’ he said. ‘Listening to the young folks…’” (Jackson, 254). It was not coincidental that the person who made this statement was Old Man Warner. The author might have wanted to symbolize that the older that people get the more they get stuck in their ways and less open for change. Another absurdity of the lottery was that people cared more about keeping the tradition than watching their family and friends be stoned to death. Tessie Hutchinson, for example, seemed to be a popular member of the town because of how the people responded good-humoredly to her. Even with her popularity, her friends and family still had no qualms with stoning her to death. “Mrs. Delacroix selected a stone so large she had to pick it up with both hands…” (Jackson, 256). From the