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Traditional Rituals And Free Thinking In The Lottery By Shirley Jackson

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Essay 1- The Lottery The Lottery Author Shirley Jackson who wrote the short story The Lottery outlines the dangers of participating in traditional rituals and free thinking. This short story is set in a small southern town where a lottery pick happens every year, and the winner is stoned to death by the civilians of the town. The public execution is not known until the very end of the story. In this essay, we will dive into the dangers of following traditional rituals and free thinking. The dangers of blindly following tradition, the mental impact, the societal role in continuing negative traditions, and alternatives to these practices. Traditional rituals have been a part of history since the beginning of time. The definition of a ritual …show more content…

Another example would be the movie The Purge. In this movie, there are similarities between the world of The Lottery and The Purge world. In this film once a year you can engage any and all crime that is legal except harming government officials; no one really bats an eye at this because it is so normalized. In this case, comparisons with the government would be Old Man Warner and the legalized crime would be the annual stoning of a singular person. Since The Purge and The Lottery are so dystopian coded people think it is bizarre to consider any nonviolent act a threat to their “flawless” societies People need to use their brains when thinking about some of the traditions they might wish to participate in so they don’t find themselves in potentially lethal …show more content…

In a scene in The Lottery where Mrs. Adams says “Some places have already quit lotteries, “nothing but trouble in that,” Old Man Warner said stoutly. “Pack of young fools” (Jackson 200). This shows when the thought of something untraditional is brought up it is immediately shot down, along with being ignored Old Man Warner was the only person to respond to Mrs. Adams. Another small excerpt from this story includes the quote “The children had stones already, and someone gave little Davy Hutchinson a few pebbles.” “It isn’t fair…A stone hit her on the side of the head. Old Man Warner was saying, “Come on, come on, everyone.” (Jackson 203). Again, Old Man Warner is the internal voice of this town and he is the only one who is answering and responding to these “out of place” comments the townspeople are

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