What revolutionary thoughts had Shirley Jackson provided the society in her short story The Lottery with? She had provided the readers with a criticism of traditions and people’s behaviour. In The Lottery she also had criticised following of symbolism. The story points out on the irony of the lottery, when readers expect the story to end peacefully, suddenly it took a turn to a raw violence. She gave the society a completely new sight on misleading trust in traditions, on following an established path and on justification of violence.
'Lottery in June, corn be heavy soon.' Probably one of the most famous quotes from Shirley Jackson’s story points on people ‘s misleading trust in traditionalized events. The lottery is seen as a tradition that must be followed, even though the townspeople don't understand the purpose of it. This shows that the townspeople are not interested in questioning the tradition, even though it could have deadly consequences. This quote is also connected with another aspect of society, which Shirley Jackson had criticised: the mysticism. The people think, that the tradition will help them, but on the other hand they don’t see the horrifying consequences of the tradition. Finally, Shirley Jackson has painted the people in the story as innocent because that is probably how they feel
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One of the problems Shirley Jackson points on in The Lottery is, that people tend to follow the stream in order to minimalize the necessary effort and to feel like a part of society. This can be easily demonstrated on a quote from a character of the Old Man Warner: 'There’s always been a lottery.' By this point of view, we can understand, that the lottery is a tradition to the people, and they are willingly following it thinking, that this tradition saves their crop. Therefore this shows us how the people value this tradition even over their friend’s