More handpicked essays just for you.
What was the sacrifice in the lottery by shirley jackson
What was the sacrifice in the lottery by shirley jackson
What was the sacrifice in the lottery by shirley jackson
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
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.
In Shirley Jackson’s short story “The Lottery,” the townspeople participate in the heinous tradition, the lottery, to gain social belonging within the group with no regard to the death that ensues. With Tessie’s immediate reaction to her family and herself being chosen by the lottery, it seems obvious that she had these opinions beforehand but was not willing to speak out. There are a few different reasons as to why Tessie could not voice her opinion. One could speculate that many if not all of the townspeople also have the underlying opinion that the lottery is no longer useful. The town is so willing to kill whoever the lottery chooses, so why wouldn’t they agree to killing anyone who deviates from the group’s decisions.
One can see by examining the symbolism of the setting and the irony of a welcoming setting Shirley Jackson's short story, The Lottery is not an archetypal horror story. Firstly, one can see that as the story continues, it progressively gets creepier, for an example, with the introduction of Mr.Graves, it may not be much but it is the beginning of a long slippery slope that leads to the stoning of Tessie Hutchinson. Throughout the story one would be greeted with the warm inviting descriptions, for example, “The morning of July 27th was clear and sunny with a fresh warmth of a full-summer day; The flowers were blossoming profusely and the grass was richly green”. That quote, for example, is but one, of some descriptions the shield the unexpected and off-putting ending.
In “The Lottery,” by Shirley Jackson, the lottery that takes place is actually a tradition that the village follows. Winning a lottery might sound like the best thing ever, but not for this village. Every year, a person is stoned to death because of this old tradition. The message that Shirley Jackson is trying to convey is that you should stand up for what you believe or what your traditions are.
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
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.
Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery" is about a village who participates in a drawing every year. The family that is drawn then has to come forth and draw one more time, and whoever draws the sheet of paper with a black dot on it, is to be stoned to death. The townspeople do not think negatively of this event; nor do they treat it any different than any other type of social gathering. The ritual has went on for over seventy seven years because the towns people believe it benefits the crops. The towns people know very little about the origin of the ritual, but they insist on keeping it alive.
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.
One of many characteristics of a good story is its unpredictability, which makes readers stick to the end to find out what happens next. Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery” is a short story that has left readers shocked or as some may say, “scarred for life” the reason being that it had a rather unexpected ending. Tradition is an important part of people’s identity, as it holds significant information about ancestral beliefs. But sometimes, doing these traditions can make you feel stuck in time. Jackson’s story greatly shows this because of how Tessie Hutchinson, the story’s main character, dreads the day of the lottery, although it has been going on for more than seven decades—according to old man Warner.
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.
Traditions have been sought after and passed on for generations; with no questions asked, whether humane or not, traditions are hard to break and diminish as they are often what a culture or community stands for. In Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery”, a story about the tradition of a small village, is painted in impeccable details of peace, and serenity on a warm summer day, as everyone follows the tradition they have known since a long time ago despite the true intentions and meaning of it forgotten. The Lottery taking place annually is like no other lottery, it paints the true picture of the horror that epitomizes the tradition that none of the villagers dare to question, despite it creating separation between gender and families and ruining
“A cloud hides the sky, and nuclear shadow falls across the human future. Midway through the Twentieth century, two superpowers prepare for a conflict which might have ended life on the planet.” The Cold War was a battle powered by fear that lasted for nearly half a century, but it all started with WWII. The Soviet Union’s communist world view was dramatically different from the U.S.capitalist worldview.
In her story "The Lottery", Shirley Jackson implies the negative consequences of blindly following tradition through the acceptance, by the villagers, of the tradition of the lottery. Jackson suggests that the people of the village are afraid to give up the little tradition they have, even if it is not good. Every year after the lottery, the conductor of the lottery, Mr. Summers suggests that they should build a new box but, “No one [likes] to upset even as much tradition as [is] represented by the box.” (Jackson, 1). The black box symbolizes ritual and tradition.
Charmain Baker-Deer ENC1102 Mar 02, 2018 Essay draft 1 Topic: What is the theme of “The Lottery”? “The Lottery” is about small town, with a population of three hundred people. Everyone from the village is subjected to participates in an annual ritual, where members are required to pick from a black box to determine their destiny. In “The Lottery,” Jackson highlights human kind capacity of victimizing violence and tradition to control the masses.
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.
