Preview

Violence And Tradition In The Lottery By Shirley Jackson

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
320 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Violence And Tradition In The Lottery By Shirley Jackson
Violence and tradition are the major themes in "The Lottery." Drenched in horror, the story focuses on the outdated ideas and rituals performed by villagers who gather once a year to decide who will be stoned to death in a ritualistic sacrifice. Old Man Warner states “Lottery in June, corn be heavy soon” meaning the village people sacrifice one of their own to ensure a fruitful corn harvest. If there is any real reason meant to be conveyed by the story for the stoning, I believe it is no doubt the casual cruelty of human beings and how they can blindly follow certain traditions without questioning them. Shirley Jackson does a brilliant job of deceiving her audience into believing that the lottery will be something fun; after all, everyone is
Continue Reading
View Writing Issues

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Chapter Summary: The Lottery By Shirley Jackson
    • 488 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Chapter Summary: The Lottery By Shirley Jackson

    1.The dark ending was not a typically lottery but throughout the story methods of foreshadowing was used by the author, Shirley Jackson. Characters throughout the story fear the lottery nervously but the dark suspicions are confirmed when “Tessie Hutchinson shouted to Mr. Summers. "You didn't give him time enough to take any paper he wanted. I saw you. It wasn't fair!"”(Jackson 5). Tessie instead of being excited for winning the lottery is extremely against winning which confirms that the lottery is nothing to be excited about. Jackson begins the story picturing the town as a the children were playing around as if nothing horrible was about to happen.…

    • 488 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Blindly Following Traditions In The Lottery By Shirley Jackson
    • 440 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Blindly Following Traditions In The Lottery By Shirley Jackson

    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.…

    • 440 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    The Evil Of Tradition In Shirley Jackson's The Lottery
    • 201 Words
    • 1 Page

    The Evil Of Tradition In Shirley Jackson's The Lottery

    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…

    • 201 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Dangers Of Blindly Following Tradition In The Lottery By Shirley Jackson
    • 672 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Dangers Of Blindly Following Tradition In The Lottery By Shirley Jackson

    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.…

    • 672 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Brutality In Shirley Jackson's The Lottery
    • 596 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Brutality In Shirley Jackson's The Lottery

    Brutality is a universal force in people’s lives that most have already gotten used to indirectly, yet people claim otherwise. But are their claims true or false? We become known to see news of people getting murdered or of cases of abuse in the home or somewhere else and claim right away that how horrible it is and that we as people would never do something this awful, but we prove these things false in our daily lives. So what makes us different than the town in “The Lottery” or the people behind the attacks in Paris? Nothing is different at all. “The Lottery” and the Paris attacks were acts of violence based on people's different beliefs.…

    • 596 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Omelas Vs Lottery
    • 396 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Omelas Vs Lottery

    “The Lottery” begins with a community portraying an uneasiness in each person’s actions because a certain event takes place the same day, every year, casting a shadow on everyone’s lives on that day. Every person will select a slip of paper from a box and the person with the slip that has a black dot on it will be stoned to death, quickly, with stones that people have already stacked in a pile. The pile is an accumulation…

    • 396 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Tradition In The Lottery, By Shirley Jackson
    • 291 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Tradition In The Lottery, By Shirley Jackson

    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.…

    • 291 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Blindly Following Tradition In The Lottery By Shirley Jackson
    • 502 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Blindly Following Tradition In The Lottery By Shirley Jackson

    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.…

    • 502 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    The Significance Of Sacrifice In Shirley Jackson's The Lottery
    • 550 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The Significance Of Sacrifice In Shirley Jackson's The Lottery

    (Introduction) “The Lottery,” a short story by Shirley Jackson, is about a woman who has been selected for sacrifice by a lottery drawing. Tessie Hutchinson, and the rest of her town, are unfeeling about how the annual sacrifice affects the selected. However, they carry on with their tradition year after year, with no intent to make changes to meet modern day morals and needs. “The Lottery” is about blindly following tradition, the awareness of how cruel a practice sacrificing is, and how one’s mindset can change when they are the chosen one.…

    • 550 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Mortality And Tradition In Shirley Jackson's The Lottery
    • 1062 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Mortality And Tradition In Shirley Jackson's The Lottery

    “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson is nothing less than a powerful story about a society that gathers once per year and holds a lottery. But this is not a lottery with a winner; it is a lottery with a loser. “The Lottery” is a chilling story because it depicts a sense of normalcy among the towns’ people when they randomly decided to kill a neighbor by practically just drawing straws. This story really asks the question, are rituals always a good thing? If rituals are a good or bad thing do we even know why we do it half the time? “The Lottery”, shows us that even though tradition may have been happening for years doesn’t mean that the traditions we choose to follow are beneficial.…

    • 1062 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    The Importance Of Tradition In Shirley Jackson's The Lottery
    • 437 Words
    • 2 Pages

    The Importance Of Tradition In Shirley Jackson's The Lottery

    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.…

    • 437 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    The Lottery By Shirley Jackson Literary Analysis
    • 712 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The Lottery By Shirley Jackson Literary Analysis

    “ The Lottery”, written by Shirley Jackson, shows the corruption in a village whose people treat life with insignificance. Through the use of literary devices, Jackson portrays how practices in traditions can be barbaric;ultimately, resulting in persecution.…

    • 712 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Tradition In The Lottery
    • 146 Words
    • 1 Page

    Tradition In The Lottery

    "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…

    • 146 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    The Lottery: A Literary Analysis
    • 552 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The Lottery: A Literary Analysis

    Dying seems to be a very common theme in these stories weather it’s physically or emotionally. That’s where Shakespeare’s famous quote from Hamlet, “To Be or Not To Be” comes into play.…

    • 552 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    The Lottery Suspense Analysis
    • 793 Words
    • 4 Pages

    The Lottery Suspense Analysis

    When you think about a lottery you automatically think, "Oh will they win money or a gift?" Well, in the story "The lottery" by Shirley Jackson it was completely the opposite of winning something. The author provoked lots of suspense and tension but wasn't the suspense you get when you are excited it's a scary suspense that builds up the tension. And why you suppose? Well, in this story the "lottery" there wasn't any winning of money or a gift, this story was about a sacrifice the people of the village did to get good luck on their crops and harvest of the year. Yes, I know strange right? There are culture and traditions behind this sacrifice. Well, the next paragraphs will be about how the author made suspense as well with the pacing of events throughout the story.…

    • 793 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More