Toxic Traditions In The Lottery

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 The story reveals how traditions can become outdated and ineffective.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

A lottery is a process that is entirely controlled by chance, whether there is loss or success is dependent on luck. “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson is a short story about a small town that holds an annual lottery. The lottery itself is an age long tradition that started so long ago the ritual had been mostly forgotten. The villages around them have shut down the lottery, because of how old and forgotten the lottery is. This shows how people will blindly follow tradition no matter the age of it.(Jackson, “Read The Lottery...”).

Tradition is a central theme in Shirley Jackon's short story The Lottery. Images such as the black box and characters such as Old Man Warner, Mrs. Adams, and Mrs. Hutchinson display to the reader not only the tenacity with which the townspeople cling to the tradition of the lottery, but also the wavering support of it by others. In just a few pages, Jackson manages to examine the sometimes long forgotten purpose of rituals, as well as the inevitable questioning of the necessity for such customs.

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, is a suspenseful story that begins on a pleasant morning in June, but it quickly shifts into a morbid display of tradition. The characters display a sudden change in loyalty to each other once one of the town member’s names is drawn from the “black box”. Through this action, along with several other vivid examples from the text, Jackson cultivates an underlying theme of hypocrisy and the evil of human nature.

Tessie had been against the lottery, non-verbally until her family was determined to have the winner of the lottery in it, at which point she would verbally announce that the Lottery was “unfair” though there was nothing unfair about it except that the winner should be killed in such a cruel way. While some may say that The Lottery is just a Story, it shows the negative side of conformity pretty

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.

Considering in the story, Tessie accepts the lottery that is taking place within her village. For instance in the story, Mrs. Hutchinson says, "[clean] forgot what day it was […] and they both laughed softly."(Jackson 28-29). In other words, Mrs. Hutchinson acted as though there was no lottery taking place as well as nobody dying momentarily, mainly because she accepted the fact somebody had to die to keep the village business going. Mrs. Hutchinson later on in the story says, "[Mr. Summers did not] give [Bill Hutchinson] time enough to take any paper he wanted." (Jackson 31). The viewer finds Mrs. Hutchinson's reaction very ironic because her attitude shifted because she felt like it is tolerable to let other people die, but when it comes to her being, she feels like she

Most people have some sort of tradition that they follow, be it a family tradition or a morning routine, while most are harmless or have some positive effect there are a few that exist that are negative. This could be made worse if one such negative tradition takes over their life. In “The Lottery” the townsfolk gather for what at first seems like a harmless, fun tradition, a yearly lottery. But, as the story progresses it becomes apparent that there is more going on that first meets the eye. Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery” uses symbolism to show the theme: tradition isn’t always right, dialogue to get readers predicting and start to reveal the sinister nature of what was really going on in the story, and revealing actions to raise the

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.

The townspeople believed they earned the right to murder a member of their community because they were all at risk to be the victim. Mrs. Graves claimed, “All of us took the same chance.” Although, the lottery unified the community through an adhesiveness to tradition, the divisive tradition destroyed families and slowly killed off members of the community. When Tessie arrived, her neighbor, Mrs. Delacroix, greeted her and engaged in a friendly conversation. As Tessie moved toward her husband a slight cheer and laughter emerged from the crowd. Jackson wrote, “The people separated good-humoredly to let her through…” Mrs. Hutchinson even grinned and joked, “Wouldn’t have me leave m’dishes in the sink, now, would you, Joe?” and a soft laugh rang out. However, the crowd became very defensive when Tessie Hutchinson claimed her husband didn’t have enough time to draw, and insisted it wasn’t fair. Earlier though, she hurried him by calling out, “Get up there, Bill.” When the Hutchinson family was announced the winner Tessie panicked and was soon distraught. When Mr. Summers asked if there were any other households in the Hutchinsons, Tessie exclaimed, “There’s Don and Eva. Make them take their chance.” Tessie desperately offered her daughter and son in law in an attempt to

The author of “The Lottery,” Shirley Jackson, creates suspense and tension to convey dramatic irony. In a person’s life, a lottery, or raffle, is thought of something fair, because sometimes, you win prizes or money. This would be the raffle that you do NOT want to win. In Jackson’s short story, it is not about what the townspeople win, but it is about what is lost. I would have to say that the theme of this story would be “Not all traditions are always good.”

In Shirley Jackson’s, “The Lottery”, tells the story of a small town that gathers once a year to do a lottery. This isn’t your typical lottery. In this lottery the winner loses instead of winning. The winner is stoned to death as a part of “tradition”. The town people blindly follow this tradition and are unwilling to change. Tradition is one of the main themes in this story and it should be left alone.

    Often, we paint a fairytale view of life for ourselves and our children. Sometimes, an author paints a frightfully realistic picture of life and forces us to reconsider the fairytale. In Shirley Jackson’s story, "The Lottery," a town each year conducts a lottery in which the winner or looser, in this case, is stoned to death by his or her own neighbors. The tradition is supposed to uphold social structure within the town, but in order to comprehend the true meaning of the story you must be able to read between the lines. "The Lottery" is a story about a town that has let its traditions go too far. Also, it is clear that the story contains eye-opening facts that lead me to