The Lottery by Shirley Jackson

Lotto of Irony A normal town, a normal day, an abnormal event. In “The Lottery”, Shirley Jackson shows the reader the consequences of blindly following tradition. To support this theme, Jackson utilizes dramatic irony to sway the reader to think in certain ways. The best examples of this would be the title of the story, the mood of the village, and the name of the lottery's caretaker. “The Lottery”; what does the reader think when they first hear the name?

Throughout the work of Langston Hughes, and the documentary film, “The Lottery”, you find many similarities, and differences from today’s society and acceptance of black Americans. In today’s society these works and many others of the Harlem Renaissance era still hold true, but the most important is the African Americans reliance on God.

In today’s society we often have an all too-casual attitude toward misfortune; Jackson shows us this aspect of human nature through the town’s casual attitude toward the lottery. The men talk of "rain, tractors and taxes" and the women gossip—all the time

Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery” is a story littered with warnings and subtext about the dangers a submissive society can pose. While the opening is deceptively cheery and light Jackson uses an array of symbols and ominous syntax to help create the apprehensive and grim tone the story ends with. Her portrayal of the town folk as blindly following tradition represents the world during World War II when people’s failure to not mindlessly accept and heed authority lead to disastrous consequences. . Shirley Jackson uses a large array of techniques to help convey the idea that recklessly following and accepting traditions and orders can lead to disastrous consequences.

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.

Culture and history have always remained an important influence on literature. It can be both cruel and inspiring in their own ways. Jackson’s “The Lottery” can also be seen in this context. Culture is a powerful influence in people’s lives which are bound by traditions and customs. The author uses numerous symbols to portray the worst flaws of human creatures. She uses names, mostly symbols to show the ignorance of sacrificial lottery. The sacrifices which used to satisfy the god of harvest, have no meaning to their culture. However, The Lottery does not only represent tradition. It serves a fear in the villagers that if they rebel against the social rules, they might be selected for the next lottery. The author is showing how a person would rather sacrifice their own

“The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson is a story filled with sunny weather and boisterous play and a town filled with a what seems like a burden--a lottery to see who will be the one to leave their town and the Earth forever. For many people, this story is dark, compelling, and mind boggling, yet it also feels that it gives a warning to humanity and to the entire face of the Earth. I believe that Shirley Jackson is warning us about what humanity is capable of doing, and how people conform blindly to society’s expectations. Throughout the story, many signs of this is shown from the year the story was written to the very last sentence.

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.

I believe that the people in the story continue this gruesome tradition every year because they believe the sacrificing of a human being for the crops to grow and they’ve become deceptive of the tradition. On page 26 it states, “Soon the men began to gather, surveying their own children, speaking of planting and rain, tractors and taxes.” Based on this sentence we can infer that the men’s speaking of planting, rain, and tractors that these villagers are probably farmers. In the story old man Warner also quotes, “Used to be a saying about 'Lottery in June, corn be heavy soon.' First thing you know, we'd all be eating stewed chickweed and acorns. There's always been a lottery.” It clearly states that they believed if the lottery happened in June

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.

Human nature is to often follow the common crowd, this nature too many times leads to violence because people get too set in their ways and don’t try to change them. This is a point the reader may think Shirley Jackson is trying to make in “The Lottery.”the “Lottery”.

Two stories that correlate the best with each other are “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson and “Those Who Walk Away From Omelas” by Ursula Le Guin. In “The Lottery” all the people of this one town get together in the middle of the square to pick someone for the lottery. Every household gets one piece of paper from a black box that has only one black spotted paper. If the paper has a black spot, that household is to put the black spot and however many more people are in that family into the box. Then, the family chooses. The family member with the black spot gets stoned to death by the towns’ people. Tessie Hutchinson was the one that was chosen in “The Lottery”. Similarly in, “Those Who Walk Away From Omelas” the entire town knows a young child is being kept in a basement with very low standards. The children of this town find out about the child when they are eight to twelve. Some of the young people decide that they cannot live in a place where this is going on, so they leave Omelas and never return. In these stories, the community uses a scapegoat to be used by the others to make horrific scenes.

Stonings have been around for centuries, it is something I heard about as a child in Sunday school, something I thought was done in the past and not today. Stonings are alive to this day mostly in the middle east. more often than not women are stoned more than men. Convictions in Iran are based on witness testimony, judge conviction or confession; friends, family, neighbors and any other volunteers may participate in the stoning of a victim. Stoning is a horrific way to die, sometimes taking up to two hours to kill the victim. In the story “The Lottery” author Shirley Jackson has the towns people of the story stone one of their own as a sacrifice while in the middle east people are stoned as a punishment for “crime” this act of capital punishment is barbaric and should be banned.

Would it feel good to the win the lottery? When people win the lottery, they are filled with excitement and joy, but this lottery is one that people would rather have no chance of winning. In Shirley Jackson’s short story “The Lottery” the members of a small town gather each year to hold a special event to see what “lucky” towns member will win the annual lottery. Each year the families of the town meet in the square and the head of each household draws a slip of paper to determine which family wins the “lottery.” The Hutchinson family has chosen the winning slip of paper and then the family draws amongst themselves to find the sole winner of the lottery. The short story, “The Lottery” begins with a beautiful day and all of the town members joking and laughing, but the actual dark meaning slowly starts to be revealed. “The Lottery” uses a joyful tone to show how people can become accustomed to a particular lifestyle, along with irony, the use of hidden symbols and foreshadowing to hint at the outcome of the story.

The lottery could have served some purpose that no longer needs serving. A perfect example is a game played by school children called pass-it-on. A message is whispered in one child’s ear, and then whispered to the next child and the next and so on, by the time it gets to the last child the message is completely different from what the first child heard.