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Tradition In Shirley Jackson's The Lottery

853 Words4 Pages

Shirley Jackson’s story “The Lottery” is about a lottery that is held every year in a small town in New England. Everyone in the town participates in this lottery, including the women and children. Each year one person in the small town is stoned to death by the other townspeople. The lottery gives each person the equal chance of being the one to get stoned. Jackson uses names and objects to help us understand the theme of tradition and how it can be dangerous. The name “Mr.Summers” symbolizes the season in which the lottery is held. The story starts off by letting you know it’s summer. The thoughts of summer consist of happiness and warmth. The beginning of the story appears normal, perhaps even joyful, but as we continue to progress to the conclusion we become aware of the unfortunate twist. The lottery takes place every June 27th, not only for this village, but for many other surrounding …show more content…

The stool is supporting the black box, which is symbol of the evil tradition. This is trying to show religion supporting such violence like the lottery. Many individual parts of the tradition had changed throughout the years though. They changed wood chips to papers, both of these items representing the equal chance every member of the town have of getting stoned. Mrs. Hutchinson freaks out saying “It wasn’t fair” (Jackson 1) but Mrs. Graves stated that “All of us took the same chance” (Jackson 1). The black dot on the paper symbolizes death to whoever draws the paper with that symbol on it. The stones represent how they kill someone in the town and they probably have the children collect them to get them involved in the lottery. The lottery has been going on longer than the oldest man in town (Old Man Warner) has been alive, and they want the children to carry it on. The heads of the families are the only ones that can draw, usually men, even though the might not be the ones killed, in fact a woman was the one killed this year in the

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First of all, the children are making “a great pile of stones in the corner of the square” (260) and adults are just chatting, waiting for the lottery to begin. Following that, even the man in charge of the lottery, Mr. Summers, is underwhelming and is portrayed just as “a round-faced, jovial man” (261). Additionally, Jackson introduces Old Man

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The black box in “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson represents tradition. The black box had been the same box when the lottery first began; it has since been passed down over the years. In the short story it’s described as falling apart and hardly black anymore after years of use. The tradition is to remember the ancestors who had been sacrificed and thus the townspeople keep the box and use it every year. Although, the black box can be interpreted to represent death.

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Jackson allows the readers to think that this event is a joke because these kids are picking certain stones for an upcoming murderous event and to see that the children are easily following the elders’ steps. Another example would be “the black box” and the black spot on the “fatal slips of paper”. The description of these two objects is very symbolic to death and evil. Starting of with the box, it’s described as being_ “splintered badly,… and in some places faded or stained” which symbolizes the individuals family falling apart due to the fact of the death of the person. The black spot on the “fatal slips of paper” represent darkness and evil since the color of the dot is black and it also symbolizes the person who gets stoned to death during the lottery next.

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However, it is quite opposite of what the story portrays. What the reader does not see from the beginning of the story and does not capture until midway through, is that the lottery is actually something awful. When the lottery processions proceed the story starts to develop a more serious and somber mood. The townspeople show no remorse or empathy for one another and friendships slowly diminish. This is especially true when they know they will soon have to stone to death the villager who has drawn the marked paper; for instance, when Mrs. Delacroix picks up the biggest rock to bludgeon to death, the winner, Mrs. Hutchinson.

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Shirley Jackson says "the stool was put in the center of the square and Mr. Summers but the black box on it". This is disturbing detail that makes the reader wonder what is in the mysterious box .This detail ultimately leads to the terrifying ending. The people choosing from the box is another disturbing fact. Jackson writes “Mr. Summers declared the box to be open" and adresses "There had been a ritual

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Additionally, they feel as though they won't be tormented with some kind of disaster. The last motivation behind why the villagers hold the lottery is on the grounds that it is something they have been carrying out for so long, townspeople have recently made it a meaningless practice. The practice of the lottery is still unknown, but there are many pieces of evidence that

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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.

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Mr. Summers initiates the beginning of the lottery when he starts to list of the names of the families, calling them up to draw from the box. “‘Allen,’ Mr. Summers said, ‘Anderson….Bentham,’” (p 3). He continues to go through the list, with only minor interruptions of commentary from some of the villagers. The way that this story is written makes it increasingly difficult to focus on any character long enough to create any sort of bond.

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Tradition In Shirley Jackson's The Lottery

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Additionally, the children of Mrs. Hutchinson showed excitement at not being picked but showed no emotion or pity as their mother was stoned to death. I found this part hard to comprehend, as I am very close with my mother and could not even imagine hurting her. Overall I saw the main message focus on the dangers of tradition, as tradition was symbolized by the black box. Other towns talked of giving up the lottery but Old Man Warner expressed his concerns, labeling the younger generation a “pack of crazy fools” (220). Even though some citizens expressed interest in the idea of change, no one ever spoke up as “Mr. Summers spoke frequently to the villagers about making a new box, but no one liked to upset even as much as tradition as was represented by the black box” (217).

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The whole purpose of the lottery was never truly stated but the why this village continues the lottery is because tradition is tradition. That is why Mr. Summers always runs the lottery, the lottery is always drawn from the same black box, the lottery always takes place on June 27th, and the winner is stoned. No matter how cruel this tradition is, as Old Man Warner (a villager) says, “there’s always been a lottery” (Jackson 375). Just like how there's always been a mingi in Ethiopian culture. According to the article, “Is the tide turning against the killing of ‘cursed’ infants in Ethiopia” the author, Matthew D. LaPlante, states that a mingi is “cursed, according to their [the ethiopians] ancient superstitions” (2).

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In the short story “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson, each year the people of the town had a lottery. And every year another person dies to the lottery. The lottery has little meaning left to the people of the town and now they are only doing it for the sake of tradition. Now it is different for the settlers of the town. Used to be a saying about ‘Lottery in June, corn be heavy soon.’

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This indicates that the tradition has been going on for so long, the people that grow up with this find it normal to be done. The old man who criticized the other towns that grew tired of the Lottery has been used to seeing the Lottery around for so long and had actually supported the reason behind it. Next to the rocks in symbolism was the stool as well as the black box. The black box which was used to draw the pieces of paper symbolizes the key between life and death.

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