What Is The Meaning Of The Lottery By Shirley Jackson

On the other hand, the villagers stoning the winner of the lottery was used as a symbol of punishment. It is one of the most established and common execution methods. However, in The Lottery, the stones represent victory of the lottery. Shirley Jackson stated that, “Bobby Martin had already stuffed his pockets full of stones, and the other boys soon followed his example, selecting the smoothest and roundest stones” (Jackson 291). Stoning is symbolic in “The Lottery” because, “For stoning to be effective it requires a crowd to act together. This reinforces the point that the antagonist of this story it is not a single person but society” (Gahr). For instance, this means that the immorality of the village is so severe that the antagonist is not just one person but society itself. How do you think the villagers feel when their children were caught up in this senseless tradition by collecting stones? It is obvious that the villagers were following tradition that was done every year. “What about allowing a child to be a child?” For example; playing with toy cars and trucks, coloring books and Barbie’s, or getting push by their parents on a swing at a park. Children should not be allowed to partake in an event so gruesome and violent or seen raising anything to aggressively hurt an adult.

Tessie Hutchinson being one to protest the lottery when her husband wasn’t given enough time to choose, yet he did nothing for her when she was chosen. For the sake of tradition, these people are giving up the lives of their friends and family, their loved ones. Multiple times in the story, it shows that people are eager to finish the lottery and go back about their business. Some examples include a mother wishing her son could draw in the lottery for her if he were of age. No one in this town wants to die themselves, and yet are still laying down the lives of others to continue this twisted tradition.

Most people have some sort of tradition that they follow, be it a family tradition or a morning routine, while most are harmless or have some positive effect there are a few that exist that are negative. This could be made worse if one such negative tradition takes over their life. In “The Lottery” the townsfolk gather for what at first seems like a harmless, fun tradition, a yearly lottery. But, as the story progresses it becomes apparent that there is more going on that first meets the eye. Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery” uses symbolism to show the theme: tradition isn’t always right, dialogue to get readers predicting and start to reveal the sinister nature of what was really going on in the story, and revealing actions to raise the

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

Tradition is a large part of life today, but decades ago it was almost a way of life and if it was not followed there were stiff consequences. The story is misleading by the title because of the normal thought of a lottery is something positive or a giveaway. The story is quite the opposite of the common thought. The main point that Jackson shows in “The Lottery” is that people can be involved with such a violent act and think nothing of it. In the story all the people are happy, “they stood together, away from the pile of stones in the corner, and their jokes were quiet and they smiled rather than laughed.”(Jackson 124). The tradition the village seams at first to be a happy scene, but later learn that it is a terrible event that is a

     "The original paraphernalia for the lottery had been lost long ago, and the black box now resting on the stool had been put into use even before Old Man Warner, the oldest man in town, was born. Mr. Summers spoke frequently to the villagers about making a new box, but no one liked to upset even as much tradition as was represented by the black box." (Jackson, The Granta... page 63) They are all afraid of getting chosen for the lottery and so instead of standing up for one another and stopping the lottery they just go along with it. At one moment they're laughing together and the next they're stoning one of them to death. The lottery is a symbol of how fear is taught and handed down from generation to generation. People can't stand up to tradition, they're afraid of change. They are afraid to band together and change. No one wants to be the one stoned, but they will stone the one picked.

Because of its prominence in American culture, Jackson uses family as a centerpiece for the villagers and the lottery. All members of the families in the village are present for the lottery unless they are sick or injured, but the children play separately from the men who are separate from the women initially, but they all come together later in the day. This cycle is characteristic of American families during the 40s because each member had their responsibilities but had a cliche gathering for dinner when everyone was happy together. For the actual lottery, Mr. Summers draws a family name, and then the head of the family has to randomly select the name of a member of the family to be stoned. Using a family member to choose who will die is an even stronger corruption of the ideal held during Jackson’s time. After Mrs. Hutchison's selection, everyone, including her son, picks up stones and swarm her. A young child murdering his mother is shocking, but the fact that the community and his own family condone it is possibly even more wicked. Although it was not a common occurrence in American society, Jackson may be referencing indoctrinated children in Nazi Germany or the Soviet Union reporting them for illegal activity resulting in their death. In “The Lottery,” Jackson uses this shift from a picturesque description of the Hutchison family to a twisted version to show the flaws that

1."Girl"-Protagonist: The girl, Antagonist: Mom, Point of View: First Person, Setting: Antigua in the 1980's.

Shirley Jackson 's 'The Lottery ', is a story that is filled with symbolism. The author uses symbolism to help her represent human nature as tainted, no matter how pure one thinks of himself or herself, or how pure their environment may seem to be. The story is very effective in raising many questions about the pointless nature of humanity regarding tradition and violence. 'The Lottery ' clearly expresses Jackson 's feelings concerning mankind?s evil nature hiding behind traditions and rituals. She shows how coldness and lack of compassion in people can exhibit in situations regarding tradition and values. Jackson presents the theme of this short story with a major use of symbolism. Symbolism shows throughout the setting of 'The Lottery, ' the objects, the peoples actions, and even in the time and the names of the lucky contestants.

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.

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

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

    Often, we paint a fairytale view of life for ourselves and our children. Sometimes, an author paints a frightfully realistic picture of life and forces us to reconsider the fairytale. In Shirley Jackson’s story, "The Lottery," a town each year conducts a lottery in which the winner or looser, in this case, is stoned to death by his or her own neighbors. The tradition is supposed to uphold social structure within the town, but in order to comprehend the true meaning of the story you must be able to read between the lines. "The Lottery" is a story about a town that has let its traditions go too far. Also, it is clear that the story contains eye-opening facts that lead me to

Shirley Jackson wrote The Lottery in the late 1940’s. It seems as though the village is just having a regular annual celebration. Everyone is dressed and talking casually. The kids are playing, gathering and protecting stones. The atmosphere Jackson portrays is easy going.

When I saw a title of the story is "The Lottery", I thought it was supposed to be a fun story about how people could get a huge fortune. However, the whole story was totally difference. I can understand winning lottery in this situation is a bad luck. No one want to win a death wish if I do say so for myself. Specially, when an execution way is stoned to dead. It's a little confuse in here about why they have to chose one of these people who was their neighborhood to kill for no reason. I have learned that in many ancient culture, they chose one people to sacrifice to their God in return of having a good crops or a good weather. But in this story, I didn't find any reason that lead them have to do so. Maybe they learned