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Superstition In Shirley Jackson's The Lottery

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The story of “ The Lottery ” by Shirley Jackson is a very surprising story especially towards the end. It causes great consternation and shock when we learn that the winner of the lottery - Tessie Hutchinson, does not win an award, rather finds herself stoned to death. This somewhat shows the role that superstition played years ago. It was widely prevalent and as we progressed in terms of science and technology, we have come to break apart from such harmful traditions. It is precisely due to these superstitions, often many an innocent life has been taken without just cause. This is what we encounter in this tragic story. From the beginning of the story, the author presents a lively outlook of the village life and the different people who are …show more content…

Hutchinson said, as quietly as she could. “I tell you it wasn’t fair. “ (para. 61 ) However, everyone else goes along with the lottery as though blind and oblivious to it’s fatal result that would prove to be the end of one of their own lives. All along, utilitarianism appears to be the key driving force behind this lottery. A lottery is usually an occasion for celebration but this one is a ritual that involves stoning a person to death based on the lottery’s results. Old Man Warner’s explanation offers insight into why utilitarianism and superstition blend together : "Used to be a saying about ‘Lottery in June, corn be heavy soon." ( para. 33 ) . It seems that the villagers believed that in order to have a good harvest of corn for the village, they would have to sacrifice one person in the guise of a lottery. They assumed that trouble would follow if they didn’t go through with the lottery and they might even find themselves living in caves again like the ancient men. Thus, the story commits a gross injustice to one person based on a truly flawed belief that is caused due to irrational fear and long-living

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The author Shirley Jackson wrote “The Lottery;” a village conducts an inhumane lottery to pick out one individual. The quote unquote “winner,” in this case, Mrs. “Tessie” Hutchinson, gets stoned heartlessly to death by all the 300 villagers, including her kin. This lottery began as a ceremony long ago to choose a villager to be sacrificed to Earth in exchange for a large harvest. Now, it became an annual tradition, a tradition that is too deep to be changed.

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Have you ever won something just to lose your life? Well in the story “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson a group of people have a superstition of taking the life of one person each year will help their crops grow. Two characters in the village shows two different sides of humanity when it comes to this superstition, for example Mr. Summers and Ms. Hutchinson. The Lottery has been happening for so long it became a tradition.

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The tradition of the lottery has been carried out for so long in this village that nobody even knows the reason for its occurring in the first place and nobody questions it. When Old Man Warner, the oldest man in the village, is told about other villages giving up the tradition of the lottery, he says that they are, “[A] pack of crazy fools [...]. There [has] always been a lottery [...]” (Jackson, 4). There is no reason why there has always been a lottery except that every year on June 27th, they held the lottery.

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Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery” is an account of a tradition gone awry. In this short story the villagers of this town have a tradition where they have a “lottery” to see who gets stoned to death. The characterization and symbolism used in the story makes the reader feel as if society has crumbled with the inhumane tradition that ultimately lost its meaning. Throughout the story, Jackson uses characterization and symbolism to imply a message to society about the meaning of tradition. Through the use of characterization and symbolism Jackson establishes that blindly following traditions can be hazardous

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