Maria
Topic: The effects of tradition and how it displayed in short stories “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson, and “Marriage is a Private Affair” by Chinua Achebe.
Tradition is something you pass down through generation to generation. Something that usually is a long established custom or belief that has been passed on a certain way. When the word tradition enters your mind, no one comes to think that tradition may have negative effects. Times have changed, should the way we live our lives change along with it? In “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson and “Marriage is a Private Affair” by Chinua Achebe the traditions from their family and town lead to a downfall and resulted with negative effects. Due to their strict traditions, Tessie Hutchinson had her destiny chosen for her, and lived a painful, cruel death, along with Okeke who lived with the feeling of betrayal because of long passed traditions. In the short story “The lottery” the protagonist Tessie Hutchinson displays negative effects of traditions through the way her destiny was chosen for herself. The Lottery, is a tradition throughout their village that they have been doing for years to reduce population size. Tessie Hutchinson did not choose to participate,bur everyone has to participate. The winner will be stoned by their peers, family, and friends. “The children had stones already, and someone gave little Davy Hutchinson a few pebbles.” Peoples own families were betraying them, and murdering them for a tradition. Tessie was resistant to them coming upon her, clearly showing how she did not pick this life for herself. The results of this was the lose of everyone’s innocence, and they reduced population by 1 for population, not only taking an innocent persons life. The irony of the story is, how when you think of the word Lottery, you think of luck, fortune, prizes, yet in this case you don’t want to win. Also, how misleading the setting is, by making it take place in the summer, when everything is warm
Tradition is something you pass down through generation to generation. Something that usually is a long established custom or belief that has been passed on a certain way. When the word tradition enters your mind, no one comes to think that tradition may have negative effects. Times have changed, should the way we live our lives change along with it? In “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson and “Marriage is a Private Affair” by Chinua Achebe the traditions from their family and town lead to a downfall and resulted with negative effects. Due to their strict traditions, Tessie Hutchinson had her destiny chosen for her, and lived a painful, cruel death, along with Okeke who lived with the feeling of betrayal because of long passed traditions. In the short story “The lottery” the protagonist Tessie Hutchinson displays negative effects of traditions through the way her destiny was chosen for herself. The Lottery, is a tradition throughout their village that they have been doing for years to reduce population size. Tessie Hutchinson did not choose to participate,bur everyone has to participate. The winner will be stoned by their peers, family, and friends. “The children had stones already, and someone gave little Davy Hutchinson a few pebbles.” Peoples own families were betraying them, and murdering them for a tradition. Tessie was resistant to them coming upon her, clearly showing how she did not pick this life for herself. The results of this was the lose of everyone’s innocence, and they reduced population by 1 for population, not only taking an innocent persons life. The irony of the story is, how when you think of the word Lottery, you think of luck, fortune, prizes, yet in this case you don’t want to win. Also, how misleading the setting is, by making it take place in the summer, when everything is warm