Essay Tradition or Cruelty in Shirley Jackson's The Lottery

“The less there is to justify a traditional custom, the harder it is to get rid of it” (Twain). The Lottery begins during the summer. A small, seemingly normal, town is gathering to throw the annual “Lottery”. In the end, the townspeople—children included—gather around and stone the winner to death, simply because it was tradition. The story reveals how traditions can become outdated and ineffective. “I suppose, I hoped, by setting a particularly brutal ancient rite in the present and in my own village to shock the story's readers with a graphic dramatization of the pointless violence and general inhumanity in their own lives” (Jackson). As humans develop as a race, their practices should develop with them. Shirley Jackson develops the

In The Lottery, Shirley explores traditional custom missions and the reason we pass on the legacy to the new generations. As her story describes, families of a small village always gather about the 27th of June each year to attend a town meeting, called the lottery. The old man, Mr. Summer, would “carry the black wooden box” (Shirley 217), to the meeting and distributes the paper ticket to every family while supposedly perform a recital, but people soon forgot how the recital is performed a changed the official rule; whoever has a dot on their pieces of paper will win the lottery. Strangely, the town people do not properly follow the tradition, yet they mindlessly maintain the lottery. Moreover,

Due to respect, they stick to keeping the lottery ritual going. However, when it comes to ceremonial meaning, there is none. Making the ritual almost nonexistent and instead, using the lottery as an enjoyable tradition

A symbol of the lottery's ongoing legacy, the same box has been used for years. It was believed to be made from scraps of the original black box which fell apart through the course of its use. When the citizens are brought the idea that the box should be changed, the whole thing was let to pass. "Mr. Summers," the town's lottery official, "spoke frequently about making a new box, but no one liked to upset even as much as tradition as was represented by the black box." (Jackson 422) This illustrates the people are blind to the idea of even tampering with their sacred box. They have grown with the tradition and find discomfort in the idea of change. "Every year, after the lottery, Mr. Summers began talking about a new box, but every year the subject was allowed to fade off without anything's being done." (Jackson 422) With the keyword "allowed," it illustrates the people's reaction by ignorance. Every year the suggestion is made, and every year the suggestion is purposely disregarded for the sake that their tradition be unchanged. There is a sense that should the box be changed, so should the lottery and it's purpose. "Some places already quit lotteries," Mrs. Adams said. "Nothing but trouble in that," Old Man Warner said stoutly, "Pack of young fools." (Jackson 425) This illustrates the beliefs of a majority. Old Man Warner being the oldest man in the town was looked upon

In "The Lottery," a small town follows its tradition although it does not even remember how the custom came about in the first place. The town folk do not even remember all the elements of this lottery. The original black box has been lost, but the new one, that is at least 80 years old, was made from parts of the original one. In this grotesque depiction of tradition, it is the custom of the townspeople to sacrifice a member of their community so the corn harvest is plentiful. Even the manner in which the person is killed is bizarre, stoning. No one seems to know why the lottery takes place, but they ridicule other towns that have stopped performing this ritual. Shirley Jackson is clearly letting us know what she

The lottery in “The Lottery” is not a lottery for great winnings with one winner; it is a lottery for life with one loser. The lottery is a long standing tradition in the village. Old Man Warner recalls “Seventy-seventh year I have been in the lottery.” (Jackson in Kennedy and Gioia, p. 254) Though “much of the ritual had been forgotten or discarded,” (Jackson in Kennedy and Gioia, p. 252). Mr. Summers, the administrator of the lottery, gives directions to the nervous participants; “Now, I’ll read the names-heads of families first-and the men come up and take a paper out of the box.

Does thoughtlessly obeying tradition justify senseless and violent murder? The setting of the story takes place in a small fictional village around the time an annual event dubbed “The Lottery” is being conducted, which garners the attention of the entire community. The tone in the beginning is presented with a jovial and positive atmosphere sharply contrasting the gruesome ending and revelation of just exactly what “the lottery” is; Exploring themes such as the potentially harrowing effects of blindly following tradition, the impersonal randomness of prosecution, as well as the fear of change and the stagnating effect it can have. This paper intends

There is a Lottery going on today and we all hold a ticket. In “The Lottery” Shirley Jackson is asking people to stop for a moment and take a look at the traditions around them. Shirley Jackson uses symbolism to show that traditions today are sometimes as misguided as the tradition of the lottery in that small town in Somewhere, USA.

The lottery can start at ten o’clock and the village’s people can finish by twelve before their dinner. In the story it’s mention how the lottery use to have some sort or recital, performed by the official, a perfunctory, and tuneless chant like some sort of ritual with music and dance, but now the only part the villagers are really remembering is the process of the drawing from the black wooden box and the stoning people to death. In The Lottery, there this conversation going on between Mr. Adams and Old Man Warner about some village in the north giving up the lottery “They do say, that over in the north village, they’re talking about giving up the lottery” and Old Man Warner reply “Pack of crazy fools” and “Next thing you know, they’ll be wanting to go back to living in caves” which show how much Old Man Warner resented against the idea of giving up the lottery kind of like Miss Emily who hold on to the past and tradition. The phrased “Lottery in June, corn be heavy soon” that Old Man Warner used, indicated the villager practiced human sacrifice for good harvested every year. It also shows that the villager only remember the sacrifice part and nothing more furthermore, they are only executed the ritual of human sacrifice as tradition instead doing this to get good

Jackson also explains how over the years certain parts of the lottery had been done away with. For example, there was no longer a chant performed and a ritual salute was no longer given to each person by the person in charge of the lottery. Then the lottery begins.

In Shirley Jackson’s short story, “The Lottery” in which tradition and superstitions play a significant role is on the surface, an attack on a small town with a brutal and outdated religious ritual. The tradition is called the lottery, which is held every year based on a drawing that has been practiced for seventy-seven years by every member of the village. The lottery is conducted by Mr. Summers, who holds a black box containing unfolded slips that have blank slips in it, but only one slip holds the black dot mark remaining inside of the box and whoever received the paper with the black dot is declared “the winner.” When most people hear the word “winner” they automatically expect the winners to receive a reward or a prize of some sort, but in this case “the winner” comes nowhere

In the lottery they shape the way a cultures lives and interacts with the world around them. Traditions bring one another together and it's a time to enjoy each others presence. The Lottery tradition plays a role in "keeping the town happy". The Lottery in the town is a backbone of the community; it does not only serves as a day of socialization but also one may see it as a sacrificial offering.

To further understand the text one must know the literary devices present in The Lottery. In the short story The Lottery there is a theme of tradition. The citizens all blindly followed the tradition of the lottery while barely remembering its origin or reasoning. Each year the town came together to have its lottery. It was said that the lottery was done each year so that they would have good crops but many of the citizens had forgotten its purpose.

Everyone in the village sound so eager to participate in the lottery without caring over the outcome. (The Lottery) “There are hints early in the story indicating that people are reluctant to participate in the lottery,…” The lottery is not a luxury prize as it sounds or expected to be. As I read more in to the short story I realized it’s a tragic event, which the villagers are so excited to celebrate. The villagers had forgotten some parts of the tradition but still kept the tradition going. (The Lottery) “Although the villagers had forgotten the ritual and lost the original black box, they still remembered to use stones.” There was one of the family members no so happy about the lottery, and made sure she let the rest of the villagers know.

The town folk are getting ready for the seemingly innocent yearly ritual that involves a random lottery in which each household participates in. An explanation for the lottery is: 'Lottery in June, corn be heavy soon.' This explains that the townsman believe that having a lottery will reduce the corn production in this middle-class society. All the families gather for the lottery. The lottery takes around in a black box.