Summary Of The Lottery By Shirley Jackson
Bernie Siegel once said “if we had no hope- for a cure for winning the lottery, for falling in love, for the end of the war, for being free of abuse, or for having food, warmth, clothing, and shelter- we would have no reason to go on. What you hope for doesn’t matter, but rather the essence of hope itself.” This author was kind of trying to talk about the same thing as in “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson. Jackson grew up in California and began writing short story and poetry as a young teenage girl. When she wrote the “the lottery “she but some themes in the short story which leaves her to world on images and ideas of what she means. In the short story there is a man named Mr. Summers who gets everyone to put their family’s names into a box. Once everyone does they draw out of the box to win what they call “the lottery”. One family gets picked and the mom freaks out and starts yelling that it is not fair and they need to do a redraw. Well they ignore her and keep going until they figure out who wins the lottery. In the “the lottery” there are some important themes like the tradition, mob mentality, and family.
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“The Lottery” is a short story about traditions and inability to get past it.
The tradition dates back so far in time, so that the village can have a good harvest. The tradition runs the people’s lives and they let it and they let it control whether they live or die. Although all they have is a “black box” (2) and it may not be the first box they ever use but they keep this ridiculous tradition going. Even though the man who is in charge of the whole thing “Mr. Summers”(1). Was not the one to come to the realization of how tragic this tradition really is. They are afraid of what will happen if they get rid of the tradition of the lottery because that is all they know. No matter the age someone one each year will be stoned to death in the village. This leads to the theme, mob
mentality.
One of the important themes would be the extreme power of a mob mentality. Mob mentality means people act as one with behavior of the people around them because they say there with the group in one way. In “The Lottery”, the people feel that its okay to stone people because everyone around them is doing it and no one is making them stop what they are doing because it is wrong. Mob mentality in the short story “the lottery” affects behavior of the villagers and family’s. The village relies on these “yearly events” (1). In the sort story they find it necessary to murder a person once a year and they don’t feel guilty because that their tradition. This is seen by the boys who collect the “rock pile” (1) and then they guard them. They boy boys take part in the mentality of the elders of the village. They stone their friends and neighbors based on a drawing and a ridiculous promise of a good harvest.
“The Lottery” is a short story about traditions and inability to get past it.
The tradition dates back so far in time, so that the village can have a good harvest. The tradition runs the people’s lives and they let it and they let it control whether they live or die. Although all they have is a “black box” (2) and it may not be the first box they ever use but they keep this ridiculous tradition going. Even though the man who is in charge of the whole thing “Mr. Summers”(1). Was not the one to come to the realization of how tragic this tradition really is. They are afraid of what will happen if they get rid of the tradition of the lottery because that is all they know. No matter the age someone one each year will be stoned to death in the village. This leads to the theme, mob
mentality.
One of the important themes would be the extreme power of a mob mentality. Mob mentality means people act as one with behavior of the people around them because they say there with the group in one way. In “The Lottery”, the people feel that its okay to stone people because everyone around them is doing it and no one is making them stop what they are doing because it is wrong. Mob mentality in the short story “the lottery” affects behavior of the villagers and family’s. The village relies on these “yearly events” (1). In the sort story they find it necessary to murder a person once a year and they don’t feel guilty because that their tradition. This is seen by the boys who collect the “rock pile” (1) and then they guard them. They boy boys take part in the mentality of the elders of the village. They stone their friends and neighbors based on a drawing and a ridiculous promise of a good harvest.