center of a cleared space by now, and she held her hands out desperately as the villagers moved in on her. “It isn’t fair,” she said” (Jackson 863). Even simply being a women would not save you from being stoned to death, the villagers did not care. All they knew was they had to stone her because it was an annual tradition. Another question that pops up is why would such a horrific action, be considered a tradition? “Why this unyielding support for these traditions? The answer to this question may lie in the darkest part of the human psyche” (Schneidermon 882). Well for one the reasons why traditions exist are because they bring people together. Also in a sense you do not have to think about what to do every year because it is already set in stone what is already going to occur. The main reasons why the villagers keep this horrible tradition alive is because they are promised a great harvest of corn if they do so. “Used to be a saying about ‘Lottery in June, corn be heavy soon.’ First thing you know, we’d all be eating stewed chickweed and acorns. …show more content…
“Mr. Summers hints at other negative consequences of the lottery when he says,” ‘guess we better get started, get this over with, so’s we can go back to work,’ The lottery ritual contributes nothing to the village, it only serves as a distraction from everyday village life”(Schneiderman 881). Mr. Summers apparently is one of the villagers that realize the negative consequences of the lottery and it should be stopped. “As I mention before, the detrimental effects of a tradition are easier to see when we are not part of that tradition ourselves. Thus, it is easy for us to condemn the lottery and its ritualistic murder of innocent victims” (Crawford 879). “The Lottery” is a perfect illustration of society values and how people feel as though they should always get what they want no matter who suffers in the
“The Lottery” Interpretive Essay “The Lottery”, a short story by Shirley Jackson, is about a lottery that takes place in a small village. The story starts of with the whole town gathering in the town square, where Mr. Summers, the official, holds the lottery. After that, every family draws out of an old black box, and a certain family gets picked. Out of the certain family, one person gets picked as the unlucky “winner” of the lottery. In this short story, after the Hutchinson family gets drawn, Tessie Hutchinson is declared “winner” of the lottery.
Growing up in a big family, traditions were what kept our family together. As a child, every first weekend in December was spent at my grandma’s house. It was our traditional craft/tree decorating weekend. All 15 of us grandkids would arrive at grandma’s house filled with excitement and joy. It was at time that we all got to spend catching up with each other and playing.
In this quote “Although the villagers had forgotten the ritual and lost the original black box, they still remembered to use stones” (Shirly 7). The town is preparing to kill Mrs. Hutchinson because she won the lottery. It states in the book that the lottery had been going on for a while. Which means they must have done the ritual for every time they did it. Mrs. Hutchinson said, “It isn't fair, it isn't right” (Shirly 7).
People are forced to participate in a tradition that results in both mental and physical consequences. The Giver, by Lois Lowry, is a dystopian novel showing how everybody in the community has to act the same. In other words, The Lottery, by Shirly Jackson is a short story that displays that nobody can think for themselves and follow the crowd. " The Lottery '' and The Giver share a common theme, that people will blindly put their lives on the line for their traditions.
Practices, behaviors, conducts, or traditions, it does not matter which noun one uses, they all have pretty much the same meaning. Traditions is pretty much keeping common rituals or a way of life as time goes by. Christmas, is the tradition of celebrating the birthday of Jesus Christ, and Easter, is the tradition of celebrating when He rose from the grave. Independence Day, on the four of July is the tradition of setting off firework in celebration of America’s birthday.
Traditions have been sought after and passed on for generations; with no questions asked, whether humane or not, traditions are hard to break and diminish as they are often what a culture or community stands for. In Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery”, a story about the tradition of a small village, is painted in impeccable details of peace, and serenity on a warm summer day, as everyone follows the tradition they have known since a long time ago despite the true intentions and meaning of it forgotten. The Lottery taking place annually is like no other lottery, it paints the true picture of the horror that epitomizes the tradition that none of the villagers dare to question, despite it creating separation between gender and families and ruining
Annotated Bibliography 1. Jackson The Lottery By: Yarmove, Jay A. Explicator. Summer94, Vol. 52 Issue 4, p242. 4p.
The Symbolism of The Lottery One big symbol that the short story is discreet about is the black box that is repeated throughout the short story symbolizes fear to adults which could affect even the most innocent. The black box appears to be the only paraphernalia that is still being used in the tradition of having a lottery. Mr. Summers is the one who is running the lottery at the time. Mr. Summers is seen as a nice man, however, when he is introduced, he is seen with the black box. “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson is a short story that uses the black box as a symbol to convey an underlying message that when the power of a tradition is given to a person, it could lead a crumbling society.
The Lottery Template Topic Sentence: One can see by examining the symbolism of the worn out black box, and the foreshadowing of the children putting rocks in their pockets in the The Lottery by Shirley Jackson, that this story is a classic archetypal horror story. Argument: Firstly, one can see that when Mr. Summers arrived at the square carrying a black wooden box, he asked the villagers if anyone would give him a hand with putting the box on the three- legged stool, however, many hesitated to come near the black box, a symbolic twist that foreshadows the imminent ending. The black box has been used for generations, even before the oldest villager. It has been said that the current box was made from the pieces of the
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.
“The Lottery”, a short story by Shirley Jackson, is about a lottery that takes place in a small village. The story starts off with the whole town gathering in the town square, where Mr. Summers holds the lottery. Once everyone gathers, every family draws a slip of paper out of an old black box, and the family with the black mark on their paper gets picked. After that, each family member older than 3 years of age re-draws a slip of paper again and this time, the person with the black mark on their paper gets picked as the “lucky winner” of the lottery. In this short story, after the Hutchinson family gets drawn, Tessie Hutchinson is declared “winner” of the lottery, with her reward is being stoned to death.
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.
The Lottery is a story by Shirley Jackson. It is about a town that has a type of stoning event called the lottery. It is basically like gambling with your life. Each person has to pull out a slip of paper out of a black box. There are enough slips for each member of the town.
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.
The Dangers of Following Traditions Blindly Why do people follow authorities and traditions blindly without reflecting upon what they are doing? The two short stories, The Lottery by Shirley Jackson and Examination Day by Henry Slesar, are perfect examples of societies that don’t question what they are doing because killing a person is rather an uncivilized and barbaric act. People will often be cruel when following traditions, beliefs, religion, or authorities. Thus, in the two short stories The Lottery and Examination Day, the authors are indirectly warning the reader about the dangers of not questioning authorities or traditions, and how we tend to be sheep that simply follow and don’t question.