The Lottery Ritual Analysis

“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 The story reveals how traditions can become outdated and ineffective.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

Almost every person in the world holds a set of traditions which have been established and practiced for a long period of time. However, some traditions often cause us to not see the rationality despite of the destructive nature it may have. In Shirley Jackson’s short story, “The Lottery”, a sacrifice of one’s life becomes the “jackpot” of an annual event held in a small town. This society’s traditions have caused the people to do away with their rational thoughts and the values of their lives as they have become so stuck in their own cultural beliefs.

Tradition; it is the back bone of every culture and civilization. It is what keeps the beliefs, philosophies, and activities of societies alive, to be passed down from generation to generation. However not all traditions are practiced with pure intentions.  Some activities become so routine, people don’t know a life outside of them. Societies become so accustomed to “tradition” that they will participate in pastimes without  questioning the ethics or morals of the situation. Ultimately when tradition takes the place of a rationalizing mind the outcome can be incredibly dangerous. The role of tradition is an underlying theme in the short story The Lottery by Shirley Jackson, forcing readers to ask themselves “At what point do

“The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson was written in 1948. The story takes place in a village square of a town on June 27th. The author does not use much emotion in the writing to show how the barbaric act that is going on is look at as normal. This story is about a town that has a lottery once a year to choose who should be sacrificed, so that the town will have a plentiful year for growing crops. Jackson has many messages about human nature in this short story. The most important message she conveys is how cruel and violent people can be to one another. Another very significant message she conveys is how custom and tradition can hold great power over people. Jackson also conveys the message of

Shirley Jackson's “The Lottery” is a short story about the annual gathering of the villagers to conduct an ancient ritual. The ritual ends in the stoning of one of the residents of this small village. This murder functions under the guise of a sacrament that, at one time, served the purpose of ensuring a bountiful harvest. This original meaning, however, is lost over the years and generations of villagers. The loss of meaning has changed the nature and overall purpose of the lottery. This ritual is no longer a humble sacrifice that serves the purpose of securing the harvest but instead is a ceremony of violence and murder only existing for the pleasure found in this violence.

How do our relationships with others define who we are? Others affect us greatly. The people who surround us everyday have a great impact on our own life. Friends and family are the people who create you, and are part of the reason of who you are today. For example, when there’s a new trend, or when someone says a mean comment, you might change something about you at one point or another. Who affects your life?

It is sad that misuse of rituals could lead people to death. “The Lottery” illustrates a rural town with small population doing a drawing yearly to pick one person and stone him (her) to death. People follow rituals to remember the elders or being moral; it’s not the way of

Despite the crudeness and evil of the Lottery, the village has established a set of elaborate rules that they follow to the letter right down to who is supposed to draw from the box and who is responsible for the families responsible. The village is also based on a Patriarchal system since teenage boys are given priority over their mothers when it comes to participation.

A penny for the dead? The definition of ritual, as defined by Webster’s Dictionary, “done as a part of a ceremony or ritual; always done in a particular situation and in the same way each time.” The relevance of rituals have played part in history including rituals with the dead, Indian ceremony rituals, and religious rituals. In the 21st century America, the roles of rituals have lessened and have become less of a common practice than of olden times. In The Lottery, the ritual of stoning the poor sap that “won” the Lottery is one that had been passed on from generation to generation. I believe that every culture has their own rituals that they believe play a significant role in their communities.

There are many things that people do every day without questioning why they do them. These are our habits and traditions, and though for the most part they are unimportant they can be a crucial part of our culture and our interactions with each other. Sometimes there are traditions that can cause harm or are morally unacceptable. What should be done in this case? Edmund Burke, a nineteenth century politician and author, argues that it is best to stick with tradition rather than causing dramatic changes in people’s behavior. This is a key component in his argument against the French Revolution in his essay “Reflections on the Revolution in France.” In this essay he argues that the revolution will only lead the

"The Lottery" by Shirley Jackson has many themes or message throughout its short story. It deals with blind faith, customs and traditions, the idea of scapegoat, the cruelty of human nature, crowd psychology, and even classic gender roles in many societies.

The Lottery by Shirley Jackson is a short story on people around the world having a drawing to be stoned. Jackson infers that The Lottery is not a collective murder because it is tradition, it is like going the the grocery store. It is normal to the people in The Lottery. The Lottery is a tradition. If they have laws, the laws are probably set up so that when the winner of the Lottery is killed nothing will happen because it is their tradition it is all they know how to do. Jackson made The Lottery a tradition so the laws were made to not have any negative effect on the tradition of the lottery.

Shirley Jackson's story, The Lottery is about a group of towns people who meet every year on the 27th of June. On this day a stoning takes place, as it washes away the sins of everyone that lived in the village. However, should the tradition of the stoning be changed when it becomes your time?

Displayed in the short story, “The Lottery”, author Shirley Jackson demonstrates the actions of a group of people who live with ways of tradition. Each year on June 27th, entire villages of people gather in the town square and each family pick a paper to determine which will continue the tradition of the lottery. The true intentions of this story is not fully revealed until the end, where the reader learns what the ‘lottery’ really is. As part of the tradition, the person who is unlucky enough to get the only paper with a black dot drawn on it is to be stoned to death by the remaining townspeople. When faced with the results of this tradition, hesitation is not shown by the people of the town as they pick up stones to kill the chosen person with.

“The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson is a story about a lottery that takes place in a growing village. The lottery is used to see who in the village will be killed. Readers will be shocked by this and wonder if these lotteries will end. In my opinion I think that eventually they will end. The lotteries will end if they forget the ritual or eventually decide to end it by their own accord.