Tradition In Shirley Jackson's The Lottery

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.

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

Almost everyone has gone to a funeral before, and they have witnessed their loved ones passing on. For example, when you go to a funeral everything is dim, bitter, and depressing. In “The Lottery” the characters have a drawing of cards on who is going to die. In “The Lottery” Shirley Jackson uses descriptive language to show how the characters won’t change tradition even though it is inhumane.

Americans day after day live much of their lives following time-honored traditions that are passed down from one generation to another. From simple everyday cooking and raising children, to holidays and other family rituals, tradition plays a significant role on how they go by there everyday lives. In Shirley Jackson's short story, "The Lottery," the citizens of a small farming town follow one such tradition. A point is made regarding human nature in relation to tradition. The story begins on a beautiful summer afternoon. The town's citizens are eager, gathering in the town square in order to take part in the yearly lottery. With the story focused around one particular family, the Hutchinsons, who

All the towns people get together on June 27 in the middle of the town square for the drawing of the lottery. The townspeople the lottery is just like any other town gathering like a holiday program, school play, or a dance. Mr. Summers is the person in charge of the lottery; she has to gather the information from all the townspeople about their households the day before the lottery to make a list for the next day. He places papers in a box and mixes them around with one paper with a black dot on it. The townspeople pick out a piece of paper, but only the head of the house which is in most cases the husband. The family that draws the black dot has to then draw once again to see who will lose in their specific household. Unfortunately the person in the family that draws the dot will be stoned to death. This tradition of the town takes place every year and everyone is forced to participate in the lottery. Traditions are hard to break or stray away from; especially in this specific story.

It is human nature to uphold tradition. Shirley Jackson’s  “The Lottery” display’s the issue with society unquestioning approach to institutions. The shocking tale, which takes place in a fictional unnamed town in America, convey’s the dangers of clinging to tradition and not questioning the the institutions that practice them, and just how common they occur. Accordingly, these dangers manifest in the way the characters of the story accept the process of the lottery, but do not comprehend its purpose, the older generation’s disdainful view of noncompliance with tradition, and the townspeople’s callous demeanor in stoning Mrs. Hutchinson.

The “Lottery” by Shirley Jackson presents themes that are very interesting to ponder. It was very surprising and shocking to find out that the chosen individual of the lottery was to be stoned to death by their own peers, neighbors and family. The fact that this ritual had been going on for so long and that everyone in the town was so eager to participate in the ritual was probably the most shocking aspect of the story. Through the story, I felt like Jackson satirically exploited the dangers of blindly following tradition, scapegoating and going about things with a close minded mindset. This story was published in 1948, shortly after the end of Holocaust, which implies that Jackson was reacting to some of the atrocities that occurred during

In Shirley Jackson’s short story, “The Lottery”, it can be very dangerous to follow traditions blindly without knowing about the horrible consequences. When one follows traditions and laws and never questions or seeks to understand the reason for them, the inevitable outcome often brings sorrow. Indeed blind devotion to complying with rules that destroys the human spirit by removing choice, and continuing rituals with dark consequences, and punishing anyone who objects to following tradition. Complying with rules that helps lead to destroying the human spirit is dangerous because individuals should always have the choice to follow those rules. The blind devotion of the village participating in the town’s yearly lottery is the clear example why all rules aren’t always positive. Rituals can be looked upon as positive but they also can have a negative connotation when they lead to dangerous consequences. The village in the story has a ritual every year to hold a lottery, where the winner is stoned to death and this is a clear example how a ritual can be viewed negatively. Traditions are beliefs passed down between generations of a family or culture. They are things we do by choice because they are enjoyable and meaningful for the people involved. Traditions in the story have a dark side to it because the tradition in this village is to kill one of members of the village using a lottery system. The dark side of “The Lottery”, is substantial with many down falls of

The book The Lottery is a short fictional story that was published 1948 in a magazine called The New Yorker. The Lottery Takes place in a small village (population 300), the date was June 27th, but could be any year, and most likely the present. The Lottery was taken on a warm day, with green grass and blooming flowers. This setting makes the story seem very eerie. With the conflict man vs society it tells that if you blindly follow something, it is dangerous.

Shirley Jackson's story, The Lottery is about a group of towns people who meet every year on the 27th of June. On this day a stoning takes place, as it washes away the sins of everyone that lived in the village. However, should the tradition of the stoning be changed when it becomes your time?

Shirley Jackson's “The Lottery” portrays a small town in middle America which the citizens gather for a yearly lottery; a tradition that has been passed down for generations. However, this is no ordinary lottery, as the winner gets the privilege of being stoned to death! What is Shirley Jackson trying to portray in this short story? I believe Shirley Jackson is trying to show us the universal way humans view tradition. And the way humans can blindly follow customs or beliefs without considering why they are doing them in the first place.

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 Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery,” there are many themes and traditions from which to choose. There are many traditions that people continue to do that are harmless such as Easter egg hunts, Christmas trees, and church on Sunday, and of course there are also more harmful traditions such as war, sexism, and bigotry. Even though traditions make us who we are, it can be dangerous to blindly follow any tradition. The traditions in Shirley Jacksons “The Lottery” are many, but the fact that they continue this specific tradition into the twentieth century is baffling. “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson, is a short story written in June of 1948, about an annual lottery drawing in a small town in America.

“The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson is about a tradition that occurs every year on June 27th. The tradition takes place in a small village where only about 300 people live. The tradition is supervised by Mr. Summers whose wife is a scold. This tradition works by villagers taking a slip of paper from a black box. You are selected if you paper has a black dot on it. For this lottery a woman was selected named Tessie Hutchinson. If you were selected you face something very horrible. The punishment is getting stoned to death by 300 villagers. Tessie Hutchinson was the unlucky one. She had to face the horrible death by her husband and even her kids.

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.