Sherri Jackson: The Theme Of Conformity

882 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Comparative analysis of two cultures

Society has always functioned on the premise that a person must adjust their behaviour in accordance with what is deemed socially acceptable at that time. If administrated to the fullest extent, the theme of conformity can be detrimental to the stability and growth of a community. Through analyzing the dystopian narrative elements of Sherri Jacksons’ works, readers are able to distinguish how the theme of conformity is still prevalent to humans today as it expresses the need for order and organization, eliminates fear of the unknown, and promotes society functioning as a whole with limited individuation. The author depicts this reoccurring normative event, to stress the notion that there is something fundamentally wrong with society. Through …show more content…

In doing so, the human species is able to remain at the top of the food chain, eliminating any deviation that could arise otherwise. The author illustrates this through a conversation exchanged between Mr. Adams and Old Man Warner, which discusses the other villages stopping the process of the lottery. This aggravates Old Man Warner as he goes off on a tangent about life before the lottery, how it saved them from a life of limits and poverty (Jackson 4). The Old man is a symbol of the lottery to the town; the eldest and wisest person around, who wholeheartedly devoted himself to this cause. He knows what the lottery has done for society first hand and has the better judgment of the two through age and experience. In the same way that the elderly man promotes the lottery, he is also a reminder that there is no room for questions and curiosity during this time period, as they lead to uncovering pain. Within the text the two discuss, “some places have already quit lotteries […] nothing but trouble in that. Pack of young fools” (Jackson 4). Mr. Adams was shut down immediately, as Warner correlates his age and being naïve as the explanation of how ignorant and ungrateful people are. The towns’ people do not know what life could be like without the lottery, however because someone is telling them that

Show More
Related

  • Conformity in Society Exposed in Shirley Jackson’s The Lottery

    900 Words  | 2 Pages

    In The Lottery, year after year, even since Old Man Warner, the oldest man in town, was a child, the same ritual has gone on. It is as if the community never learns from its previous mistakes. As long as no one in the town speaks up about such a twisted yearly event, nothing is ever going to change. If Martin Luther King or Malcolm X wouldn’t have raised their voices against the prejudice that they had experienced their entire lives, we might still be living in a segregated world, which was once thought to be “okay.” This is similar to The Lottery, in which the townspeople are brainwashed into believing that this ritual is normal. For example, Old Man Warner is outraged when he hears that the north village might give up the lottery, calling...

    Read More

  • The Lottery Rhetorical Analysis

    808 Words  | 2 Pages

    There are regions in parts of the globe that take part in normal activities that, here in the United States, would be considered completely abnormal, even inhumane. Yet, traditional ties sewn into a cultural realm deems certain events, such as “the lottery”, to be well within the bounds of socially acceptable. Old Man Warner epitomizes the relevance of the power of tradition in this short story, and the symbol that takes shape from it. A veteran of seventy-seven years in the lottery, he snorts at the idea of giving it up. “Nothing but trouble in that… Pack of young fools,” he says when it is mentioned that some towns have given it up. “Listening to the young folks, nothing’s good enough for them. Next thing you know they’ll be wanting to go back to living in caves, nobody work anymore…” he spouts off, illogically. The lottery was so steeped in the town’s traditional makeup that even the barbaric physical act of killing someone with stones was not the least bit

    Read More

  • Desensitization of Murder in The Lottery

    1068 Words  | 3 Pages

    The villagers think of the lottery as a chore, rather than a slaughter. The lottery to them is nothing more than another errand, a task that they need to fulfill once a year. They dread the lottery not because one of them will be killed, but because it consumes their valuable time and energy. They seem to forget the importance of the life they take away every year, instead complaining about how long and drawn-out the process or taking away said life is. The director of the lottery even wants it over quickly. ?Well now,? Mr. Summers said soberly, ?guess we better get started, get this over with, so?s we can go back to work?? (Jackson, 239) This statement shows that the people no longer care about the life that will soon be ended, but that they have work to do, and the lottery is in their way of finishing it. Moreover, ...

    Read More

  • The Lottery and Harrison Bergeron

    1130 Words  | 3 Pages

    'They 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. 'Pack of crazy fools,' he said. 'Listening to the young folks, nothing's good enough for them. Next thing you know, they'll be wanting to go back to living in caves, nobody work any more, live hat way for a while. 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. There's always been a lottery,' he added petulantly (Jackson 4).

    Read More

  • Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

    939 Words  | 2 Pages

    Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World introduces us to a futuristic technological world where monogamy is shunned, science is used in order to maintain stability, and society is divided into 5 castes consisting of alphas(highest), betas, gammas, deltas, and epsilons(lowest). In the Brave New World, the author demonstrates how society mandates people’s beliefs, using many characters throughout the novel. John, a savage, has never been able to fit into society. Moving through two contradicting societies, John is unable to adapt to the major differences of the civilized society due to the different ways upon which it is conducted.

    Read More

  • Much Ado About Nothing Essay: An Exploration of Conformity

    939 Words  | 2 Pages

    In Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing, Beatrice and Benedict rant about marriage for most of the beginning of the play, while Claudio raves about how wonderful it will be being married to Hero.  Yet in the end, Claudio exchanges his marriage to Hero for an opportunity to bash her in public, while Beatrice and Benedick marry despite that they were mortal enemies for most of the first three acts.  How did the situation swing around to this degree?  Beatrice and Benedick had been using the most extreme metaphors to demonstrate their scorn of each other and of marriage, and Claudio had been doing the same to demonstrate his love of Hero.  Not only did none of these three characters mean what they were saying, but meant the reverse, and the people that plotted to bring them together or pull them apart plotted because they understood on some level what each really wanted.

    Read More

  • Individuality In By George Orwell

    1009 Words  | 3 Pages

    Society Dies When Individuality Dies. Conformity plagues one’s existence and stature in today’s society. Due to government intervention in citizens’ daily lives, many writers have questioned the morality of conformity in a society by the means of control. When control becomes rampant, fascist and totalitarian governments are formed, and because of the rise in fascism and totalitarianism, many people are led to conform to social ideals. Therefore, George Orwell critiques conformity within society through the use of Big Brother, Proles, and Winston.

    Read More

  • The Lottery Symbolism Essay

    1210 Words  | 3 Pages

    Similarly, a boy from the Watson family was nervously drawing for his mother and himself. This is where the tension and the suspense of the story begin to build, as the reader can tell that the characters are growing increasingly worried as more names are called. Mr. Adams and Old Man Warner discuss the north village, a town contemplating abandoning the lottery. Old Man Warner calls them “crazy” (Jackson 294), and that “there’s always been a lottery” (Jackson 294). This is another example of the rigidness of the townspeople when it comes to their old traditions, as well as beginning to show that the lottery isn’t exactly a positive event, as many towns are dropping it.

    Read More

  • Fahrenheit 451: A Dystopian Society

    274 Words  | 1 Pages

    Society is a large part of life, you find mentions of it in books, movies, television shows, and practically anything that has to do with writing or the internet. One book, that shows a dystopian society, is Fahrenheit 451. Surprisingly to most, the society described in the pages of the book is actually fairly similar to the current society, the uprising of suicide, the banning of books in other countries and the past, and the effect that technology has brought. Although the similarities are most apparent, differences in the government are also perceptible. Observing the comparisons and contrasts of the fantasy and reality shows just how close and far a “functioning” and “malfunctioning” society are from each other.

    Read More

  • Social Conformity Sociology

    74 Words  | 1 Pages

    This text shaped my understanding of sociology because I was able to see how much power society, specifically the majority, can have over an individual because it seems to be the easiest course of action. This concept is known as social conformity. The article Opinions and Social Pressure took the time to convey how the minds of the majority and the minority work, and provides insight on how social conformity shapes our everyday experiences.

    Read More

  • A Comparison of Joseph Heller's Catch-22 and Arthur Miller's The Crucible

    1882 Words  | 4 Pages

    All members of society are subject to sociological rules and regulations that are often hypocritical.  These hypocrisies, both concrete and unspoken, are the subject of criticism by authors the world over, utilizing various methods and styles to ridicule society's many fables.

    Read More

  • The Dangers Of Tradition In Shirley Jackson's The Lottery

    846 Words  | 2 Pages

    As old man Warner said, "There 's always been a lottery” (Jackson 4). This shows that the villagers have a lack of ability to change over time. No person in the town would stand up and say that this violent ritual was absurd, making them all out to be hypocrites just as Tessie was. Instead of doing so, one villager, Mr. Adams, comments that other towns around them were giving up the lottery, as if to suggest their town should do so as well. In reply old man Warner said, "Pack of crazy fools” (Jackson 4), and then, "Listening to the young folks, nothings good enough for them” (Jackson 4). Old man Warner can in a sense be seen as a symbol of the town and their lack of change. He disapproves of anything that isn’t what he views as a traditional social practice. Old man Warner’s quick defense of the lottery implies that he sees change as an attack on himself and his beliefs. Blindly following tradition can cause the rejection of non-conformity in a society, even those traditions that are full of

    Read More

  • Annual June Lottery

    551 Words  | 2 Pages

    What Old Man Warner was telling Mr. Adams was that those of the younger generation keep on exceeding more from society, not realizing what they have been given. Also, Warner’s comment shows that there will not be a life without the lottery because it has been around for quite a while. Passing more towards the end, the reader meets the annual lottery winner, Tessie

    Read More

  • Conformity Studies Essay

    1055 Words  | 3 Pages

    Conformity is defined as the occurrence of people yielding to social pressures as a result of pressure from a group of their peers; when faced by the pressure to conform, people will alter their behaviour and actions to fit the norm demonstrated by their peers (Lilienfield et al., 2012). Conformity is studied so that is can be understood and used in society to facilitate positive outcomes, and help avoid situations where peoples’ predisposition to conform leads to negative consequences (Lilienfield et al., 2012). By understanding conformity and other social processes society as a whole is able to understand themselves better and motivates them to work on improving as a whole (Lilienfield et al., 2012).

    Read More

  • Conformity In Never Let Me Go

    1486 Words  | 3 Pages

    How do the actions and words of a society affect the way people act? In Never Let Me Go, author Kazuo Ishiguro depicts a society in which individuality is threatened by the pressure to conform through methods such as peer pressure and social expectations. Without a doubt, peer pressure is most commonly found in schools today just as social expectations are suffocating the middle class’ desire to become their own unique person.

    Read More

More about Sherri Jackson: The Theme Of Conformity

Open Document