Tradition In Shirley Jackson's The Lottery

And now it becomes meaningless, and they are just blindly following the tradition that they have always done. Old Man Warner is the oldest person in the town and have been a part of the lottery for seventy-seven years. He is the only one that strongly believes that the lottery is a good thing and they should never stop doing it. Old Man Warner says, “[There] 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.” (52) Old Man Warner talks about how the lottery correlates to the presence of more corn crops, and he strongly states that without the lottery, they would be eating chickweed and acorns. This is probably the original reason for why they started the lottery, it was to have good crops. Old Man Warner is the only one who truly cares about the lottery, the other villagers just do it to follow their tradition. Old Man Warner thinks that “nothing’s good enough for [the people who have stopped the tradition of the lottery.]” (52) He strongly opposes the idea of not having the lottery and he thinks that the people who have stopped it are out of their minds.

Shirley Jackson’s use of characters is very detrimental to keeping the theme of the story lively. Whether they play a minor or significant role to the story each character reveals a lot of information about the tradition of the lottery and its intentions, varying from subtle to obvious details. One of the most important characters is Old Man Warner, an elderly man who is very conservative about the preservation of this tradition He holds it dearly to his heart, despite the fact that this tradition is slowly deteriorating in villages around him. Old Man Warner represents the stubborn nature of all the townspeople who are reluctant to

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.

    "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

“Because so much of the ritual [has] been forgotten or discarded” (Jackson 205). How can people follow a rule without knowing it? The villagers just ignore what the signification of the ritual is; they would like being blind, just follow the process. There is a point about Old Man Warner. When people suggest canceling the drawing, he said, “‘Pack of crazy fools.’” (Jackson 208). Jackson also states his words: “lottery in June, harvest soon” (207). The drawing of death symbolizes harvest in elders’ eyes. He gets really nervous when people say they should quit the lottery because he is the oldest man in town, it’s his duty to keep the village organized. No matter what price they would pay for it.

Despite the crudeness and evil of the Lottery, the village has established a set of elaborate rules that they follow to the letter right down to who is supposed to draw from the box and who is responsible for the families responsible. The village is also based on a Patriarchal system since teenage boys are given priority over their mothers when it comes to participation.

Only when we are introduced to Old Man Warner, the only man in the village old enough to remember some of the traditions, do we get an idea of the purpose of the lottery. It seems to be a pagan harvest ritual, as expressed by his old saying: ??Lottery in June, corn be heavy soon?? (Jackson 369). By participating in the lottery the villages crops will prove to be bountiful. He justifies the use of the lottery simply by stating ?There?s always been a lottery? (Jackson 369).

The point of view of tradition in The Lottery by Shirley Jackson is the normal once of year gathering on the townspeople. This gathering is held in order to pick, via a lottery drawing, to decide who in the town is going to be stoned to death. “The people of the village began to gather in the square, between the post office and the bank, around ten o’clock; in some towns there were so many people the lottery took two days and had started on June 26th, but in this village, where there were only about three hundred people, and the whole lottery took less than two hours, so it could begin at ten o’clock in morning and still be through in time to allow the villagers to get home for noon dinner.” (Kennedy & Gioia, 2013, pp. 251). The fact

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

This story mainly revolves around the theme of people’s blind faith in their tradition and customs. Before the actual truth about the lottery is revealed, the villagers are shown as witty, helpful, and cooperative. The villagers don’t know much about the origin of the lottery, but they are still preserving it as a tradition. Their blind faith in the lottery is killing an innocent person every year, yet they are following it without any logic. No one is forcing them to keep this tradition alive, still, they are doing this ritual every year. These people fear that if they stop the lottery, they will go back to living in the cage. They are so faithful to this tradition that they are ready to kill their own friends and family when they are told to.

Throughout the story, mainly in pages 1 and 2, we read how the lottery tradition first started when people first settled and made the village. The tradition is so old, that one of the objects they use in the ritual, the black box, is older than the oldest man in town. Throughout the story, Old Man Warner, the oldest man in town, complains about how things weren’t the way they used to be. This means that most of the lottery’s traditions had been forgotten, which implies that most of the villagers don’t even know why they participate

It is a grim, even nihilistic, parable of the evil inherent in human nature” (Coulthard). This evil has been passed on from generation to generation. The oldest generation is represented by Old Man Warner who believes religiously in the sacrifice. He always makes it known that the lottery has always been a tradition saying, “Used to be a saying about ‘Lottery in June, corn be heavy soon” (Jackson).  Just like the rest of the villager he thrives off of the wicked act of the lottery, but his explanation for killing seems more honest.

In the story there is only one explanation as to why the lottery is used.  This explanation is given by Old Man Warner, who himself has survived seventy six lotteries.  Old Man Warner states, “Used to be a saying about ‘Lottery in June, corn be heavy soon” (77).  According to this, the lottery was used as a ritual to promote a plentiful harvest season.  In all societies the success of agriculture is vital to survival.  Farmers “can only wait and hope” that the harvest season will be successful. From this hope, meaningless rituals are created, even when the ritual has no direct relationship (Griffin 44).  The townspeople would sacrifice one of their citizens in hopes that it would in some way or another affect the results of the harvest.

Everyone in the village participates in the lottery, and the lottery does not decide riches, and instead decides fate. Shirley Jackson explains in her story, “Old man Warner was saying ‘Come on, Come on, everyone’”(534). Old man Warner has been through the Lottery 77 times and is encouraging everyone to participate. Mrs. Hutchinson was friends with many women in the village, and they eventually turned on her by stoning her to death. Jackson also says in the story, “Mrs. Delacroix selected a stone so large, she picked it up with two hands and said ‘Come on, Hurry up’”(534).

In the short story “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson, Mrs. Hutchinson’s words at the end of the story, “It isn’t fair, it isn’t right,” are credible. The tradition of this ancient ritual of the lottery in the short story is extremely barbaric. The villagers do not even question the purpose of their actions and continue the sinful decision of stoning the winner of the lottery to death on the 27th day of June each year. The act is so inhumane that even the children of the village and the son of the victim, Davy Hutchinson, participates in the ritual by throwing stones at her. There is no meaning and goal behind the ritual of the lottery, the villagers just blindly obliges the repetitive monotony of unquestioned traditions and practices, meaning