Shirley Jackson's Lottery

The people of a small town gather in the town square on June 27 for the town’s lottery. The story states that the lottery takes longer in other towns, but because there are only 300 people in this village, it only takes two hours. The children, who have just finished school for the summer, run around gathering stones. The children make a pile with the stones in the town square while keeping some in their pockets. While one might think, this story ends with someone winning money from the lottery, but it ends with the winner getting stones thrown at. There is no explanation for this. Amy A. Griffin explicates this story viewing it as a story that “illustrates society’s tendency toward violence and its tendency to hold onto tradition, even meaningless,

From the hope, “many ancient cultures believed that growing crops represented the life cycle” (para.1, Griffin). When the crops grew, it represented rebirth, and when the crops died it represented death. Thus, ancient peoples began sacrificial rituals to emulate this cycle by cleansing their sins. Griffin believes that Jackson “uses this archetype to build on man’s inherent need for such ritual” (para.1, Griffin). Jackson describes all the people of the village gathering for the lottery despite that fact that they were gathering for someone to get stones thrown at. Jackson even states that some towns took days to do the lottery (para. 1, Jackson). This supports Griffin view that of people need a sense of ritual, tradition, and

Griffin argues that while most of the people don’t understand the meaning of the ritual, the experience of the ritual provides the people a belonging and “meaning in the life of generations” (para. 4, Griffin). This means that because there has always been a ritual or tradition the people feel compelled to continue it despite how gruesome it is according to Griffin. These arguments can be supported by that fact that in the story everyone, including the children, remember to use stones during the ritual, but don’t remember symbolic nature or meaning of the ritual. Lastly, Griffin points out the fact that it is socially acceptable to sacrifice/kill someone as part of a group/ritual but individual it is considered murder (para. 4, Griffin). This statement continues to support and connect with the argument that society has tendencies toward violence and tendencies to hold onto tradition no matter how old or meaningless it is to satisfy out need for both ritual and belonging. (para. 5,