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. In The Lottery one way that the danger of blindly following traditions can eventually lead to you being cruel is seen through setting in the second paragraph “Bobby Martin had already stuffed his pockets full of stones” and “…eventually made a great piles of stones in one corner of the square and guarded it against the raid of other boys”. The theme is seen through setting,
it shows that because of this tradition being practiced every year from the people in the village even the kids are accustom to the rituals and know the rules (In the story if you’re the winner in the lottery you get stoned to death) these kids are exposed to cruelty at such a young age they have been participating in killing others and they’re not even adults. In today’s society if a kid were to participate in a murder it would be seen as rare and shocking occurrence. But the kids in this village it’s an ongoing event. If this tradition ended then most likely the kids would react a different way and not have the intentions/mindset of being a killer.
Another way that the danger of blindly following traditions can eventually lead to you being cruel is seen through characterization, towards the end of the short story Mrs. Hutchinson was the winner the lottery which means she has to get stoned to death. Everyone gathered around her and began to throw the stones. It states in the article “…And someone gave little Davy Hutchinson few pebbles”. This shows that the danger of blindly following traditions can eventually lead to you being cruel because once she won the lottery everyone began throwing rocks and her little boy knowing nothing about the tradition was given stones to kill his mother. In this town they have little boys and girls killing their own mothers just to keep a tradition they know nothing about alive. In conclusion, I have told you about the central idea of The Lottery which is danger of blindly following traditions can eventually lead to you being cruel. And one literary element supports this theme which is setting. In this story because of blindly following traditions it lead to many of the characters in the story including the kids to become cruel.
it shows that because of this tradition being practiced every year from the people in the village even the kids are accustom to the rituals and know the rules (In the story if you’re the winner in the lottery you get stoned to death) these kids are exposed to cruelty at such a young age they have been participating in killing others and they’re not even adults. In today’s society if a kid were to participate in a murder it would be seen as rare and shocking occurrence. But the kids in this village it’s an ongoing event. If this tradition ended then most likely the kids would react a different way and not have the intentions/mindset of being a killer.
Another way that the danger of blindly following traditions can eventually lead to you being cruel is seen through characterization, towards the end of the short story Mrs. Hutchinson was the winner the lottery which means she has to get stoned to death. Everyone gathered around her and began to throw the stones. It states in the article “…And someone gave little Davy Hutchinson few pebbles”. This shows that the danger of blindly following traditions can eventually lead to you being cruel because once she won the lottery everyone began throwing rocks and her little boy knowing nothing about the tradition was given stones to kill his mother. In this town they have little boys and girls killing their own mothers just to keep a tradition they know nothing about alive. In conclusion, I have told you about the central idea of The Lottery which is danger of blindly following traditions can eventually lead to you being cruel. And one literary element supports this theme which is setting. In this story because of blindly following traditions it lead to many of the characters in the story including the kids to become cruel.