Most people know the lottery as a contest to win money. But in the short story, “The Lottery,” written by Shirley Jackson, the lottery is not a simple game competing for money. In this small village’s version of the lottery, everyone must draw out of a box, and if their family is chosen then the whole family must redraw and the death of a member is decided. After the fate is decided, the rest of the village throws stones at him or her until he or she dies. The villages reasoning of this process is they believe it guarantees a plentiful crop season.
Shirley Jackson wrote the short fictional story called The Lottery in 1948, first written in the magazine called The New Yorker. It starts out as a nice warm day on June 27, with blooming flowers and green grass in a small village of about three hundred people. Every year this village has a lottery; Mr. Summers and Mr. Graves set it up every year. And whoever draws the paper with the black dot they get stoned as a sacrifice for their crops. Even though there are some young people that want to stop doing it, tradition is very strong so they won’t.
Imagine a society where killing somebody for the sake of a tradition is acceptable. In the short story “The Lottery” Shirley Jackson describes an ordinary village with normal people, but as the story progress the details of their yearly practice known as “the lottery” unravels to be more disturbing. The author subverts the readers’ expiations by persuading the reader into assuming “the lottery” is a ordinary tradition until unusual details and the behavior of the characters come into place. In her short story “The Lottery,” Jackson seemingly uses ordinary details about the setting and the townspeople to characterize her theme that although society claims to be civilized, and may appear so, it is inherently barbaric.
Characterized as a quant village with, “ . . . only about three hundred people . . .” (Jackson) and having an annual tradition noted as “the lottery”, Tessie Hutchinson is about to realize that not every tradition should be carried on. In Shirley Jackson’s riveting short story titled The Lottery, Jackson creates an environment where the tradition of selecting a citizen for execution is celebrated on an annual basis. As the lottery begins to commence, the community gathers in the village square to see which one of their beloved neighbors would be selected for execution in order to carry on the tradition.
Old Man Warner said, “There’s an old saying, Lottery in June, corn be heavy soon,” (pg.22, Line 260-270) Old Man Warner, the oldest inhabitant in the community, has lived to see 77 years of the lottery. This quote illustrates how the community cares more about their daily income than the people. It seems that they value the crops and money. In the context of the quote, two characters are talking about stopping the lottery, and one has claimed that it is foolish to stop the lottery, that one person’s life isn’t worth compared to the survival of the village.
The Lottery by Shirley Jackson was published in 1948. To start off, The Lottery is a story about a small village with 300 people that have a tradition called “The Lottery”. This Lottery takes place every year on June 27th, so it’s in the summer time. Every family in the town gathers in the morning of June 27th between the post office and the bank (all kids and all elder). Next, when everyone is settled and everyone is there, they begin the drawing.
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.
Tradition is defined as a belief or any action that is being followed from one generation to the next and is being followed unquestionably. One of the example of the short story in which tradition is being followed blindly is “The Lottery” Shirley Jackson. The short story “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson is about a vicious and heinous tradition that the people in the community celebrate every year on 17th of June. People in this traditional community, every year hold a village wide in which everyone in the village are expected to participate. The lottery is held in a symbolic black box that holds hundreds of pieces of paper from where everyone in the village must choose one.
The gruesome tale of Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery” showcased a dystopian society heavily dependent upon tradition. Throughout the short story, I saw instances where Jackson juxtaposed peace and violence. In fact, Jackson opened the short story with picturesque scenes of flowers, making the readers completely unaware of the violence that followed. When the narrator began by saying “the morning of June 27th was clear and sunny, with the fresh warmth of a full-summer day; the flowers were blossoming profusely and the grass was richly green” (216) the setting appeared peaceful and happy. At this point the readers were left in the dark, which was why the death of Tessie Hutchinson was a huge shock at the end.
The Lottery,is a short fictional story published in 1948 and written Shirley Jackson in the magazine called, The New Yorker. Some of the main characters of this story are, the Hutchinsons,Mrs. Delacroix,Old Man Warner,Mr. Summers,Mr. Martin,Mr. Graves, and Mrs. Dunbar. The Lottery is about this village that has a very strong tradition where somebody has to sacrifice for the crop, but some younger adults don’t like the tradition and want to give it up. ” Lottery in June, corn be heavy soon,” was the old saying. The head of the household/husband has to draw a piece of paper out of this black box.
Shirley Jackson’s story “The Lottery” is about a lottery that is held every year in a small town in New England. Everyone in the town participates in this lottery, including the women and children. Each year one person in the small town is stoned to death by the other townspeople. The lottery gives each person the equal chance of being the one to get stoned. Jackson uses names and objects to help us understand the theme of tradition and how it can be dangerous.
Why do we celebrate Christmas? Why do we celebrate the Fourth of July? Why do we celebrate certain days? There are multiple answers to this question. But the true question is...why do we celebrate these certain days every year?
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.
Many people would die to win the lottery; in the short story “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson you would do anything NOT to win this lottery. This annual lottery reveals the negative aspects of this town’s Tradition, Savagery, Barbarism, and cold-heartedness. In this paper I will show why this town blindly follows these customs, not because it’s a tradition but because of the accepting wickedness that can be shown. Why does the town follow this foolish tradition? Throughout “The Lottery” the narrator tells that the people do not remember how the lottery began, and that some of the older people believe the lottery has changed over the years, that now people just want to get it over with as fast as possible.
There is also an epistemological problem with the utilitarian theory of ethics; it is buttressed on the presupposition of a false relationship between happiness and righteousness. There are no reasons which suggest that we should take this relationship seriously. It certainly doesn’t seem pensive when we consider a naturalistic and objective theory of morality divorced from the idea of a supernatural creator. The Anthropocene epoch presents us with issues too complex to be solved by the almost philistine logic of utilitarianism. If we are granting morality a purpose, why does it have to be happiness?
