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The Danger of Tradition Traditionally many ancient societies would kill their people to sacrifice to God in order to obtain rain or a good harvest. These mindlessly, followed traditions were never critically thought about and therefore citizens died year after year. A similar tragedy occurs in Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery”. This story features a civilization much like our own but with one small difference, the town’s people hold a lottery every year and the town stones who ever loses to death.
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.
In the story, “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson; the author believes that following traditions and rituals blindly can lead to bad results. First of all, the disadvantage of following a tradition is that it can create violence and unknowingly distribute the thought of guilt between the people of society. For example, when a person’s name is picked out from the raffle, it’s in their tradition to start throwing stones at the unlucky person thoughtlessly. This also generates the eagerness to hurt the individual. Besides, the family members of the victim are not allowed to defy the society and dispute.
“The Lottery,” by Shirley Jackson shares a story of a town keeping up with tradition by having an annual lottery, except this lottery doesn’t end in a happy ending. Instead, the winner wins a death sentence by getting stoned. These actions can only be explained by Jackson’s use of representation of tradition. First, the lottery itself represents the ideals of a faraway past where “rituals” actually mattered to the health of a town.
The Lottery *Happy vintage jingle* “What is it that keeps you going, Through all the troubles and trief? the smile that says you’re winning, and hitting back at life. that very special moment When you come out on top, its winning that keeps you going it’s winning that won’t let you stop.
The Lottery was a short story by Shirley Jackson published in 1948 and it appeared in The New Yorker and it is a magazine that has a lot of stuff in it. The village in the story has a bank and a post office. The village could be like our town because it has green grass and flowers. Every year they have a lottery. They think that The Lottery helps their crops grow .The
Tradition is a sacred way to pass down the customs or beliefs of one generation to another. It is sometimes used to celebrate certain occasions, pay tribute, or remember the fallen. But in some cases, it can be used to sate the deep dark thoughts humans keep hidden inside them. For example, in The Lottery by Shirley Jackson, it is common to hold a lottery annually in every town. At first, it sounds like a chance to get lucky and win some serious cash.
It’s human nature to worry about things and be superstitious. Communities deal with it in many different ways, but one of the most repulsive ways is represented through “The Lottery.” The residents in this story believe that if they don’t pelt someone with stones to death every year, they won’t get a good harvest. “‘The Lottery’ forces us to address some unpleasant aspects of human nature such as people’s obedience to authority and tradition and their willingness to carry out evil acts in the name of superstition.” (“A Summary and Analysis of Shirley Jackson’s ‘The Lottery'’” - Interesting Literature”)
The gruesome tale of Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery” showcased a dystopian society heavily dependent upon tradition. Throughout the short story, I saw instances where Jackson juxtaposed peace and violence. In fact, Jackson opened the short story with picturesque scenes of flowers, making the readers completely unaware of the violence that followed. When the narrator began by saying “the morning of June 27th was clear and sunny, with the fresh warmth of a full-summer day; the flowers were blossoming profusely and the grass was richly green” (216) the setting appeared peaceful and happy. At this point the readers were left in the dark, which was why the death of Tessie Hutchinson was a huge shock at the end.
Why do we celebrate Christmas? Why do we celebrate the Fourth of July? Why do we celebrate certain days? There are multiple answers to this question. But the true question is...why do we celebrate these certain days every year?
The short story, “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson, reveals how ritual and tradition can control society. The ending has a sharp contrast to the normalcy of the story, giving it the horror type appearance. The lottery is an unquestioned ritual that takes place in a small town each year. Unfortunately, the winner of the lottery must be stoned to death, like a sacrifice, to continue the tradition. Ritual and tradition cause a great deal of tension surrounding the lottery.
This is about the short fictional story The Lottery by Shirley Jackson, published in 1948. To begin with, the setting of the story was a warm day with green grass and flowers. The date was June 27th in a small village with about 300 people. The village depended on farming. Next, the conflict of the story was man vs society(traditions, rituals, sacrifices).
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.
Shirley Jackson’s “The lottery” is a story based on tradition. When hearing the word tradition, most people think of team rituals before games, or something families do together annually. However, Jackson is obviously not like most people. She builds up a fair amount of tension around this ritual that is taking place to make readers wonder what is going on. She uses many different techniques to show that sometimes, traditions are not always meant to go on forever.
Shirley Jackson’s fictitious story entitled “The Lottery” is an allegorical writing piece of societal rituals and traditions as well as how these rituals affect both social and political cultures. Although Jackson presents her literary work as a somewhat simplistic story about a village that holds an annual lottery every summer, the themes governing the story’s plot delve a deeper analysis regarding the effects and consequences of a structure government on its citizens. In a traditionalism society, the lottery is conducted in a way that illustrates the hierarchy of an organization of people controlled by principles. For example, the people in the village are divided due to their role and purpose of the lottery. Nowhere in the story does any
