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In the story “The Lottery”, the lottery tradition keeps society stable for the people of the village. I believe the story is a universal statement about dangerous tendencies in human nature. Jackson's "The Lottery" reveals that human beings in society are capable of committing cruel acts. Humans are often influenced by society, tradition, and even peer pressure. Cruel acts will be portrayed in society if humans are reflected by those elements.
In Shirley Jackson’s short story “The Lottery,” the townspeople participate in the heinous tradition, the lottery, to gain social belonging within the group with no regard to the death that ensues. With Tessie’s immediate reaction to her family and herself being chosen by the lottery, it seems obvious that she had these opinions beforehand but was not willing to speak out. There are a few different reasons as to why Tessie could not voice her opinion. One could speculate that many if not all of the townspeople also have the underlying opinion that the lottery is no longer useful. The town is so willing to kill whoever the lottery chooses, so why wouldn’t they agree to killing anyone who deviates from the group’s decisions.
The Danger of Tradition Traditionally many ancient societies would kill their people to sacrifice to God in order to obtain rain or a good harvest. These mindlessly, followed traditions were never critically thought about and therefore citizens died year after year. A similar tragedy occurs in Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery”. This story features a civilization much like our own but with one small difference, the town’s people hold a lottery every year and the town stones who ever loses to death.
The lottery winner is selected by the town mayor by selecting wood chips from a box with the names of the town residents engraved into them. Although winning the lottery in our reality is something one would like to do, in the short story, the consequence of winning is being stoned to death. The residents of the town agree that one life must be sacrificed annually to produce a decent crop yield. Both short stories have several traits, including themes, settings, and literary devices. This raises the question of
The lottery is based on making a sacrifice. A sacrifice made to the gods because the villagers need their crops to grow. As Old Man Warner said that, “Lottery in june, corn be heavy soon” which reveals that The Lottery will help them in some way
Typically, when someone passes away. It is thought whoever did die, they were old or possibly even sick. In the short story “The Lottery”, sometimes you don’t have an opinion when to choose when to die. And it doesn’t happen in the most humane way at all, the whole village ends up throwing stones at someone until they are dead. And this is why cruelty shouldn’t be allowed due to the effects on the human brain.
The appeal to tradition clearly affects the truth of the horrendous tradition of the Lottery. The Lottery by Jackson shows the appeal to accept insanity because of tradition and respecting those that have long participated in the insanity can make you a victim of the insanity. Old Man Warner (the luckiest lottery winner in town) voices his defense of a town tradition which a few attempt to challenge with examples of other towns, but Warner rejects any change by a “pack of young fools,” with pride of his seventy-seventh lottery. Jackson explains how the tradition has survived over time and shows the pride and obligation of the people to follow the tradition without considering the consequences. The children are excited and eagerly participate
In “The Lottery”, the similarities between the townsfolk and the Uraons can be easily identified. The Uraons sacrificed humans to give back to the earth that provided them food. The villagers are giving back what they are taking from the earth through the sacrifice. By performing this tradition every year, they believe it brings a bountiful harvest. It is considered very useful to them, but a few villagers questioned the usefulness of the lottery.
” This shows that, in order to keep the tradition going, the villagers have sacrificed 77 people. In the story it also states on page 246 that, “Used to be saying about ‘Lottery in June, corn be heavy soon.” This portrays that the lottery is not only the tradition to the community but also a belief. They believe that without the lottery, they will be eating stewed chickweed and acorns.
Like those villagers, following the social conformity and blind adherence to the traditions could have negative implications for us and our society. “The Lottery” is a fictional short story, and the setting is about the ritual sacrifice takes place in a small village in New
“The Lottery” In the short story, “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson, the story depicts a theme of conformity and rebellion. This theme contributes to the literary elements of plot, character, and setting which help develop the story. A lottery is defined as a drawing of lots in which prizes are distributed to the winner’s among persons buying the chance. However, in “The Lottery” the author portrays lottery as a traditional ritualistic ceremony, which symbolizes that whomever draws the black dot on a slip of paper becomes the sacrifice.
Usually winning the lottery means fun prizes and money. Not every lottery is the same though. The prize for winning is death in “The Lottery”by Shirley Jackson. On June 27th Everyone in the village gathers to enter the lottery, dreading for their name to be drawn. Mrs. Hutchinson is the victim of the lottery and is stoned to death for drawing the paper with the black dot.
The purpose of the lottery is to continue the old tradition of sacrificing a scapegoat in order for a harvest. The scapegoat is chosen at random and then stoned to death by his/her companions. Although “The Lottery” reflects an event from the past, Jackson shows that many of the actions of the town resemble the tribulations that ensue in today’s society. To begin with, like the villagers in the story, our society also partakes in valuing tradition.
The story, The Lottery, is a tale around a town that directs what might be viewed as an irritating and pitiless tradition every year amongst the villagers. The town tradition includes a drawing amongst every head of the family and their relatives to figure out who wins the lottery every year. The picture is totally irregular, and everybody in the town must take an interest. Albeit most readers would accept that when somebody wins the lottery they are being compensated however on account of this city it is not the situation. A villager winning the lottery results in death, all the more particularly alternate villagers stone him or her to death.
There’s always been a lottery.” Was it possible this was a tradition used to sacrifice someone, to ensure a great harvest? His choice of words and somewhat condescending tone to the younger generation was strong. He truly believed that this event should be taken
