Paraphernalia In The Lottery

The Lottery In the story “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson, is about an unusual lottery that one would not expect. This lottery leads to an annual sacrifice to keep the village from turning into chaos. But over the years many of the rituals have been forgotten. The one this that hasn’t been forgotten is using stones to murder people and this will always stay a tradition. This show that people wont stray from tradition and a way Jackson shows this without giving out the meaning of the story is by telling is in thirds person. In this lottery a family member (preferably a male), would pick out a peace of paper from the black box, that has been won out, and whoever happens to have a black dot on the paper, would generally have to have a raffle

For example Shirley Jackson states,

“The original paraphernalia for the lottery had been lost long ago… by now it was no longer completely black but splintered badly…”(Jackson 142). “At one time, some people remembered, there had been a recital of some sort…There had been a ritual salute addressing each person who came up to draw from the box”(Jackson 143).

None of this is done anymore, but the villagers continue to believe that “The Lottery,” every year will keep them in place. The people who think like this are especially the older generation, such as Old Man Warner, “the oldest man in town”(Jackson 142). This may give readers a sense that the villagers will always continue this tradition, no matter how pointless it is becoming through the years. The newer generation is beginning to understand that there is no point in the lottery anymore, since every year something is lost, broken, or changed. Jackson states this by saying that, “The original paraphernalia for the lottery had been lost long ago”(Jackson 141). Of course the younger kids are being taught that a sacrifice of killing people every summer is okay. This is why the tradition never really

This method of telling the story could get confusing, because it doesn’t give any information on what the lottery really is about; so this generally makes people think that winning the lottery could be good, but yet gives confusion because how Jackson states that the children put stones in their pockets before the gathering (Jackson 141). This builds up suspense in readers by only giving little parts of information throughout the conversations and actions that the villagers have without revealing what the lottery is