Shirley Jackson's 'The Lottery' critiques the blind adherence to harmful traditions through the portrayal of a small village that conducts an annual lottery resulting in a member's stoning. The story explores human nature's capacity for violence and the reluctance to challenge societal norms, exemplified by characters like Old Man Warner, who resist questioning the lottery despite its brutality. This reflection on tradition prompts readers to contemplate the implications of loyalty to customs that have lost their original purpose, resonating with broader themes of conformity and the potential for cruelty within communities.

1. Essay about The Lottery
Shirley Jackson's, The Lottery, has raised questions in the back of every reader's mind towards the
destructive yet blind rituals of mankind. A reflection of ourselves is what we see when looking
through the pond of Jackson's mind. The Lottery clearly expressed Jackson's feelings concerning
traditional rituals through her story, opened the eyes of its readers to properly classify and question
some of today's traditions as cruel, and allowed room to foretell the outcome of these unusual
traditions. Jackson's feelings towards the misuse of tradition as an excuse to cause harm have
triggered her creativity for the creation of The Lottery. Jackson obviously saw examples of this
misuse of tradition and ingeniously placed it into an...show more content...
Hazing is a ritual performed in high schools, gangs, colleges, and even your own best friend can be
in on it. Perhaps just as barbaric as the stoning, no good at all results from hazing. The running of the
bulls, in Italy, may also be compared to The Lottery. Many deaths have been cause by the bulls
running ramped through the streets, yet this tradition is not about to be abolished due to the
endless support of participators along with media and tourists. What does it take to end these cruel
and misunderstood traditions and evolve into a more civilized society where we can see what kind
of harm they cause? In the story, the townspeople were against abolishing the tradition of stoning
and if our society feels the same, there will never be a chance for our civilization to grow together.
What ever happened to the townspeople in this story? Could they have finally given in and
abolished the lottery for the next year? Perhaps they never did abolish the lottery and eventually
destroyed each other on a wide–scale basis. Any way you chose to compare the situations, our future
depends heavily upon the allowance of evolution through our present standpoints and how we select
to alter it. Human nature will prevail no matter what our society wants to alter; however, who is to
say that human nature is a violent one without compassion for fellow spirit? Shirley
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2. Evidence For The Lottery
"The Lottery" by Shirley Jackson is about a small village where they have a strange annual
tradition. The tradition is a lottery where whoever "wins" is stoned to death by the other
townspeople. Why would they do such a horrible thing to their friends and family members? They
started the lottery as a sacrifice for good luck. They wanted good crops for the year and they thought
a human sacrifice would help them. But, now most of the people no longer think it helps the crops.
Most probably think it's wrong to murder someone just because they lost the lottery, but they are
terrified to upset tradition, so they blindly continue the lottery.
The first piece of evidence is on page 13, line 8. Here it talks about how the town is small, only
around...show more content...
Evidence for that is on page 22 line 260, where Old Man Warner says the old sayings, "Lottery in
june, corn be heavy soon." This shows that they thought the lottery would bring them luck. Another
piece of evidence is one page 28 line 427. Here, Steve Adams says, "Come on, come on,
everyone." This indicates that the people need to be riled up and they probably don't want to, but
ome people, specifically Old Man Warner, feel they have to.
Another quote from Old Man Warner is on page 23 line 268, after hearing some towns are giving
up their lottery, he says, "Nothing but trouble in that. Pack of crazy fools." This shows that he
disapproves of not doing the lottery. It is all he has ever known and it scares him to think that the
town could be giving up something from him parents and grandparents generations.
This story is about speaking up for up you believe in and to not blindly follow what others in the
past have laid down as the norm. If no one spoke out when people were being discriminated against,
it would never have changed. Instead of standing up and questioning the lottery, everyone just kind
of went along with it and people continued to
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3. The Lottery Essay
In "The Lottery" by Shirley Jackson and the historical event of blacklisting Americans during the
1950s, the authors convey that loyalty causes us to turn against others around you through
symbols. In "The Lottery", loyalty to tradition caused a society to turn on one another. "The
Lottery" was an annual tradition where each head of household (the dominant male in each home)
picked a slip of paper. If the piece selected had a black dot on it, you had to go through the
selection process again, but this time each individual member of your family had to choose a slip
out of the box. Whoever chose the black dot out of there family had won the Lottery, and would be
sacrificed for a good corn season. On the seventy–seventh lottery, the...show more content...
Ethel's brother, David Greenglass was working in New Mexico on an atomic bomb. Because the
Rosenbergs were communists, and their relationship with Greenglass, they were accused of passing
information regarding the bomb to the Soviet Union, when they really did nothing wrong. Despite
their desperate pleas of innocence, "President Dwight D. Eisenhower twice rejected pleas for
clemency. The Rosenbergs were executed on June 19, 1953" (Reeves). The president's allegiance is
a symbol because it represents American ideas. To Eisenhower and the House of Un–American
Activities Committee, communism was a threat to what the government already was. Communists
were thought to support Russia, and they could not have those ideas spread around America.
Eisenhower cared more about what America stood for rather than his own innocent citizens. The
House of Un–American Activities Committee and Eisenhower's loyalty to what they wanted the
image and ideas of America to be was greater than their own citizens, making the decision to execute
the Rosenbergs and easy one. The Rosenbergs did not do anything wrong, but in Eisenhower's mind,
just like Bill Hutchinson's mind in "The Lottery", they dismissed what the victims were saying and
executed them. The innocent victims of both events had ideas that were never shared because
people of higher authority refused to listen to them, and they both suffered from them. The higher
power stuck with the traditions and
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4. The Lottery Reflection
The Lottery begins like any other day. Clear and sunny skies, flowers blossoming, and green grass.
Seemingly nothing out of the ordinary. Then people begin to gather in the town square. What is this
lottery that is taking place? Do the people of the town agree with it? These questions can only be
answered by exploring the minds of the people in the town. Throughout this short story the audience
is introduced to many characters. Bobby Martin, Mr. Summers, Mr. Graves, Mr. Martin, Baxter, Old
Man Warner, Bill Hutchinson, Tessie Hutchinson, Mrs. Delacroix, Mrs. Dunbar, Watson boy, Bill Jr.,
Nancy, and little Davey. These characters are a key aspect tothe lottery. Each character has their own
feelings about the lottery at the beginning, but what happens when the lottery affects them and
their family? To understand this, the thoughts of individual characters have to be explored. Mr.
Summers is the leader, he runs the show. He isn't against the lottery and treats it like a normal
day. Mr. Summers doesn't want it to take long, he has other things to do, he wants to get it done
as quickly as possible. The fact the someone will be killed barely crosses his mind. He is an
organized man who treats the lottery as part of his job, he needs to have lists and know exactly
where everyone is. From the beginning of the story until the end Mr. Summers shows no emotion to
what is going down in the village. Mr. Martin and his son Baxter are the first people to show
hesitancy, they feel like
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5. The Lottery Theme Essay
In both The Lottery, and The Possibility of Evil there is a very evident theme that is horror lies in
the most everyday settings and situations. This is shown in The Lottery by the "lottery" being
considered an everyday normal aspect of life.We know that the "lottery" is the act of a name being
drawn from a box, and the person who is drawn is going to be stoned to death, with frankly no
reason at all. Also in The Lottery, no one is emotionally phased to the cruelty shown in the town,
and throughout the story, as if it is apart of their everyday life. In The Possibility of Evil, we see
this theme during the whole story, considering the main idea of the story is a woman who is trying
to stop all of the evil in her and her towns everyday...show more content...
Old Man Warner is appalled by this idea saying, "Pack of crazy fools... there has always been a
lottery." Old Man Warner is very adamant about continuing this tradition, and is very critical to the
people who are trying to end the tradition, almost as if he has no empathy for others. We view the
lottery as something horrific and something that in today's time would be socially unacceptable.
In The Possibility of Evil, we see the horror in everyday situations in a very different way. The
main idea of The Possibility of Evil is that the protagonist, Miss Strangeworth, is that Miss
Strangeworth is trying to prevent all of the evil in her small town by passing letters about gossip
that she heard to other people anonymously. In the story, we are first told of Miss Strangeworth's
roses, which are her most prized possession. In the beginning of the story, Miss Strangeworth
encounters new parents, Don and Helen Crane. Helen Crane makes a comment about her baby
seeming to be "slow." Miss Strangeworth tells Helen that she is worrying for no reason and that
"some of them develop much quicker than others others." Later in the story Miss Strangeworth
writes a letter to the Crane's and says, "Didn't you ever see an idiot child before? Some people just
shouldn't have children, should they?" Even though Miss Strangeworth views herself as the epitome
of a citizen in her town, she is a factor to the evil in the town by creating these letters and spreading
lies and
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6. Thesis For The Lottery
Being stoned to death by 300 of your friends and family is possibly the worst way anyone would
ever want to be killed. In the short story "The Lottery" written by an author Shirley Jackson, she
mentions about a small village consisting of 300 residents who most reluctantly participate in an
annual lottery drawing. I know, who in their right mind would hesitate to be a part of an event that
gives you a possibility of winning a prize, which makes you wonder what the prize is. At the end of
the story the protagonist, Mrs. Hutchinson, who also happens to be the winner of the lottery is stoned
to death. I argue that Jackson wrote this story to inform us how living in a small community isn't
always a great thing because in a small population people start gossiping about one another, which
can lead to issues and could turn into hatred.
I believe that winning is not always a good thing because it can be...show more content...
One can say that there are certain demons that inhabit the closest people in your life, such as betrayal
and jealousy to protect themselves. To shed more light on this, in the short story "The Lottery" stated
that, "And someone gave little Davy Hutchinson a few pebbles" –– and closes in on her" (Jackson).
As I read this section of the story, I strongly believe that money tends to destroy the strong bonds
one has with their own family members. Furthermore, after seeing a movie clip of this story, I seen
Davy Hutchinson and Mr. Hutchinson moving away from Mrs. Hutchinson in a clam way, they had
no expression in their face that made them look hurt after what was going to happen to Mrs.
Hutchison (Jackson, Rando). I think that Jackson was showing us that your own family turns against
you and that cruel things would continue to happen in life. In addition, Jackson is trying to say that
winning is not always a positive thing or it's not guaranteed a happy
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