The Lottery Theme Essay

Evrik Stokes

Professor Margaret Snyder

English 102

27 February 2023

The Lottery Theme Analysis Essay

The Lottery by Shirley Jackson is a short story about a village that performs annual sacrifice to ensure that their corn grows. The village chooses who they are going to execute (via stoning) by drawing a paper from a box with the name of the victim. The main theme of The Lottery is that appeals to tradition are illogical and therefore should not be used to justify one’s actions.

The time period that the story is set is not directly mentioned, but a guess is 1600s – 1800s based on the fact that the villagers square dance and the attire described. As for where the story takes place, there is not too much information that is given; however, an

In addition, Warner says, "It's not the way it used to be" and “People ain't the way they used to be" after a girl whispers, "I hope it's not Nancy," (Jackson 4, 6). Old Man Warner is the motif of the villages’ dislike of change, and him being the oldest member of the village is probably not a mistake, as it would make sense that the character that represents the villages long standing irrational beliefs has been around the longest. Conversely, Tesie is a dynamic character. As the story progresses, Tesie goes from light and playful to scared out of her wits, or so we think. It is not impossible that in Tesie’s final moments she not only realized sacrificing someone at random on the basis that the village would have a good harvest is a non sequitur, a conclusion that doesn’t follow from the premises; however, it was too

This is revealed through the setting, characterization, plot and narration. Overall, it doesn’t matter how much value one puts on tradition, religion, etc., because making the right decision is of utmost importance. Making the right decision involves being critical and practicing an appropriate amount of skepticism. Logic is important, because without it we can come to false conclusions about reality. An appeal to tradition is “Arguing that something is true or valuable on the grounds that is traditionally believed.” (Withey and Zhang 80). Some might be wondering what’s wrong with that, and the answer lies in justification, because if this line of reasoning is used, then people can justify anything so long as it has been traditionally done e.g., “A women’s place is in the home; after all, this has traditionally been the case since time immemorial!” (Withey and Zhang