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Tradition In Shirley Jackson's The Lottery

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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. Shirley Jackson uses the objective point of view to convey how people follow traditions without reasoning or questioning. Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery" starts out by explaining the history behind the drawing box. It explains how it is …show more content…

Some discuss how beneficial the lottery is, and some discuss how it is senseless. While speaking with Mr. Warner, Mr. Adams says, " They do say that over in the north village they're talking of giving up the lottery."(Jackson 256) The audience finds out that some villages have came to terms and realized that continuing the lottery would be senseless. Yet, most people were looked down upon for not wanting to continue the tradition. When the family of Tessie Hutchinson is drawn from the box, she yells, " You didn't give him time enough to take any paper he wanted. I saw you. It wasn't fair."( Jackson 256) When Tessie's family is drawn, her reaction was unexpected by the reader. The way Jackson uses the objective point of view up until this very moment sways the reader into thinking that the lottery is a positive tradition, but Tessie's reaction reveals that something bad is about to happen. The reader is not able to infer specifically what is going happen, but Jackson does disclose through the objective point of view how most everyone

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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.

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"The Lottery" by Shirley Jackson begins innocently enough with a village preparing for an annual event, but as the story progresses, it becomes clear that the seemingly harmless tradition is anything but, forcing readers to confront the dangers of blindly following tradition. Jackson employs rhetorical techniques that highlight the importance of avoiding conformity, as it will lead to dire consequences. Shirley Jackson's story is a powerful example of the use of symbolism, vivid imagery, and irony to illuminate the danger and violence of blindly following traditions, as the seemingly innocent annual lottery in a small town ultimately reveals the brutal consequences of conformity and the human capacity for violence. Throughout the story Jackson

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Javier Rosario march 7, 2018 ENC 1143 The Lottery Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery” shows how a tradition goes through certain changes as years pass, and how the people manipulate that same tradition. Throughout the story, we can see how the people live their lives around a tradition that has become an assassination instead of a sacrifice. The primary events in the story seem benign. Children run around the town square collecting stones, and while they pile up the stones, the adult villagers arrive (women first then men).

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In the story “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson, an annual drawing happens on June 27th. The story “The Lottery” is about a group of villagers who partake in the annual drawing, and at the end the person who essentially “wins” the lottery is stoned to death. The purpose of the lottery is that it is used as an indicator that the harvest is coming. The purpose is also that it is a tradition passed down from their ancestors as a good luck ritual before harvest to get good crops that year. The villagers still carry this tradition because they are afraid of the outcome if they were to break it.

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She said “At one point in the village's history, the lottery represented a grave experience, and all who participated understood the profound meaning of the tradition. But as time passed, the villagers began to take the ritual lightly. They endure it almost as automatons—"actors" anxious to return to their mundane, workaday lives. Old Man Warner, the only one who seems to recall the seriousness of the occasion, complains that Mr. Summers jokes with everybody.” (Griffin, 1).

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The story, "The Lottery," by Shirley Jackson is centered around a small village, filled with common people. Usually in tales with villages, the villagers stay in their bubble and are less aware of the growing world around them; they stick to their same routines and ways of living. They live in an area where the lottery is just another piece of that routine, with all the other surrounding villages acting the same. The common people just accept this tradition and do not realize how unethical the whole situation is, '[t]hey do say,' Mr. Adams said to Old Man Warner, who stood next to him, 'that over in the north village they're talking of giving up the lottery.' Old Man Warner snorted. '

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The purpose of the lottery is to continue the old tradition of sacrificing a scapegoat in order for a harvest. The scapegoat is chosen at random and then stoned to death by his/her companions. Although “The Lottery” reflects an event from the past, Jackson shows that many of the actions of the town resemble the tribulations that ensue in today’s society. To begin with, like the villagers in the story, our society also partakes in valuing tradition.

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”Tessie Hutchinson was in the center of a cleared space by now, she held her hands out desperately as the villagers moved in on her. “It isn’t fair she said”, “ A stone hit her on the side of the

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When the twelve year old Nancy “[goes] forward switching her skirt, [taking] a slip daintily from the box,” the audience is struck by her innocence, making the subsequent death of her mother via the lottery outcome even more terrible and tragic. A still more effective example of Jackson’s appeals to pathos occurs at the end of the story, where “someone [gives] little Davy Hutchinson a few pebbles” to join the crowd in stoning his mother. This moment is incredibly poignant and elevates the disgust and pity that the audience feels as the nature of the lottery is revealed. Little Davy is too young understand what is happening, and it is reasonable to assume that the rest of the characters have long since lost touch with the purpose of the lottery, as the only explanation the audience is given for its continuation is Warner’s statement that “there’s always been a lottery.” This remarkably insufficient excuse in support of such a heinous crime secures the sympathy of the audience towards not only Tessie’s plight but also Jackson’s argument.

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Coldly seizing the paper to reveal that she possessed the marked ticket indicates a lack of empathy, not of a friend and a spouse, but as a participant removed from any loyalty to family, instead loyal to the lottery tradition. By holding the slip of paper Mrs. Hutchinson had drawn, Mr. Hutchinson seals his wife’s fate knowing full well what will come next. Mr. Hutchinson had made the choice to essentially betray his

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In “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson, the author comments on the faults of tradition in modern society. She asserts that certain traditions, even though they are obsolete and no longer serve any purpose, have become so widely accepted that people fail to see the problems in them. This commentary is expressed through the opinions of Old Man Warner, who, when a conversation concerning other villages that have eradicated the lottery arises, says, “Pack of crazy fools... nothing’s good enough for them. Next thing you know, they’ll be wanting to go back to living in caves, nobody work anymore...

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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.

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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.

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This story still remains relevant in comparison to today. Simple towns people who speak to each other on a daily basis and joke around with each other all of the sudden turn around and kill one of their one. This story symbolized the change of heart within people when events go on. With various symbols, Shirley Jackson created the short story, The Lottery, to show society and what it has been and what it could be. One might even say that Jackson wanted to keep it in the mind of a ‘modern’ society that such things could happen again.

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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.

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