Themes And Symbolism In The Lottery, By Shirley Jackson

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The Lottery by Shirley Jackson is a short story that portrays the shortfalls of outdated traditions that no longer serve a meaningful purpose and can have negative effects on social behavior. Symbolism and irony are used to show the reader how meaningless traditions can cause people to have blind allegiance resulting in misguided beliefs and practices. Jackson points out the decay of present society through her narration of an ancient rural tradition and an emphasis on irony. The reader is misled by the title to believe that the lottery is drawing for a prize, as is the case in modern day society. Today winning the lottery is a rare highly desired symbol of luck. However, in the story the citizens fear winning because the winner losses his …show more content…

The worst part is they seem to have no feelings at all about their actions. Jackson uses a small community of 300 hundred people to further shed light on how brutal this tradition really is. Tessie Hutchinson only speaks out against the unfairness of the tradition once it is her family’s name that is called out. She claims that it is not fair and that the whole system is messed up, “You didn 't give him time enough to take any paper he wanted. I saw you. It wasn 't fair." (Jackson) Jackson shows how the family has no sense of devotion for one another when they realize one of them must die. .Family bonds are easily broken and it is every man for himself. When Tessie draws the black dot her family turns on her like the rest of the village. Everyone is trying to get the murder done fast, they are worried about hurrying to get it done. Mr. Summers says, “let’s finish quickly.” (Jackson). Mrs. Dunbar says, “come on. Hurry up.” (Jackson). Not one per person in her family is upset that she will be stoned to death they are more concerned about getting home in time for the afternoon meal. Although the family is an important element in the lottery, it does not guarantee any love or loyalty once you are the chosen one. Instead of worrying about the mother that is about to die, they are worried about getting on with their day. They said “hurry, we’ve got to hurry to get done in time.”

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