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The Characters In The Lottery By Shirley Jackson

987 Words4 Pages

Does winning a lottery always make the chosen person lucky? When you think about lotteries, the first thing that usually comes to mind is riches. Who wouldn’t want to win the lottery? If it means it’ll benefit your life, why not take the chance, right? Well, you’re in for a surprise once you read this short story by Shirley Jackson called “The Lottery” written in 1948. The main characters, Mrs. Tessie Hutchinson, the main protagonist, and Mr. Summers play the most important roles as they move around the very plot of the story. At the beginning of the story, the author sets a warm atmosphere that is in complete contrast to the end. As the story progressed, I began to notice an unsettling change in the tone of the story. What seemed to be a normal …show more content…

1). There is an elderly man known as “Old Man Warner”, the oldest of the village, who seems to hold onto the tradition very strongly as observed in the comments he made throughout the story. "Pack of crazy fools, Listening to the young folks, nothing's good enough for them. Next thing you know, they'll be wanting to go back to living in caves, nobody work any more, live that way for a while.” (The Lottery, pg.4) Here, we can see how much he loathes seeing the younger generation neglect traditions. He says that without tradition, nobody would be motivated to do anything the way it should be and we’d move backwards instead of forward. Additionally, it could be inferred that their village does this tradition in order to receive a good harvest as the saying he mentioned goes, 'Lottery in June, corn be heavy soon.' The Lottery, pg. 4 (Secondary). This could very well be the root of why some people do not want to let go of that tradition. They have a belief that has been planted into their brain and the thought of changing their tradition scares them. As mentioned in a section of the story, ‘Mr. Summers spoke frequently to the villagers about making a new box, but no one liked to upset even as much tradition as was represented by the black box.’. Thus, there are several factors that keep tradition well embedded in our nature, which makes it hard to

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In the story it is says “Mr. Summers spoke frequently to the villagers about making a new box, but no one liked to upset even as much tradition as was represented by the black box.”, and “… Mr. Summers began talking again about a new box, but every year the subject was allowed to fade off without anything’s being done.” (Jackson 1). It is quite clear that the villagers are purposely putting off the subject of making a new box for this occasion because they don’t want to change the tradition in any way, shape, or form. This black box has been around since the oldest man in town, Mr. Warner, was born. The box is described as “…shabbier each year: by now it was no longer completely black but splintering badly along one side to show the original wood color, and in some places faded or stained.”

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“The Lottery”, by Shirley Jackson is a very suspenseful, yet very shocking short story. This story is set in a small village, on a hot summers day in June. Flowers are blooming, and the towns people are gathering for the lottery, which is a tradition the town does every year. As the reader reads the first paragraph they think this is a happy story. The title also says, “The Lottery” which is a word often used for winning something or receiving a prize.

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and she was stoned and killed. A theme throughout the story is few people from the town think that the lottery is bad and wants to quit. Therefore they have fear for change of tradition because they don’t want to admit that it’s wrong. For example MR. Adams told old man Warner that they were quitting the lottery in other places but old man warner disagrees.

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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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Sometimes, traditions are not always meant to be carried on. Especially when they become outdated. Jackson writes, “Although the villagers had forgotten the ritual and lost the original black box, they still remembered to use the stones.” This is stating that they were not even doing it for the original reason. They were only doing it because they were so set on traditions.

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The villagers are reluctant to give up their beliefs because they think that they might lose their distinction that separates them from others. Old Man Warner strongly disapproves of people who want to quit the lottery. He says, “There’s always been a lottery”3 so for him, these people are “crazy.”4 However, for the readers, his reluctance means that he is afraid to change his place within the society. He has gained the title of Old Man not only because he is the oldest man in the village but he has also been in the lottery for 77 years.

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The black box that is old and “[grows] shabbier each year,” represents the old traditions that are held with high esteem (540). The box has been repaired multiple times. There are talks about creating a brand new black box but those always fade away being as everyone wants to stick with the old box. The people do not want to break tradition. Everyone keeps “their distance, leaving a space between themselves and the stool” where the box sits (540).

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