Danielle Schmidt 05/03/2023 ENGL-4236 Shirley Jackson's short story "The Lottery" is a chilling tale of a small town that holds an annual lottery in which one person is stoned to death. The story is set in a nameless town in America, and the lottery is a tradition that has been going on for as long as anyone can remember, though it is never explained how the tradition came about, nor what the purpose of this tradition is. The person who draws the paper with a black dot on it is the winner of the lottery. This year, the winner is Tessie Hutchinson. The story ends with Tessie's death, and it leaves the reader with a sense of unease and disgust. Jackson's story is a powerful indictment of the dangers of tradition and conformity. It shows how easily people can be led to commit violence in the name of something they believe in, even if that something is as senseless as a lottery. …show more content…
The character Old Man Warner serves as a plot device that describes how different the tradition has become over the years, and how the village people no longer respect it. Jackson even points out that the paraphernalia of the lottery has changed, the box becoming less remarkable as the years went on, and the use of paper slips instead of pieces of wood for the villagers' names. Warner alludes to the fact that the lottery is based in some sort of superstition surrounding a fruitful harvest, saying, “Used to be a saying about, ‘Lottery in June, corn be heavy soon” (p. 9) However, based on the fact that certain villages no longer practice the lottery, and the general tone of the village having no real regard for the tradition, it is unlikely that anyone actually believes the lottery provides a fruitful harvest, making the tradition a senseless act of violence that everyone follows for no tangible