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Gender Roles In The Lottery

1253 Words6 Pages

Kaylea Burdick
Dr. M. Loglisci
ENG 102-47
24 September 2023
Traditional Gender Roles In The Lottery By Shirley Jackson "The Lottery," written by Shirley Jackson, is a short story that takes place on June 27, which happens to be a lovely summer day, and everyone in the tiny New England village is assembling for their annual lottery. Although everyone seems to be having a wonderful time at first, it quickly becomes apparent that nobody wishes to take home the "jackpot". There are folded pieces of paper inside the black box, one of which has a black dot scribbled onto it. Then, each person takes one of the pieces of paper from inside the box. Whoever obtains the piece of paper containing the black dot wins. Tessie Hutchinson, one of the townspeople, …show more content…

Tessie wins the lottery, and the story finishes as the townspeople, including members of her own family, start throwing rocks at her. It is then revealed that the "winner" of the lottery is executed with stones by the remaining citizens. This tradition was created in order to guarantee a successful crop and rid the town of evil prophecies, and the lottery is meticulously explained, along with the events that led to it, but the outcome for the winner is kept a secret until the very end. The frightening community ritual of selecting someone arbitrarily to be stoned to death is literally depicted. However, figuratively speaking, one section of Jackson's short story bravely reveals the truth of the current societal control of women by enforcing standards and limitations upon them. "The Lottery," written by Shirley Jackson, is a symbolic representation of the specific correlation between women and traditional female …show more content…

Women are not only regarded less respectfully than males, but their social status is also lower. The gender collectivism of the narrative makes the women appear to be so unimportant that it even destroys the marital bond, considering gender roles are not only displayed by the adults in the small village, but also by the children. These males have a better social status than the women even though none of them actually supervised the lottery. “Bobby and Harry Jones and Dickie Delacroix-- the villagers pronounced this name "Dellacroy"--eventually made a great pile of stones in one corner of the square and guarded it against the raids of the other boys. The girls stood aside, talking among themselves, looking over their shoulders at rolled in the dust or clung to the hands of their older brothers or sisters” (Jackson 1). The authority that men had over women is demonstrated by the use of strong language. The expression "raids of the other boys" implies that the boys will fight and be rough with each other in an attempt to obtain the nicest rocks. At the same time, the young females would stand submissively and obediently while they waited for the lottery to begin. This emphasizes the stereotypical tendencies of traditional communities, as well as

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