Tradition And Tradition In Shirley Jackson's The Lottery

This story is set in a small town on the morning of June 27 The story begins with the townspeople gathering in the town square to carry out a lottery. Shirley Jackson loves to use foreshadowing throughout

    "The Lottery," a short story written by Shirley Jackson, is a tale about a disturbing social practice.  The setting takes place in a small village consisting of about three hundred denizens.  On June twenty-seventh of every year, the members of this traditional community hold a village-wide lottery in which everyone is expected to participate.  Throughout the story, the reader gets an odd feeling regarding the residents and their annual practice.  Not until the end does he or she gets to know what the lottery is about.  Thus, from the beginning of the story until almost the end, there is an overwhelming sense that something terrible is about to happen due to the Jackson's effective

Would you stone your neighborhood to death for the sake of tradition? Shirley Jackson wrote The Lottery in 1948 to tell a story about how savage people can be for tradition. The story is about a small town who has a yearly lottery and the winner gets stoned to death by their neighbors. The thought is that if you have a lottery, then you will have good crops that season. This short story tells the tale of poor Tessie Hutchinson who is stoned by her own town, her son helps too. In the short story The Lottery, Shirley Jackson argues that all people, regardless of how civilized they may seem, are capable of great evil by contrasting seemingly pleasant and relatable details of the town with the shocking barbarity of their tradition.

Traditions have been a part of our world's culture for years and years and they still shape the way we live our lives today. Whether its goofy football fanatics waving “lucky” rally towels or even the way our nation’s political system is run, traditions play a role in every aspect of life. However, Shirley Jackson presents a peculiar view on how traditions can affect society as time passes in her short story “The Lottery”. Through the community that Jackson creates, and the act of the lottery itself. We get to see how traditions can change and how details fade away. When this happens, traditions in a sense wear out its welcome and become something that no longer serves the purpose of what it was originally intended.

This the description before the lottery staring .Through this description, can seemly see that the lottery is not a simple event hold in this village, it must be a big event. And the lottery is also a event that rich people also care about.

Shirley Jackson?s insights and observations about society are reflected in her shocking and disturbing short story The Lottery. Jackson reveals two general attitudes in this story: first is the shocking tendency for societies to select a scapegoat and second is the idea that communities are victims of social tradition and rituals.

In the words of the famous American author Matthew Scully, “Sometimes tradition and habit are just that, comfortable excuses to leave things be, even when they are unjust and unworthy. Sometimes--not often, but sometimes--the cranks and radicals turn out to be right. Sometimes Everyone is wrong” (Scully). Over time, people's repeated behavior of practicing tradition evolves into a habit. Tradition can be unjustified; however, society reverts to their habitual nature for justification when confronted with an argument.

The Lottery has a lot of different arguments that can be made but the tradition of the ceremony is a huge factor. In Jackson's story, the townspeople are blind to the profound effect of tradition upon their lives as demonstrated by the tradition, the black box, and old man Warner.

Sometimes when a certain group of people have a tradition, no matter what the tradition is, they follow it. They don’t know how it started or who started it, which is the main reason why that is a tradition. For example, why is turkey the main food at Thanksgiving dinners? Why not other meats like, beef, or lamb? We follow this tradition every year because that's how it's always been.

This insightful story by Shirley Jackson has a satirical spin, leaving the reader with abounding questions, yet it sends off a calm, but still apprehensive atmosphere. "The Lottery" starts off with a seemingly calm village, explaining the meaning of this lottery and how the population prepares for it; giving the impression of this event being harmless and blithe. From the middle to the end of the story, it begins to give off the dark side of this piece, for sundry characters are seen solicitous and frantic about what will actually happen between the families and the lottery. Therefore, Shirley Jackson creates an ironic twist throughout the story "The Lottery" by using plot, characterization and theme.

When one thinks of the word tradition, the thought that often comes to mind is a positive one, such as the thought of Christmas dinner at grandma's house or church on Easter Sunday. Most of these traditions we follow blindly, meaning that it is just something we do even if we do not remember why. According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, a tradition is “an inherited, established, or customary pattern of thought or action” (757). Since it is inherited, we do not really have a say in receiving it or not. It is expected that we continue the tradition because that’s what our ancestors have done. While following a long line of tradition can be truly great, when the reason for the tradition becomes blurred it can become harmful. In Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery,” blindness can be undesirable when following a tradition and can make that tradition dangerous.

The story of “the lottery” was happened in a tradition in a small village. It was an event that only happen each year. Jackson wrote the story begins with sunny weather in one day of one summer in a small village. The villagers are beginning to gather in the village square for the annual “lottery”. The head of each household, generally male, goes to

The Lottery is a short story written by Shirley Jackson and published in 1948. The story takes place in a small, rural town with a population of 300 people. The main focus of the plot is on a tradition that the entire village hosts annually, which is a lottery contest. Normally, a lottery presents a chance for the participants to win a desirable prize, but in this scenario, the winner is instead rewarded with the gruesome misfortune of being stoned by all the residents. The village tradition is one that is celebrated without clear reason.

According to Webster’s dictionary, tradition is defined as the belief of doing something that has been part of a culture for quite a long time. There are some traditions people follow that have very dark and unhealthy practices. Could it be possible for someone to be blinded by their traditions and not be able to tell what’s right and what’s wrong?

Who would not want to win a lottery? When you read the title of the short story “The Lottery”, you would think that it is about winning a large amount of money. Shirley Jackson’s short story “The Lottery” was published in 1948 and the short story has a very different way of playing lottery. In this short story, tradition plays a big role and you can ask yourself the question: Would you follow a tradition blindly or would you stand against the authority?