Many authors usually incorporate a theme in their piece of writing. A theme is basically the subject of talk on what the author’s personal feelings are. In the short story The Lottery by Shirley Jackson the theme is the danger of blindly following traditions can eventually lead to you being cruel. The following theme with be supported through characterization and setting.…
Through her ability to display the grim reality of a small idealized town, Shirley Jackson unmasks the evil of tradition in “The Lottery.” She repeats that mindless rituals are unacceptable practices. Jackson begins her writing with, “The morning of June 27th was clear and sunny, with the fresh warmth of a full-summer day; the flowers were blossoming profusely and the grass was richly green” (715). This first sentence gives us clues that there is not an extreme amount of emotion; it hints that the style reflects the attitudes of the villagers. The townspeople picture the lottery as normal and have no more emotion towards it than they do the flowers or the warm sunny day. The children begin collecting rocks as they are playing, and the adults…
““It isn’t fair, it isn’t right,” Mrs. Hutchinson screamed, and they were upon her.” (Jackson)Even though the community is following traditions that they happen every year. The traditions are still wrong. This book has a very dark theme, and things within the community that symbol many things. The short story is also very similar to the known movie The Hunger Games.…
Great post, after reading “The Lottery” another time I believed that the short has a lot of symbolism that criticize the Christianity and many other religious traditions, for instant the black box symbolizes the Bible, the three legged stool symbolized the trinity for Christians and other various religious traditions like the three Norse Fates and the stones relates to the text in the Bible about the woman who was caught in the act of adultery John 8:1-11.…
The author of the short story, The Lottery, is Shirley Jackson. In the lottery, the villagers of a small town gather together on the 27th of June for the annual tradition of the town lottery, which is conducted by Mr. Summers. In which, every year they select a random person to be stoned to their death, as they are the winner of the lottery. Emphasizing the theme of the dangers of blindly following traditions. This is shown through characterization, tone and dialogue.…
Shirley Jackson uses symbolism in “The Lottery” to show the importance of remaining faithful to tradition and the unknown consequences that seem to occur when citizens lose touch with their village’s rituals. The idea of a yearly lottery in this small village is a very important ritual that has been passed down for such a long time, so long that nobody knows why it was started or why it is necessary to keep following through with it. The old black box that is used in the lottery to determine one’s fate is the most significant symbol in this story. Nobody wants to use a newer box because they feel it is the only thing that ties back to the origin of the lottery. They have only changed the use of wood chips to pieces of paper.…
In “The Lottery,” Shirley Jackson uses foreshadowing to hint that the villagers are most likely going to continue the tradition of the lottery. For example, Mrs. Adams says, The black box now resting on the stool had been put into use even before old man Warner, the oldest man in town, was born “(Jackson).” People in the village will always continue the tradition of the lottery as long as they can. The members of the town will never replace the black box. Therefore, this quote shows how this town can not end this tradition, even if the villagers try.…
Is a tradition really a tradition if it’s meaningless and hollow? The original purpose of the lottery was to make corn growth heavy, but over time it was forgotten, and just done for the sake of doing it. At first, The lottery was actually for religious purposes, and many events followed and preceded it. Then it turned into a hollow tradition nobody really cared about. “The Lottery”, by Shirley Jackson, turns to a less observed topic, and gives us a very good example of what many of us do today.…
Does thoughtlessly obeying tradition justify senseless and violent murder? The setting of the story takes place in a small fictional village around the time an annual event dubbed “the lottery” is being conducted, garnering the attention of the entire community. Furthermore, the tone set in the beginning is that of a jovial and positive atmosphere sharply contrasting the disturbing ending and revelation of exactly what “the lottery” is; all the while exploring themes corresponding to the potentially harrowing effects of blindly following tradition, the fear of change and the stagnating effect it can have, and the impersonal randomness of prosecution. To summarize, due to the reasons listed above, society should be more mindful of the traditions that it faithfully upholds.…
Hutchinson runs to the town square to calmly explain that she forgot what day it was and enthusiastically cracks a joke to Mr. Summers saying, “wouldn’t have me leave m’dishes in the sink, now, would you Joe?” Once everyone in town is there, except a man with a broken leg, the lottery starts and Mr. Summers calls out every family name and the head of each household walks up and grabs a slip of paper. Once everyone has their slip of folded paper the townsfolk continue to open the paper. Soon they find that the family that lost is the Hutchinson’s. Mrs. Hutchinson’s attitude abruptly changes. What was once an enthusiastic tone turns into a plea. She tells Mr. Summers that he rushed Mr. Hutchinson and didn’t give him enough time to choose the paper he wanted. As the second round of the lottery commences, just within the Hutchinson family, Mrs. Hutchinson, upset, keeps claiming it wasn’t fair. Each member of the family took a slip of folded paper from the black box; first the children open theirs to show the crowd that their pieces of paper are blank; then Mr. Hutchinson opened his to reveal that his paper is blank as well. Once everyone realizes that Mrs. Hutchinson is the one who lost the lottery, she fails to show her paper to the crowd and her husband has to go to her and grab the paper out of her hand to show the that she has lost the lottery. As the crowd formed around her she is still begging for her life saying that it wasn’t fair…
It is often said that there is strength in numbers. While it is true that a large group of people has more power than an individual, a single person within a large group will almost always conform in some way. This weakens the individual and leads to fewer new ideas in order to maintain group status and agreement. Many times, rituals or ideas are allowed and accepted just because they are favored by a majority or have been part of that society for so long that they have become almost like a tradition. In "The Lottery", Shirley Jackson uses alarming images to guide the reader to understand the futility and foolishness of blind obedience to these rituals. The lottery “selection” emphasizes the importance of questioning what is right in front of you instead of just conforming mindlessly.…
In Jackson’s short story “The Lottery” it is evident that conforming to society and sticking with tradition can lead to outweighing personal morals./be a burden on the lives of people. Although The Lottery was a tradition that has been occurring for years, nobody sticks up to support their morals to challenge The Lottery. Not only does The Lottery limit the rights of many, but many other expectations in their society do too.…
"The Lottery" reminds us to look to tradition with scrutiny because not questioning our own actions can lead to things that go against our morals. "The Lottery" demonstrates this by showing the villagers calmly congregate to commit murder in order to prevent a bad year for the crops. We as readers see this as a crazy and horrifying , (also inefficient,) way to secure that the crops grow, whereas the villagers see this as a necessary ritual only because it is traditionally done. There is even evidence in the story that they don't need to act this way in that some of the neighboring villages no longer practice this ritual and the success of their harvest is somewhat equal to those who still practice. The villagers ignore that because they believe…
Theme 1: In the story when old men talked about the other town ending the lottery. He did not want to change like the other town.…
In the short story, The Lottery by shirley Jackson, blind tration and resistance to change are explored through the story. Presented to anyone who might find themselves in the similar situation that the main character of The Lottery, Tessie Hutchinson found herself in. The invisible pressure that is enforced by society to act a certain way, and follow certain traditions is one of the main themes of this story. More importantly though, this story also encourages individuals who feel oppressed by society in one way or another to speak up and defend what they truly believe in, even though the price of that might mean their lives. In addition, author utilizes literary elements such as irony, symbolism and allegory.…