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Common Themes In The Lottery By Shirley Jackson

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The Lottery Theme
The Lottery is a thrilling story written by Shirley Jackson that depicts a gruesome town that sacrifices a member each year for the purpose of good crops. Although in the beginning the town appears to be rather benign and tight-knit, we learn too soon that it’s quite the opposite. This short story possesses many promising themes, but a possible theme in this story is that change is deeply resented and feared by many, but often times, it’s better if it occurs anyway.
Even though Old Man Warner thought that it was wrong to adjust the ritual or complete it without the right intuition, he thought it would be more absurd to terminate it, saying that without the lottery, young folks would be “wanting to go back to living in caves” …show more content…

Warner is the symbol of convention, there’s many pieces of evidence that support the thought that Mr. Summers represents modification and change in this short story. Mr.Summers is seen as a mood-lightening guy always open for something new. For instance, he suggests the making of a new box, but is turned down each time because no one can fathom “even as much tradition as was represented by the black box.” At other points Mr.Summers often changes himself from a “jovial” man to a seemingly austere man with a spiteful tone regarding the event. By that period of time, the ritual had been “forgotten or discarded,” but all the townspeople continued to participate it because they were unfamiliar with not doing it or the results of not doing it. Once again, this proves the theme in the sense that the civilians
This surprising story is one that reveals much about the human condition and the lengths people will go to avoid change. Villagers in the fictional town adhere to the drastic traditions suggested only because it’s all they’ve ever known and change to them is something simply incomprehensible and unaccustomed to. However, Shirley Jackson incorporates many elements of symbolism to suggest that change isn’t as terrifying as they think and to support the theme that although sometimes traditions may be hard to break, it’s more beneficial to discontinue them

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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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“The Lottery” is an realism/horror story written by Shirley Jackson. The story is about some villagers of a small New England town who follow the tradition of making a lottery every year. When it comes, they like to celebrate it with the correct rules and the correct objects so they can feel more comfortable. Everyone need to take a slip of paper from a small black box, and the paper with a black dot in it means that the family is the winner, then they raffle again; Bill Hutchinson, who was the husband of the protagonist Tessie Hutchinson picked a paper with a black dot in it, that meant that Tessie was the winner of the lottery, then she starts complaining because the drawing was not conducted properly. At the end, the townspeople moved off to a cleared spot outside the town and they begin stoning her to death (Jackson).

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In Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery," the author has demonstrated each symbol and the meaning that holds behind them. The black box is culturally known as a dark and evil color. It represents the fate of the people in town, and the three-legged stool is used as a support for the black box to lay on top of the object. Stoning is ancient.

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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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After completing this immoral act, people went back to their normal routine, showing no remorse. One feature of the story that shows a violent nature is when children gathered stones, while women gossiped, and men discussed farming. Everyone wanted to finish the ritual early, to get home in time for dinner. The people of the town gathered in the square, waiting for Mr. Summers to begin. The black box is placed, and each family member are required to participate.

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The Lottery The short story, The Lottery by Shirley Jackson proposes an annual lottery drawing in a little village set in New England. However, unlike any usual lottery, the winner is stoned to death by their fellow townsmen, women and children included. The lottery seems to have been a custom around the area for over seventy years.

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The villagers on “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson are afraid to let go of their tradition, the lottery. They are concern of unknown consequences that will happen if they change their old customs. So, for every year, the villagers gather at the square to do the lottery at 10 AM . The villagers are afraid to quit their outdated tradition because they think that changing their old customs will only bring trouble.

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