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How Does Shirley Jackson Use Tradition In The Lottery

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Shirley Jackson uses “The Lottery” to make a point about traditions, rules, and human behavior. To begin, traditions are something that relapse over time. Traditions take time to develop, but once developed people don’t happen to like it to change. In “The Lottery” one of the traditions is preparing the black box for the lottery to take place. In paragraph 5 on page 48 it talks about how there was a story about the present black box that was made by the black box before. The box grew older and got more worn out over time, but it still held its tradition and its purpose. Rules are something that are used to be followed. We have rules all over the world for people to follow. If we didn’t have rules people would go crazy. The lottery itself has
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Most people know the lottery as a contest to win money. But in the short story, “The Lottery,” written by Shirley Jackson, the lottery is not a simple game competing for money. In this small village’s version of the lottery, everyone must draw out of a box, and if their family is chosen then the whole family must redraw and the death of a member is decided. After the fate is decided, the rest of the village throws stones at him or her until he or she dies. The villages reasoning of this process is they believe it guarantees a plentiful crop season.

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The box signifies the broken and rearranged manner in which humans celebrate traditions in the modern day. Christmas, for example, was originally a pagan festival for the Roman Sol Invictus and was later associated with Jesus’ for the sun’s meaning of enlightenment, and over time other traditions from many cultures, like the decoration of the tree from Germany or the mistletoe from Norse Mythology, were added on to enlarge the pool of followers that participate in the tradition. The same goes for the town in The Lottery. The townspeople are reluctant to get rid of the box, as seen on page 279 where Jackson writes that, “no one liked to upset even as much tradition as was represented by the black box”, but the villagers forget about the box the rest of the year, just like people forget about holidays when they are not in season. The villagers ignore the box out of subconscious fear of what would happen if they were to be chosen but will not speak out in fear of becoming

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2309 Words | 10 Pages

Within this source it has a list of sub headings that cover symbolic meaning of the lottery, the lottery box, stoning and considering the authors background. The sub heading about the author Shirley Jackson provides me with some very crucial information around the long standing traditions of what the whole story really meant and the back ground of the author when she wrote this short story. Ironically Shirley Jackson was a women during the 1948 period in America. Which began to part the puzzle for me on the ideologies used in the story that contrasted America at that present time. For e.g. whether it was segregation, the lack of free voting rights or any of the many other traditions which still exist primarily because they have always existed.

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Shirley Jackson uses symbolism of the black box to convey a theme about how a person’s whole life can change when one little implement is made different or messed with in the short story, “The Lottery.” For instance, Mr. Summers frequently spoke about making a new box, but “no one liked to upset even as much tradition as was represented by the black box” (26). In conclusion, people are unhappy when tradition or anything in their life is messed with and changed. A 4th of July without fireworks would not be the same if it was removed from the tradition because everyone looks forward to it. Overall if one part of something changes then it ruins the whole system and it does not feel the same.

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858 Words | 4 Pages

The Lottery, is an outdated act of tradition that involves ancient rituals that is wrongfully pointless followed by the towns people. “The Lottery” is an unforgettable short story by Sherly Jackson, Jackson who uses the black box, small slips of paper, the people in charge, and the stones to demonstrate that the original tradition does not exist anymore. The morning of June 27th at ten o’clock the town people gathered between the post office and the bank to attend the annual lottery. The town people always followed this “tradition” but on the contrary it was an obligation to attend the annual event.

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The Lottery by Shirly Jackson, is not a hopeful story of luck and fortune as the title might suggest. Instead it is a story of death and tradition. The short story describes how tradition can be dangerous, and when it is followed blindly it can hurt many people. Nothing shows the dangers of tradition, and its exclusivity as well as the characters devotion to the black box.

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In the beginning of the story, when they were getting the box of cards ready, it states that “the Original paraphernalia for the lottery had been lost long ago”(1). This is significant because the original box has been lost as well as many parts of the original ritual of the lottery have been forgotten. This shows that the people often hold on to outdated traditions,

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This symbolism foreshadows to the danger and death involved in the lottery. The box is also described as falling apart. The town’s people do not want to replace it because of stories they were told about the box being made of pieces of the box preceding it, all the way to the first people who started the tradition (Jackson 313). This reluctance to let go of something that is falling apart and broken represents their reluctance to get rid of the lottery although it is broken and illogical. This is how Jackson represents the danger of tradition; no matter how crazy, harmful, or backwards that tradition, if it is something a society is used to, it will continue to follow the

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Imagine a society where killing somebody for the sake of a tradition is acceptable. In the short story “The Lottery” Shirley Jackson describes an ordinary village with normal people, but as the story progress the details of their yearly practice known as “the lottery” unravels to be more disturbing. The author subverts the readers’ expiations by persuading the reader into assuming “the lottery” is a ordinary tradition until unusual details and the behavior of the characters come into place. In her short story “The Lottery,” Jackson seemingly uses ordinary details about the setting and the townspeople to characterize her theme that although society claims to be civilized, and may appear so, it is inherently barbaric.

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The lottery brings out the moral of the story, which is that new generations should be followed, and old traditions can be broken when they really need to be. Both the black box and the lottery help to emphasize the meaning. “The original paraphernalia for the lottery had

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485 Words | 2 Pages

In “The Lottery” Jackson uses a black box to symbolize death, Jackson says “The original paraphernalia for the lottery had been long lost ago,and the black box now had been resting on the stool. It had been there even before old man Warner”(Jackson 1).This shows symbolism because it shows how old the black box really is. The reader of “The Lottery” can tell that author is using symbolism. In the beginning, Shirley Jackson says “the original paraphernalia had been long lost ago”.(Jackson 1). Jackson also says “They always had spoke of making a new box but no one ever wanted to.

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430 Words | 2 Pages

First, in the ”The Lottery” the black box represents a tradition that has been followed for longer than people can remember. Like the lottery as a whole, the black box has no functionality except during this day every June: "It had spent one year in Mr Graves's barn and another year underfoot in the post office and sometimes it was set on a shelf in the Martin grocery and left there" (Jackson 6). The purpose of the box, like the lottery itself, has become

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492 Words | 2 Pages

The Symbolism of The Lottery One big symbol that the short story is discreet about is the black box that is repeated throughout the short story symbolizes fear to adults which could affect even the most innocent. The black box appears to be the only paraphernalia that is still being used in the tradition of having a lottery. Mr. Summers is the one who is running the lottery at the time. Mr. Summers is seen as a nice man, however, when he is introduced, he is seen with the black box. “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson is a short story that uses the black box as a symbol to convey an underlying message that when the power of a tradition is given to a person, it could lead a crumbling society.

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In her story "The Lottery", Shirley Jackson implies the negative consequences of blindly following tradition through the acceptance, by the villagers, of the tradition of the lottery. Jackson suggests that the people of the village are afraid to give up the little tradition they have, even if it is not good. Every year after the lottery, the conductor of the lottery, Mr. Summers suggests that they should build a new box but, “No one [likes] to upset even as much tradition as [is] represented by the box.” (Jackson, 1). The black box symbolizes ritual and tradition.

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Shirley Jackson: The Lottery When you think of a tradition what comes to mind? Perhaps it is linked with your family’s core values, beliefs, or has significant meaning. Specifically, traditions are beliefs passed down from generations, they are not declared righteous or sinful, why they were born or still exist. Why do people follow traditions so mindlessly without knowing the purpose of it?

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