ipl-logo

The Power Of Tradition In Shirley Jackson's The Lottery

838 Words4 Pages

This is the introduction to the short story called, The Lottery.The Lottery,is a short fictional story published in 1948 and written in the magazine called, The New Yorker. First, it’s 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”. Secondly, the head of the household/husband has to draw a piece of paper out of this black box. After that, they then reveal who “wins” the piece of paper with the black dot on it. Next, if your father/husband “wins”, the entire household then has to draw to see who gets stoned or has to sacrifice. Finally, they reveal who has the black dot after the last and final drawing of The Lottery. Then comes the stoning of the black dot “winner”. …show more content…

To start with, in this story the power of tradition changed everything because nobody knew why they were doing the lottery or who even started it. Nobody ever asked questions and they did what they were told to do. They didn’t ask questions because that’s all they knew, also they knew if they would ask questions they could possibly get themselves killed. They also followed the steps of the lottery in the same way they have always been. If they didn’t, some older people might have gotten angry and didn’t think it went how it should have went. It might not have flown the way they wanted it to flow. In the end,the theme for this short story could be that power of tradition can change how things

Show More
Related
615 Words | 3 Pages

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.

Read More
605 Words | 3 Pages

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.

Read More
747 Words | 3 Pages

They all had to wait anxiously until every man had drawn. Once the last man had gone up, they unfolded their papers to reveal the “winner.” The “winner” in The Lottery was Bill Hutchinson. The Hutchinson family then must draw, and someone from the family will get the black dot and will be stoned. The winner of the family in the short story was Tessie, Bill’s wife.

Read More
1252 Words | 6 Pages

They draw alphabetically by last names. The headmaster of each household or the father, goes up and draws a piece of paper out of the black box. There is one black dot in the box that someone will draw. No one can open the paper until everyone has one. Once everyone has gone people can now open them and find out who has drawn the black dot.

Read More
785 Words | 4 Pages

‘The Lottery’ is a story about tradition and sacrifice. However, even though the NY times article is about sacrifice, they are for different things. Such as money vs. good luck. ‘The Lottery’ talks about this small, peaceful village that have no problems and has mainly positive dialogue. But this village has this really weird tradition.

Read More
577 Words | 3 Pages

The Lottery is a short story ,published by Shirley Jackson, in a magazine called The New Yorker in 1948. The story takes place in a village with the population around 300 people. In the village the grass is green, clear and sunny, flower, rich grass, and a farming community. The community relies on The Lottery to bring them good crops. The Lottery is a old tradition the town does.

Read More
909 Words | 4 Pages

“The Lottery” is a short story by Shirley Jackson. The story commences with a vivid description of the summer day in the town, giving us the idea that the day will be good. When the lottery begins, families begin to draw slips of paper from the black box. Finally, when Bill Hutchinson withdrew the slip of paper with the black dot, his wife Tessie starts yelling that it wasn 't fair. When the second drawing was held only among the Hutchinson’s family, Tessie gets the same piece of paper with the dot and is stoned to death.

Read More
1474 Words | 6 Pages

“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).

Read More
961 Words | 4 Pages

Without a good family structure in our lives, what are we? We have no good life structure, bad morals and habits, and no preparation for the future. Family is one of the most vital aspects of living a successful life and we see this being portrayed in the novel To Kill a Mockingbird. With family we gain a valid example of good morals and habits, we model our lives after our parents and how they treat us and others, and we become good providers, protectors, and sacrifice for our own families in the future. When we are raised with an excellent family or parent figures in our childhood we will model their character to have good morals and habits in the future.

Read More
469 Words | 2 Pages

In today’s society, winning the lottery would bring great joy to someone hence the word “winning” which is usually considered something positive but in the story “The Lottery”, winning the lottery isn’t exactly a win. The story takes place on a nice sunny day in a small village packed with families that are fairly close. Annually, all people inhabiting the village gather together and hold the lottery which is a tradition where there are as many slips as there are families, one having a black dot on it. One by one the head of each household draws a slip not daring to peek at it until directed to do so. After each family has drawn their slip to fate, the family with the black dot must then draw again, but this time each member of the family draws a slip with only one having the black dot on it.

Read More
1020 Words | 5 Pages

Shirley Jackson wrote a shocking short story titled “The Lottery” full of drama and terrifying horror. In a small town in New England, there is a lottery that is held for every family that lives in this small town. In each of these families, there is one family member that holds the title, “head of the household.” To play the lottery, each family member with this title goes up on stage and picks out a slip of paper from the well known black box. Out of all the slips in the box, only one of those slips has a black dot in the center.

Read More
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

Read More
562 Words | 3 Pages

The short story The Lottery by Shirley Jackson. It was published in 1948 in a magazine called The New Yorker. In the beginning of The Lottery there were kids collecting rocks and the families were gathering. It was a sunny clear day on June 27 on the day of the lottery Old man warner said lottery in June corn be heavy soon. So the Black box was carried out to the location to be ready for The Lottery.

Read More
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.

Read More
640 Words | 3 Pages

The Lottery is a short fictional story published in 1948 in the magazine The New Yorker. The story takes place in a small village, and it’s population is about 300. On June 27th a summer day with green grass and flowers blossoming the lottery takes place. Mr.Summers and Mr.Graves are the people that prepare and conduct the lottery. Every year for the lottery, everybody in town gathers in the town square.

Read More

More about The Power Of Tradition In Shirley Jackson's The Lottery

Related Topics

Open Document