The Tameless Tradition In The Lottery By Shirley Jackson

LeGrand, Peyton

Strebeck

English 1302-6th

04 Apr 2023

The Tameless Tradition Congratulations! This is the usual response someone receives after being awarded a lifetime fulfillment with any lucky lottery win. However, the lottery taking place in this story is one they will truly never forget if they are even able to live to tell it. In “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson, three hundred villager’s gather on a warm summer day to continue the lottery which eerily looms over them. The men and women take their respective positions while Mr. Summers, an affable elder, sets up the black box and reads the directions aloud. The rules force the men of the family to draw, and the drawer must be 16 years old or older. As this occurs, Mrs. Tessie Hutchinson

These pieces are thoroughly left throughout the story which allows readers to make their own assumptions. Even from the beginning, Jackson describes “. . . the morning of June 27th [as] clear and sunny, with the fresh warmth of a full-summer day”(Jackson 264). This leads to the name of Mr.Summers who is the one conducting “The Lottery”. He awards the winners death which is a symbol in itself. The summer season creates a heart warming aroma that slowly fades as the story progresses. This puts people in a whole hearted mood which is also a reason why it is easy for them to blindly follow the tradition. The first sign of the story taking an ominous turn is when “the postmaster, Mr.Graves, follow[s] him, carrying a three-legged stool, and the stool [is] put in the center of the square and Mr. Summers set[s] the black box down on it”(Jackson 265). Once the black box is set up the mood immediately takes a more sinister turn. Readers start to take more of the symbols leading up to this into account which creates a devious theory inside their minds. The black box represents death and the true winner will be the one whose fate is in the deathly box. Even the wood from which the box is made is supposed to resemble a coffin. Through these details, Jacksons pieces are able to come together to form an ideal plot. This also reveals the true

"Jackson's the Lottery." Short Story Criticism, edited by Jenny Cromie, vol. 39, Gale, 2000. Gale Literature Criticism, link-gale-com.texarkanacollege.idm.oclc.org/apps/doc/UJJION106178634/GLS?u=txshracd2562&sid=bookmark-GLS&xid=15be07a9. Accessed 22 Mar. 2023. Originally published in The Explicator, vol. 50, no. 3, Spring 1992, pp. 183-185.

Jackson, Shirley. “The Lottery.” Perrine’s Literature: Structure, Sound, and Sense, 13 th ed., edited by Thomas R. Arp and Greg Johnson, Cengage Learning, 2018, pp. 264-271.

Lainhoff, Seymour. "Jackson's the Lottery." Contemporary Literary Criticism, edited by Christopher Giroux and Brigham Narins, vol. 87, Gale, 1995. Gale Literature Criticism, link-gale-com.texarkanacollege.idm.oclc.org/apps/doc/YSYKVI335892484/GLS?u=txshracd2562&sid=bookmark-GLS&xid=b76b295e. Accessed 23 Mar. 2023. Originally published in The Explicator, vol. 12, no. 5, Mar. 1954, p. 34.

Nebeker, Helen E. "The Lottery: Symbolic Tour de Force." Short Story Criticism, edited by Jenny Cromie, vol. 39, Gale, 2000. Gale Literature Criticism, link-gale-com.texarkanacollege.idm.oclc.org/apps/doc/RXQUWM572209436/GLS?u=txshracd2562&sid=bookmark-GLS&xid=bf28427a. Accessed 22 Mar. 2023. Originally published in American Literature, vol. 46, no. 1, Mar. 1974, pp.