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The Importance Of Traditions In The Lottery

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Many towns have traditions that they are not willing to let go of, but none like the one in the story The Lottery. Unlike most traditions this one does not have a happy ending. If you draw the chosen ticket from the black box you are then pegged with rocks by your whole town including your family.The forsaken tradition that this town is not willing to let go is dangling on by a thread. Many signs are shown throughout the story that the tradition that they thought would last forever is not going to last so long. In the story The Lottery every year they do an annual lottery. Where each person in the town goes up when their name is called and draws a ticket from the black box, if they get the chosen ticket with a black mark on it they are then
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Tradition is done by many around the world and depending on where you are from tradition can be good or bad. In the stories, “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson and “The Hunger Games” by Suzanne Collins, we are presented with a similar tradition but a very different atmosphere around the people and the setting of said tradition. In this literary analysis essay we will look at the different atmosphere presented around the form of selection process that is shown in both stories and how this atmosphere can change the view of the reader. First off, the authors of both stories introduce some sort of tradition that must be carried out, for both of the stories it is a selection process. During this time the entire community gets together in the

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The two story’s “The Lottery” And “First They Came”, have similar themes or messages. The lottery is about a small town in a fiction world that needs to keep up a tradition by having a lottery. But in this case winning the lottery is not a good thing. The poem First they came is about a man where everyone around him is being taken by the Nazis because they are either Jewish, Socialists, and the Unionists.

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The theme of the story shows that some traditions should not be kept or should change. In "The Lottery" the man of the house has to take a slip of paper and if the man has a black dot on his paper his family members will then choose a slip of paper and whoever has the black dot will be stoned by all the people in the town. The lottery has always been a tradition in the town including the black wooden box that held the pieces of paper, but at one point were wood chips. The lottery was conducted by Mr. Summers who every year wanted to get a new box for the lottery, but people of the town always disagreed. The villagers disagree because they do not want to upset the tradition that was represented by the black box.

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1032 Words | 5 Pages

The Wrongs and the Rights of Traditions "The Lottery" and Things Fall Apart both underscore societies' need for certainty through traditions, beliefs, and rituals. This is shown in the two works through the use of highlighting negative outcomes and by blindly following traditions. Without the use of ever questioning the customs or having curiosity in determining the drawback in exploration of other customs, nothing else is ever known to us. " The Lottery", a short story by Shirley Jackson, unravels an annual tradition where each year one unfortunate person is randomly chosen and sacrificed by the rest of the village. Everyone in the village selects a slip of paper from a box, and the person who selects the marked paper has stones thrown at them by the other

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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.

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317 Words | 2 Pages

In the short story The Lottery, the theme of the dangers of blindly following traditions is strongly depicted. The short story leads up to a town that participates in a brutal murder each year, by sacrificing one person by stoning the person to death. It is a ridiculous ritual that proves the point of the dangers in following traditions blind. In this story, before the kind of lottery they’re conducting is known, the towns people and participants seem harmless, even charming in a way. An example of this would be how they appointed a sort of pitiful man to be over the lottery, and another being the kids running around gathering up stones.

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1191 Words | 5 Pages

The short story “The Lottery” is written by Shirley Jackson. This story takes place in a small village where everybody knows each other. In this story all the villagers gather around town for their annual lottery. Everyone in the village is compelled to follow this tradition even if the outcome ends up with someone dying. In “The Lottery”, Shirley Jackson uses conflict, theme, and irony to develop this suspenseful short story.

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209 Words | 1 Pages

Practices, behaviors, conducts, or traditions, it does not matter which noun one uses, they all have pretty much the same meaning. Traditions is pretty much keeping common rituals or a way of life as time goes by. Christmas, is the tradition of celebrating the birthday of Jesus Christ, and Easter, is the tradition of celebrating when He rose from the grave. Independence Day, on the four of July is the tradition of setting off firework in celebration of America’s birthday.

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1510 Words | 7 Pages

As he arrived, he was carrying a black wooden box, and set it on a three-legged stool that was placed in the center of the square. Mr. Summers suggested every year to acquire a new box because the black box grew horrid every year, however, the suggestion was ignored. The people of the village were afraid to dismay the tradition that was signified by the black wooden box. As the lottery began, Mrs. Tessie Hutchinson arrived quickly forgetting that the lottery is taking place. There was a list of each head of the household along with each member of the family.

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Historically, in every culture, important practices exist which transmit traditional values to subsequent generations as traditions is a critical piece of our culture. They help developing and moulding the attitudes and characters of humans, forming the structure and foundation of families and our society. Notwithstanding, many traditions promote social unity and coherent, some traditions erode the integrity, psychological and physical health of individuals as can be seen in the story “The Lottery” writer by Shirley Jackson. In the story, head of the families take a lot in choosing the family that going to sacrifice one of the family members to increase the crop yield. Furthermore, the story “Looking for Rain God” written by Bessie Head reflects the belief in traditional practices, resulting in merciless death of two children.

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504 Words | 3 Pages

In the story, tradition of the lottery is very strong, because everyone follows it. Even if the people in the story had to kill a loved one, they still follow tradition. In most cases, tradition is the way of life. I have some traditions; Eating turkey for Thanksgiving, having ham as a food for Christmas Eve dinner, etc. Lots of people have traditions, even if it meant having to kill

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501 Words | 3 Pages

The Lottery itself represents a primal example of loss of innocence; portrayed through the young boys who gather at the town square to collect rocks for the horrors soon to follow. An illustration of how traditions can lose their true meanings and come to represent violence and warfare. Furthermore, “The Lottery” also represents the decaying characteristics of traditions, as symbolized by the town’s black box, in this case where every year, someone’s name is drawn out of the black box and they are stoned to death, by other members who may or may not end up to be family. Nonetheless, it ends up to be the villagers who

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467 Words | 2 Pages

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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650 Words | 3 Pages

“The Lottery”, a short story by Shirley Jackson, is about a lottery that takes place in a small village. The story starts off with the whole town gathering in the town square, where Mr. Summers holds the lottery. Once everyone gathers, every family draws a slip of paper out of an old black box, and the family with the black mark on their paper gets picked. After that, each family member older than 3 years of age re-draws a slip of paper again and this time, the person with the black mark on their paper gets picked as the “lucky winner” of the lottery. In this short story, after the Hutchinson family gets drawn, Tessie Hutchinson is declared “winner” of the lottery, with her reward is being stoned to death.

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505 Words | 3 Pages

They do not want to follow the other towns that had given up the lottery. The townspeople are apprehensive of transition because of the unknown factors. One of the examples in the story that shows their lack of willingness to change their customs is the battered black box they use for the lottery. It has been stained and the original color of the wood is shown on the side. Every year, Mr. Summers, who manages the lottery suggests to the villagers to get a new box.

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