preview

The Lottery Shirley Jackson Analysis

Decent Essays
Should tradition be a rational for committing irrational actions in life? In Shirley Jackson's story "The Lottery", Shirley Jackson really poses the question of whether or not tradition should be a rational for committing irrational actions in life and emphasizes the point of traditions potential effect of controlling one's actions on the basis of whatever traditions that a person values. "The Lottery" is a story where the day starts out as a nice day, but at the end of the day, the result of the outcome of the village's lottery is that the villages society stones Tessie to death in regards to the village's tradition. Jackson did not like the lottery along with its outcome and there are many different ways that Jackson presents that. Overall, the ways that Jackson shows her dislike of the Lottery is by the tone she uses, her character description and by the symbols she uses.

One way Jackson shows her dislike of the lottery and its outcome is the tone she uses. The tone that she uses is a negative tone. Irrationality is a key component outlining Jackson negative tone of tradition that plays a major role in people's actions. An example is when "the women came shortly after [the] menfolk"(Jackson 2). That shows the key component of irrationality since that statement is referring to the status of men being superior to women by the women going to the traditional event of the lottery, right after the men. Furthermore, that statement shows dislike towards the lottery
Get Access