The Lottery by Shirley Jackson
Americans day after day live much of their lives following time-honored traditions that are passed down from one generation to another. From simple everyday cooking and raising children, to holidays and other family rituals, tradition plays a significant role on how they go by there everyday lives. In Shirley Jackson's short story, "The Lottery," the citizens of a small farming town follow one such tradition. A point is made regarding human nature in relation to tradition. The story begins on a beautiful summer afternoon. The town's citizens are eager, gathering in the town square in order to take part in the yearly lottery. With the story focused around one particular family, the Hutchinsons, who are so anxious to get it all over with until they find that one of their members is to participate in the lottery's closing festivities, Tessie. Of course unlike your typical lotteries, this is not one that you would want to win. The one chosen from the lottery is to undertake a cruel and unusual death by stoning at the hands of their fellow townsmen for the sake that it may bring a fruitful crop for the coming harvest season. Ironically, many of the towns people have suggested that the lottery be put to an end, but most find the idea unheard of being that they have lived in it's practice for most of their lives. The story conveys a message that traditions may be valued so highly that those in their practice may do everything they can to ensure that they continue in accordance. From this a question arises. How far would one go to ensure their sacred traditions remain unscathed?
For many, change is a cause for ignorance. Most of us fear the idea of change. When one is faced to deal with c...
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...ithdraw from the tradition because they do not know any other way. Can you imagine what life would be if there were no Christmas or Thanksgiving? For many cultures, tradition is the basis for their history. One example to this being the Hawaiian culture whose history was destroyed when they were forced to stop their ancient dances which told stories of their past. Adversely, tradition has played negative roles in society as well with the battle between the Muslims and Christians in many middle-eastern countries. Tradition plays many roles in today's society. Our goal should be to grasp the idea of what they really mean. We must not isolate ourselves to what we think we know, but instead allow ourselves to comprehend.
Bibliography:
PERRINE'S STORY AND STRUCTUE 9TH ED.
ARE, THOMAS R.
1998, HARCOURT-BRACE COLLEGE PUBLISHERS
FORT WORTH, TX
Change can have either a good or bad to it. People say that time can change a person but what allows this change to occur is themselves. “Now I can look at you in peace; I don't eat you anymore.” (Franz Kafka)
Our traditions act as a compass for our human relationships and personal interactions, the qualitative experiences of our family life, and ultimately, the development of societies. As we honor traditions, so we learn to honor ourselves and each other. The poem “Mending Wall” by Robert Frost and the story “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson both contain examples of seemingly senseless traditions. The thought of people doing something senselessly, just to appease the continuance of something that was done by their forefathers seems foolish unless there is some sort of positive result from their actions. The question is what results are positive enough to go through the effort. This means that as time progresses some traditions deserve to fade while others deserve to stay bright even though the reason why may not always be evident.
In The Lottery, by Shirley Jackson, the people of the village are consumed by a tradition. Every year in the month of June, they conduct a lottery to determine who will be stoned. The unjustified killing of a human being is widely viewed as an iniquitous act. Although surrounding communities have ceased the tradition of the lottery, this society continues the tradition. The idea of not practicing the tradition has been brought up numerous times within the community but “the subject was allowed to fade off ” (351). The community was conscience of the tradition being unethical but because it was a part of their heritage and believed to determine the success of their harvest, no one would do anything about the lottery. Once she is picked from the lottery, Tessie Hutchinson notices that the people are not conducting the lottery fairly and decides to stand up against the tradition. It can be inferred that women were not considered equal to the males of the village. Tessie—a woman— had the courage to stand against the tradition. Tessie understood that not all traditions are good. A tradition can be so engraved into an individual that they forget its purpose. In the story...
Tradition is huge in small towns and families and allows for unity through shared values, stories, and goals from one generation to the next. Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery” carries that theme of tradition. The story follows a small town that performs the tradition of holding an annual lottery in which the winner gets stoned to death. It (tradition) is valued amongst human societies around the world, but the refusal of the villagers in “The Lottery” to let go of a terrifying long-lasting tradition suggests the negative consequences of blindly following these traditions such as violence and hypocrisy.
Shirley Jackson’s “Lottery” satirically creates a society that puts the importance of tradition above even the life of the members of the community, as indicated by Old Man Warner’s response to Mr. Adams stating, “‘[O]ver in the north village they’re talking of giving up the lottery.’ Old Man Warner snorted. ‘Pack of crazy fools … Listening to the young folks, nothing’s good enough for them … There’s always been a lottery,’ he added petulantly” (413). Here Old Man Warner defends the tradition of their society, though notably without justifying the tradition. Rather, he focuses on the people of other villages and the tradition as self-evident, both logical fallacies. The first argument he makes in favor of continuing to have a lottery is an ad
The point of view of tradition in The Lottery by Shirley Jackson is the normal once of year gathering on the townspeople. This gathering is held in order to pick, via a lottery drawing, to decide who in the town is going to be stoned to death. “The people of the village began to gather in the square, between the post office and the bank, around ten o’clock; in some towns there were so many people the lottery took two days and had started on June 26th, but in this village, where there were only about three hundred people, and the whole lottery took less than two hours, so it could begin at ten o’clock in morning and still be through in time to allow the villagers to get home for noon dinner.” (Kennedy & Gioia, 2013, pp. 251). The fact that the people gather and discuss everyday issue prior to the start of the lottery all point to the blind tradition of selecting some to be stoned to death.
If cultures agreed to research and make alterations to traditions, they would gain a greater understanding of their own historical developments and maybe even desire to research the traditional developments in other cultures. Ceremony is a novel that brings up many racial and cultural issues, and if they can be recognized and used as inspiration to make changes and become better people, the world will become a better place and hopefully negative racial issues will become nonexistent. Works Cited Jaskoski, Helen. A. Leslie Marmon Silko: A Study of the Short Fiction.
Thesis: After a long period of time passes people forget the true meaning of their traditions by slowly disregarding as the years pass.
Change. The first step of evolution in a society. Without change, history is bound to repeat itself. But (however?) with it we can grow to view things with a new perspective. One might wonder why humans are not more accepting of change. The answer is the fear of the unknown. In literature there are many symbols that represent how fear of change negatively impacts a society and its people. Shirley Jackson’s short story The Lottery introduces us to such a society. Every year on June 27th the lottery is held. The villagers come together, in the town square, to select one individual as the winner of the lottery. Unbeknownst to the reader, until the end of the short story, the prize the winner receives is death by stoning. The time has come again
Everyone has their own way of solving problems; however, ritual is a form that people doing one thing in the same way. It defines as “the prescribed form of conducting a formal secular ceremony.” However if the meaning of ritual is mistaken, the consequence could be unpredictable." The Lottery" by Shirley Jackson gives us a lecture about a tortuous ritual. The story takes place in a small village with 300 citizens, they gather for a yearly lottery which everyone should participate. The story leads to a horrific ending by people forgetting the concept of ritual.
“The Lottery” is a story written by Shirley Jackson. By looking at the title you may think about money prize. In this story takes the readers expectation to another level. By the two words of the title there is no way the reader did not get hook to reading this story. In “The Lottery” Shirley Jackson, uses symbolism, irony, and imagery.
Is continuing a specific tradition always a good thing for everyone? Sometimes it is easy to get wrapped up into a tradition and end up blindly following that tradition. In “The Lottery” Shirley Jackson exposes the readers of this story to a village of people following a barbaric form of tradition for the sake of having prosperous crops. Through the use of irony, symbols, and characters, Shirley Jackson presents the theme that blindly following tradition can keep people from realizing the fault in their actions, and that sometimes it is necessary to question tradition.
Constantly, people are subjected to change in their everyday lives. It is an inevitable force affecting all. A Chinese proverb states that “when the wind of change blows, some build walls while others build windmills.” Just like in real life, when change occurs, people either are frightened and wish to block the change by building a wall while others accept the change and let it become part of them just like how wind is a part of a windmill. Life shows that there is always change around everyone whether it’s mentally or physically. People are offered to decide how they will respond and react to change and will choose what to do with it. Change is often taken in to become a benefit and advantage in the near future because it
traditions are diminished or destroyed, are less able to live as they choose to live.
Tradition, a custom, value or belief that is passed on from one generation to generation, lives and thrives in every community. The aspect of tradition brings many people hope, and positivity. Tradition creates unity between people, and evokes the feelings of security. In “The Lottery”, the community believes strongly in and has a high regard for tradition. Shirley Jackson manipulates the reader by using tradition as a major theme to show a sense of security. Ironically, in “The Lottery” rather than tradition being a positive aspect of society, it becomes dangerous and creates instability.