The Lottery By Shirley Jackson

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 The story reveals how traditions can become outdated and ineffective.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

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.

«The lottery» is an allegory which was written by Shirley Jackson in 1948. In it, she used an irony to show how inane could be some traditions and people who essentially follow them. The lottery - is the ritual when all people from the small village crowd together and Mr. Summers, who enjoys devoting civic activities, organizes this event. He and his assistant make a small piece of paper and one of these has a black dot. They put it into the shabby black box, after Mr. Summers call head of household to determine who will «win» the lottery. But the winner should not be happy, because all other citizens will stone the winner to death. People do it annually, because they afraid that the harvest could be poor. Everyone must participate, regardless of gender and age. This short story contains a lot of different characters to explain how belief in something abnormal of previous generations can strongly affect traditions and consider morality.

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.

In “The Lottery” Shirley Jackson writes about the game lottery, which makes the story very ironic. Unlike all of the other Lottery games, in this traditional version no one wants to be chosen, because that brings them the end of their life. Jackson explains how keeping up with some traditions that are part of people’s life, may not be the best choice to embrace a particular culture. Jackson uses the Lottery as an example to express her idea about the ethical issues such as; violent murder, harming people, forcefully following a tradition, and lying. All of these ethical issues are created by blindly following tradition in “The Lottery.”

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.

In Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery”, we observe a community that is absorbed in their rituals and traditions. In this society, they feel bound to their traditions and are even willing to abandon some of humanity’s deepest morals. The basic question of right and wrong is presented as our morals are disregarded in Jackson’s tradition based society. Their past is what they look towards when regarding their future. This community feels tied to their fading tradition and refuses to evolve even when everyone around them is. Consequently, they have become numb to the acts they commit countless times. Every generation is ingrained with these ideals and are expected to never waver from them.

Could you imagine having your name pulled out of the lottery? It is everyone’s dream to hit that jackpot, and obtain any prize that is in store for them. What if the prize wasn’t cash or your dream boat? What if it entailed a city wide gathering in your name with the intentions of you getting stoned? That doesn’t seem like a dream come true. That is exactly what happens in the short story “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson. This horrific tale is about a mass city wide gathering where everyone participates in the ritualistic stoning of one of their citizens. This short story is the perfect example for learning about group violence, and is ideal for teaching children and teens a lesson in following the crowd. However, during the time period it was created, “The Lottery” was not accepted well by its readers. Because of its geographical reference and time period, “The Lottery” has become one of the most controversial and influential short stories The New Yorker has ever published.

In The Lottery, Shirley Jackson reveals that people follow traditions without knowing the reason or origin of the tradition. Religion and racism are two beliefs that people acquire from previous generations. Jackson’s purpose in writing The Lottery was to compel readers to think about why they follow their traditions. Most religious customs are not harmful, but the disturbing practice in the village draws the reader's attention. The theme that people follow traditions and beliefs of their ancestors without question can be explained through The Lottery’s setting, characters, and symbolisms.

Today’s American Literature tends to put more of a realistic tone to writing than in previous time periods. Writers point out what society as a whole likes to pretend does not exist, and were often frowned upon for doing so. In Shirley Jacksons “The Lottery” she does exactly that by portraying themes like the inhumanity of violence and the tendency people have to follow traditions even when they do not agree with them. In a short biography about Jackson it says “The story was met with an avalanche of feedback, including hate mail and cancelled subscriptions. Many folks interpreted the story as an attack on the values of small towns America” (“The Shirley Jackson Page at American Literature”). This negative reaction is how most people

Shirley Jackson was a master of modern gothic fiction and wrote of the essentially evil nature of human beings. The major focus of her work is to emphasize the psychological dimension of experience and the absolute isolation of a human. Shirley Jackson also believes and suggests that humanity must continue to try to define its own reality, and strive to survive with nobility. Her most famous piece of work “The Lottery,” depicts the cruelty and brutality of humanity in the mass and insensitivity of individuals to the suffering of society’s victim. Although “The Lottery” was widely criticized and was quite “disturbing” at the time it was released, it helped Shirley Jackson path her success in the horror fiction world. No matter how different and violent Shirley Jackson’s writing style was at her time, she is one of the most critically acclaimed authors of horror fiction because of her ability to successfully use different literary elements in her stories.

General inhumanity and violence typically manifests itself in an extensive, controversial manner such as the Holocaust, World War II, and the enslavement of African Americans. However, atrocities and brutality invade the life of an everyday individual in a more inconspicuous manner that may be overlooked or not considered unjust behavior against their fellow man. Shirley Jackson, author of literary classic The Lottery, begins by describing what appears to be a pleasant, summer day in a quaint English village. The villagers gather for their yearly humdrum lottery in which tradition entails each of them to participate. After each head of the household has drawn for their respective family from a shabby black box and the winner is announced, the villagers proceed to stone their likable neighbor, Tessie Hutchinson, to death and partake in ritualistic murder. Since published in 1948, the sinister short story has continued to stir up eerie feelings amongst readers. Although Jackson holds off until the conclusion to unravel the true purpose behind the uncanny lottery, the story sends a blatant message, blind adherence towards tradition or social order reveal the darker side of human nature. Shirley Jackson tactfully combined style, tone, and symbolism to create a chilling dramatization of conformity unhinged.

Tradition is defined as the passing down of an act or belief from generation to generation. Different traditions are found in every society, culture, location, and family. Usually, when one hears the word ‘tradition’ they think of family gatherings, unique cuisine or other pleasant festivities. However, the townspeople in the story “The Lottery” may have a different connotation for the word. In “The Lottery”, the town in which the story takes place has a random drawing on the twenty-seventh of June every year to see who will be stoned by the rest of the villagers. Though this sounds cruel and unusual, the practice was a tradition of the village and of other surrounding villages as well. In this short story "The Lottery," Shirley Jackson, the author, uses symbolism to emphasize the absurdity in upholding some traditions.