The Lottery, By Shirley Jackson

Have you ever wondered why we do all the traditions we do each day? Why do we eat turkey for Thanksgiving, give gifts for Christmas, or find eggs for Easter? In The Giver, a fiction novel by Lois Lowry, a community forces its citizens to be the same, while the villagers don’t know why. In “The Lottery”, a short story by Shirley Jackson, a town is practicing a tradition called The Lottery, which involves killing one of the townsfolk. Therefore, The Giver by Lois Lowry and "The Lottery" by Shirley Jackson reveal a common theme of citizens not questioning harmful traditions for no reason other than because the traditions have been around for so long.

Traditions are in every family, friendship, community, religion, and culture. Shirley Jackson’s short story “The Lottery” teaches aspects of traditions and raises questions about whether keeping traditions is good or bad if they harm society. Throughout Jackson’s short story, traditions are displayed by deeply looking at the mirroring of archetypal plot patterns, and symbols.

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.

Shirley Jackson wrote a short story called "The Lottery". It was about small village and its village people of roughly around 300 people and every year they have a tradition where all the townspeople gather around a black box and have to pull a piece of paper out to see what family was to draw again. Then once the family was picked they had to put as many pieces of paper in the box as they have in their family and do it all over again. Once every family member picked out of the box, they had to open and see who go the paper with the black dot. The family member with the paper with the black dot was to be stoned.People all over the world follow traditions, but the real questions is do they know the meaning behind the tradition.

The Lottery, a ritual that no one has ever thought to question, which represents any action, behavior, or idea that is passed down from one generation to the next that’s accepted and followed unquestioningly, no matter how illogical, strange, or cruel. “The oldest denizen of the town, Old Man Warner, points out that this is his seventy-seventh year participating in the ritual, called simply the lottery.”(Dubose 1) The “Lottery” is so much a part of the town’s culture, that the townspeople does not truly know what the tradition means but rejoice at the it nonetheless. That is the force that drove the theme In Shirley Jackson’s the “Lottery” with her use of setting, symbolism, suspense, and characters as she exemplifies blindly following tradition with obedience can be dangerous. The lottery is an extreme example of what can happen when traditions are not questioned or addressed critically by new generations because of the infamous word tradition.

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.

“The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson artfully uses foreshadowing in order to build suspense and create a shocking ending. Jackson’s success in “The Lottery” comes from her ability to keep the reader in the dark about the evils, until the very end. She has masterfully set up what the reader believes as a pleasant event. But, it is not until the ending, can the reader see the foreshadowing of the evils to come. Through the use of foreshadowing, Jackson is able to contribute to the story 's overall effect of suspense and a shocking ending.

“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 short story taking place on June 27th in “the square, between the post office and the bank” (Jackson 419). In the story, the villagers are gathering together for their annual lottery drawing. The lottery is a tradition in which the surrounding towns have committed to participate in. The lottery’s winner is based upon a person who draws the slip of paper with the dark spot. The winner is murdered by the rest of the town members. In “The Lottery,” Jackson provides many symbols to prove the theme, traditions and customs, is a huge part of the villagers’ lives.

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,

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.

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.

When a person thinks of the lottery they think of something good. They fantasize about all of the luxurious things they can now afford, and moving into a fancy new neighborhood. While playing games, there is a winner and a loser. The Hunger Games and “The Lottery” certainly include both. When some people play the lottery they gamble away their life’s savings with hopes of winning three or four times as much as they own. The lottery in this case is more of a death pool. Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery” shares infinite similarities with Suzanne Collins trilogy The Hunger Games.

When I was a child, I listened to and followed the traditions of my parents. I never questioned it; I blindly followed along. As an adult, I understand that some traditions passed down from generation to generation are important; however, for traditions that do not make sense to me, I chose not to pass to the next generation. In the short story “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson, the characters blindly follow a tradition that no one is certain how started but continue anyway. The purpose of the lottery in the story is to decided who in the town will be stoned to death because they believe it will ensure a fertile growing season. We do not know the year in which the story takes place, but we do know that some of the surrounding towns and communities are also participating in the lottery, and that some of the other towns have chosen to discontinue it. While some believe that the traditions passed down from their elders should be honored and carried out blindly, others think that some traditions that don’t make sense need to be stopped. Just like in Jackson’s “The Lottery” the ideology of blindly following traditions can have an adverse effect on society.

“The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson is a short story where a small town in New England has a lottery. The small town has their annual lottery around June which have been practiced for over seventy years. This lottery is not your regular lottery, this one consists of drawing slips. Slips are small white papers that holds every family’s name that lives in the village and only one of those slips have a black dot in the middle, whoever gets the slip with the black dot is stoned to death. Shirley Jackson uses symbolism all throughout the story to criticize tradition by the setting of the story, the characters' names, and the objects. The Setting of “The Lottery” is mentioned in the beginning of the story, “The morning of June 27th was clear and sunny,