Tradition Depicted In The Lottery, By Shirley Jackson

there is quiet conversation between friends. Mr. Summers, who runs the lottery, arrives with a black box. The original box was lost many years ago, even before Old Man Warner, the oldest person in the village, can remember. Each year Mr. Summers suggests that they make a new box, but no one is willing to go against tradition. The people were willing to use slips of paper instead of woodchips as markers, as the village had grown too large for the wood chips to fit in the box. A list of all the families and households in the village is made, and several matters of who will draw for each family are decided. Mr. Summers is sworn in as the official of the lottery in a specific ceremony. Some people remember that there used to be a song and salute as part of the ceremony, but these are no longer performed. Tessie Hutchinson arrives in the square late because she has forgotten what day it was. She joins her husband and children before the lottery can begin. Mr. Summers explains the lottery’s rules: each family will be called up to the box and draw a slip of paper. One of the villagers tells Old Man Warner that the people of a nearby village are thinking about ending the lottery. Old Man Warner laughs at the idea. He believes that giving up the lottery would cause nothing but trouble, and a loss of civilized behavior. A woman responds that some places have already given up the lottery. Everyone finishes drawing, and each

The people of the town were so unbendable when it came to their humble tradition that they did not even bother to question the reasoning behind the tradition. All they needed--perhaps all they wanted--was the comforting assurance that it had been around for a long time and would continue to be as long as they lived. People are far less willing to break traditions that have established themselves than traditions that have just begun. It is as if longevity is placed upon a golden pedestal, unable to be touched by the hands of human beings. It is a mandatory fact of human existence that the status quo must be questioned, for the majority of eminent men in centuries past have said or done things which no one will now justify. The villagers should have questioned the beliefs of their town in order to rectify the wrongs of years past.

“Their jokes were quiet and they smiled rather than laughed.” (1) Jokes are supposed to be amusing, funny and full of joy. Why are the villagers not excited for the lottery? This makes the reader feel like something is preventing them from being joyful. “The villagers kept their distance, leaving space between themselves and the stool. When Mr. Summers said, ‘some of you fellows want to give me a hand?’ there was a hesitation before two men.” (1) Why are the villagers avoiding the box with the winning lottery ticket in it? For the villagers to refuse to help Mr. Summer's is surprising because the lottery is usually what everyone want to be a part

There are several details given about the villagers’ tradition. It’s not the same tradition as it was a long time ago. For instance, numerous objects that are used in the original tradition are lost or renewed and/or replaced. The narrator tells that “Because so much of the ritual had been forgotten or discarded, Mr. Summers had been

How can the villagers kill a person they know for a long time every single year just because of a silly tradition that has been alive for generations? It is pretty bizarre how the villagers still cope with traditions that can kill themselves any year. Almost everyone who participated in this lottery was extremely nervous showing their fear of death. A tall boy in this crowd drew for his mother and him, he risked his life with a higher chance of getting killed. This shows the love he has for his mother. Mr. Summer said “Glad to see your mother’s got a man to do it”, foreshadowing the death of the tall boy’s father. The tall boy might have thrown pebbles on his father, leading to his demise and a tough future for

In that village there is an old man who was so committed to their belief that they follow about, therefore he fears that the villagers will return to primitive time and stop following the ritual of the lottery. The family has the bond that is a significant part of the lottery because they are so against one another. In that village through the lottery family stand together in a group, and every family member is required to present there if not then they are not obeying the tradition correctly. Head of the family first gets the chance to take the paper and rest of them follow. The family relationship is essential to living, it meant to support us, protect us, love and understand us. The family relationship is meant to protect us from external influences and help us to make better decisions after all family is the one who promotes our inner growth and supports us. When

The village seems rather uncivilized and immoral in contrast to the modern, Western world. Their ritual stoning of an innocent person shocks the reader and immediately changes our perspective on the village. Jackson doesn’t clarify the purpose of the lottery, but Old Man Warner mentions that there “‘[u]sed to be a saying about “Lottery in June, corn be heavy soon”’” (Jackson 4). From this saying, we can deduce that the villagers once believed that a

One can understand how traditions are easily lost through the handing down of information, beliefs, and customs by word of mouth or by example from one generation to another. Traditions that lose their meaning due to human forgetfulness can cause dreadful consequences to occur. Although "the villagers had forgotten the ritual and lost the original box, they still remembered to use stones" to kill the forgetful woman.

Their quest to hunt and kill the other led to nothing of importance or progression, they became trapped in peril as the force of mother nature became a bigger conflict than their ultimate enemy. In The Lottery the characters are emotionless towards others, they feel no empathy or remorse. As Tessie was put to death the characters remained calm, sort of relieved it wasn’t them on the other side of the pebbles being put to death by the “community” because of a draw. Even Tessie Hutchinson wasn’t one to complain before her fate of being stoned to death had become reality. After it was her who was chosen, she objected the tradition. The villagers are narcissistic and completely oblivious to the transgressive June 27th tradition. This is a direct insight into how people in our real world operate. We only seek action and justice once the problem begins to affect us firsthand. The lack of empathy prevents us from creating an amicable world.

In the film “The Lottery” we are shown just how much the villagers have been desensitized to the idea of killing one of their own for the sake of tradition. The initial scenes show children light-heartedly gathering stones about the town. They giggle and joke with each other while collecting an arsenal. A group of men nearby engage in their own jokes and small talk, as if it was just another day. The most remarkable exchange occurs between the eventual victim, who almost missed her date with destiny while washing her dishes and the head of the lottery. Banter exchanged between the two and there were actually chuckles throughout

After the first few years it happens, it becomes a tradition, so people will think that is what the town should do. Each year a person dies from this said "tradition" and it could lead to more than just one death a year. Here is a quote from the story, "it isn't fair, it isn't right," this comes from Tessie Hutchinson. She is the women that is about to die from all the rocks thrown at her. Now, her friends might think "oh no!" Her life is gone and so is mine. So she might kill herself. So think about it this way, more people dying or less people

Another theme that is explored in this story deals with the idea of scapegoat. Many ancient civilizations used to perform a ritual where a human and animal were sacrificed to god in a hope that it removes the evil of the entire society. Sacrificing the person or animal was supposed to bring prosperity and happiness to the society. The same concept is used in this story. Every year, an innocent person is stoned to death by the villagers in a hope that it will flourish the crops. They don’t care who that person is. The whole village immediately turns against that person who picks the paper with a black spot on it. Even children aren’t spared. The year when

Usually, when living in a small town, the townspeople always have something in common, which is hope. For the villagers in this story, they have no hope left. The land was so little that mothers “fear that the wind would carry off their children.” Villagers live in “twenty-odd wooden houses” and they had “stone courtyards”

One aspect of human nature that is examined, and that adds to the effectiveness of the story, is man's tendency to resist change. This is shown in more than one way. The first way is the way some villagers tolerate the lottery even though they know it is wrong, and it serves no purpose. They talk about how other towns have already stopped having

Coulthard describes the attitude of the villagers like this: “the others are willing to risk their own lives for the sheer pleasure of an unpunished annual killing” (226). The fact that they are risking their lives for the lottery ritual pushes the nature of it from simple meanness to sadistic malice. The failure to remember the real reason for the ritual has caused this shift in human nature and motive. The ritual of the lottery should have been discontinued at this point because no real reason exists for it.