Who Is Scared To Change Tradition

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

"The Lottery", is a story about how people stick to tradition. It describes how painstakingly people do not give up tradition and would rather kill someone than give it up. In the beginning, all of the townspeople are gathered in the TownSquare just as they do every year on this day. All the man and women are

Through use of having community events, celebrating traditions, and repeating the traditions, Shirley Jackson is able to prove that the townspeople are not as cruel as the audience may think. They have many community gatherings that are happy, unlike the lottery. “Jovial man” Mr. Summers conducts the lottery, “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. Shirley Jackson is trying to prove that although the lottery itself is bad, the people who participate in it are not. Even though the lottery appears to be horrid, Jackson attempts to make the town look civil and human. All the town does the lottery so that they can have good crops that season. The saying goes “lottery in June, corn be heavy soon.” People are considered “crazy fools” if they do not continue with the lottery. Jackson tries to show that the people who second guess the lottery are not popular with some people in town. Also if the town has a bad crop year townspeople will probably blame the doubters. The townspeople have always had a lottery, so it is unknown what would happen if they decided to skip it. Old Man Warner is the town’s oldest townsperson, and he is most experienced with the lottery. No one‒Old Man Warner included‒ ever remembers a time where there was not a lottery. “There’s always been a lottery”

The lottery is usually associated with beating the odds and winning something extravagant. In Shirley Jackson’s short story “The Lottery”, the reader is led to believe the story is about something cheerful and happy given the setting of a warm summer day and children out of school for the summer. Jackson turns winning the lottery into a bad thing. Of 300 villagers Tessie Hutchinson shows up late, claiming she forgot about the annual lottery drawing, but seems very excited to have made it on time. When Tessie was in no danger she is gossiping with neighbors and encourages her husband to draw for the winner. Jackson curiously builds up the character of Tessie so that it seems she is blinded by tradition until she becomes a victim of 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

The author of “The Lottery” wrote this story “to shock the story’s readers with a graphic demonstration of the pointless violence and general inhumanity in their own lives” (Jackson 211). This story reflects human behavior in society to show how although rules, laws or traditions do not make sense, people follow them. Throughout the story the three main symbols of how people blindly follow senseless traditions were the lottery itself, the color black, and the hesitation that people had towards the prize.

Old Man Warner is the epitome of the lottery and its tradition. He is the oldest man in town, having participated in seventy-seven lotteries total. As a steadfast advocate for keeping things exactly how they stand and someone who is threatened by the idea of change, he distinguishes all the towns and the young people who have stopped pursuing the lottery as a “pack of crazy fools” (Jackson, 27). He is trapped within the past traditions, even if they should not sustain. Being the antagonist, Old Man Warner does not veer away from the tradition, even though many others do not agree with it.

While reading the short story the Lottery of each character; Old Man Warner, the Adams Family, Tessie, and Mr.Summers all show a different attitude on how they represent people in our society. Tessie is a free spirit who is basically the only villager who protests against the lottery, representing people who disagree with how the government decides what and how things happen. Old Man Warner is a huge supporter for keeping tradition the way they have always been. He is threatened by the idea of change, where he calls other towns “crazy fools” because they stopped doing the lottery. Old Man Warner strongly believes that change could lead into a huge disaster which he is not up for. His way of keeping tradition shows that it is

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).

In “The Lottery”, the downfall of the townspeople is following tradition. It is mentioned several times that many details of the lottery's ritual have been lost, but the lottery itself remains. Jackson writes, “no one liked to upset even as much tradition as was represented by the black box.” Old Man Warner scolds some of the townspeople, calling them

As once said by Gustav Mahler “Tradition is not the worship of ashes, but the preservation of fire.” This saying relates to “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson because it talks about tradition and the purpose of the story is blindly following tradition. There are many reasons why the purpose of the lottery is following tradition. One of them is because it has been around for a while, so people have been doing it for many years. The second reason is that people had to participate but for some it wasn’t too important, which means they didn’t really care about it.

Over time in “The Lottery”, the true meaning behind the lottery was lost in time. When something means a lot to your family and you continue to do it every year or every day we should know why we are doing it. “It’s not the way it used to be, “Old Man Warner said clearly. “People ain’t the way they used to be. (873)” This quote sums it all

The author of “The Lottery,” Shirley Jackson, creates suspense and tension to convey dramatic irony. In a person’s life, a lottery, or raffle, is thought of something fair, because sometimes, you win prizes or money. This would be the raffle that you do NOT want to win. In Jackson’s short story, it is not about what the townspeople win, but it is about what is lost. I would have to say that the theme of this story would be “Not all traditions are always good.”

     In ?The Lottery?, tradition is showed in three main ways. First, Old Man Warner says, ?there has always been a lottery (Jackson 11).? The town people accept The Lottery because there has always been a lottery. The older people in the town such as Old Man Warner keep the tradition alive with their ideals.