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Symbolism in the lottery
What is the theme in “the lottery” by shirley jackson
What is the theme in “the lottery” by shirley jackson
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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.
1. The Misfit doesn’t know if Jesus had raised the dead or performed all the miracles he has been said to have done. Misfit wanted to see Jesus in person to having living visual proof of Jesus’ existence. This way, Misfit could convert to the Christianity and live his life as a devout Christian.
Shirley Jackson uses “The Lottery” to make a point about traditions, rules, and human behavior. To begin, traditions are something that relapse over time. Traditions take time to develop, but once developed people don’t happen to like it to change. In “The Lottery” one of the traditions is preparing the black box for the lottery to take place. In paragraph 5 on page 48 it talks about how there was a story about the present black box that was made by the black box before.
“The Lottery”, a short story written by Shirley Jackson, presents the reader with the negative consequences of following tradition. The story is set in a small town where a ritual called the lottery is taken place in which the “winner” gets killed by the other participants. Since the lottery is part of the town’s traditions, nobody wishes to get rid of it or make any changes to it regardless of its cruelty. For example, the box used for the lottery is in a very bad state and would need to be replaced. However, nobody has taken any further action to find a new box because the old one has been used for a long time and is said to be made of the remains of the one previous to it.
The short story, "The Lottery" by Shirley Jackson depicts a small town on a traditional day called the lottery. Although the lottery might've gotten it's beginning for a certain purpose, such as religion, the town has since forgotten why their doing it, but they still do it anyways. In the story, Tessie Hutchinson is picked in the annual lottery. Although everybody else has no issue with killing Tessie, Tessie keeps yelling out and exclaiming, "It isn't fair, it isn't right." (Jackson 29).
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.
Tradition is the framework of most cultures and religions. In “The Lottery” author Shirley Jackson uses symbolism to showcase the grim reality of rituals and how people blindly follow a mentality of traditionalism. Numerous civilizations utilize traditions as a sign of keeping beliefs, mindsets, and the people as a whole alive. The first example of the grim reality of tradition is the black box and its symbolic reflection on death.
Imagine a society where killing somebody for the sake of a tradition is acceptable. In the short story “The Lottery” Shirley Jackson describes an ordinary village with normal people, but as the story progress the details of their yearly practice known as “the lottery” unravels to be more disturbing. The author subverts the readers’ expiations by persuading the reader into assuming “the lottery” is a ordinary tradition until unusual details and the behavior of the characters come into place. In her short story “The Lottery,” Jackson seemingly uses ordinary details about the setting and the townspeople to characterize her theme that although society claims to be civilized, and may appear so, it is inherently barbaric.
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).
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 Lottery is a short story ,published by Shirley Jackson, in a magazine called The New Yorker in 1948. The story takes place in a village with the population around 300 people. In the village the grass is green, clear and sunny, flower, rich grass, and a farming community. The community relies on The Lottery to bring them good crops. The Lottery is a old tradition the town does.
Traditions that are outdated have a negative impact on people’s lives. Through analyzing the symbols in the short story it illustrates that traditions are not easy to change when society has accepted them as their way of life which can result in destruction. Mr. Summers displays the black wooden box in the centre of the crowd establishing to the villagers that it was time to proceed with their tradition being that “tradition... was represented by the black box” (Jackson). The author uses the black box as a symbol to define tradition which was a good analogy. Shirley Jackson also never reveals the outcome of the true purpose of the black box until the end of the story keeping her audience wondering what the significance is.
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.
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.
They do not want to follow the other towns that had given up the lottery. The townspeople are apprehensive of transition because of the unknown factors. One of the examples in the story that shows their lack of willingness to change their customs is the battered black box they use for the lottery. It has been stained and the original color of the wood is shown on the side. Every year, Mr. Summers, who manages the lottery suggests to the villagers to get a new box.
