Tradition In Shirley Jackson's 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

Despite the fact that they have yearly stonings, the townspeople are relatively nice. They have many community gatherings that are happy, unlike the lottery. Mr. Summers conducts the lottery along with “the square dances, the teenage club, and Halloween program.” It is very obvious that Mr. Summers, is not a bad man, so he cannot, and should not be blamed for the lottery. The lottery makes all the townspeople look cruel and dehumanizing, but they are not, it is just the lottery that is awful. This goes to show that the people do horrible things even if they are not horrible people. Secondly, all the town does the lottery so that they can have good crops that season. “Lottery in June, corn will be heavy soon.” Good crops lead to good sales

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

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

Everyone has their own way of solving problems; however, ritual is a form that people doing one thing in the same way. It defines as “the prescribed form of conducting a formal secular ceremony.” However if the meaning of ritual is mistaken, the consequence could be unpredictable." The Lottery" by Shirley Jackson gives us a lecture about a tortuous ritual. The story takes place in a small village with 300 citizens, they gather for a yearly lottery which everyone should participate. The story leads to a horrific ending by people forgetting the concept of ritual.

There are many things that people do every day without questioning why they do them. These are our habits and traditions, and though for the most part they are unimportant they can be a crucial part of our culture and our interactions with each other. Sometimes there are traditions that can cause harm or are morally unacceptable. What should be done in this case? Edmund Burke, a nineteenth century politician and author, argues that it is best to stick with tradition rather than causing dramatic changes in people’s behavior. This is a key component in his argument against the French Revolution in his essay “Reflections on the Revolution in France.” In this essay he argues that the revolution will only lead the

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

Tradition; the transmission of customs or beliefs from generation to generation, or the fact or being passed on in this way. Some people in this world take traditions very seriously. Some traditions can be a little easier going than others. As we found out from Shirley Jackson, the author of The Lottery, traditions were rough. They had to deal with death.

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

Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery" satirizes barbaric traditions in a supposedly civilized village. As the story begins, the villagers appear to be fairly civilized and carry on fairly modern lifestyles. This is assumed by the men's discussion of planting, rain, tractors, and taxes. The lottery was outdated to such a degree that some may think that the tradition is primal competition of anthropoid beasts. On the other hand, some think that carrying on the tradition was necessary. The question that must be answered is: Was this a barbaric tradition or was this ritual an honest attempt to better other villager's lives?

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?

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

Shirley Jackson wrote a short story called "The Lottery". It was about small village and its village people of roughly 300 people. Every year they have a tradition where all the townspeople rallied around a black box and pulled names of family's to see what family is needed for the tradition. Then once the family is picked; the names of the whole family get thrown back into the box to be selected again. Each one has to walk up one by one to draw another piece of paper.

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.