The Lottery: The Traditions They Follow
Nathan Griffith
Professor Bolton
English 102
January 30, 2014
The Traditions They Follow Why do some societies follow traditions that have pointless rules? “The Lottery” is a short story written by Shirley Jackson that asks the same question. The narrator presents a small-town where a traditional lottery is held annually every summer on June 27th. The town’s people get together for a lottery (1). The reward is unknown at the beginning to reader, but increasingly becomes more apparent as the story continues to its climax. The reward is a sadistic random tradition in the form of murder by stoning. The killing, which is the purpose of the lottery, is foreshadowed at the beginning of the story when children pick up stones (1). How the …show more content…
These characters represent individuals in a society who blindly follow without question the standards of their traditions as well as those who rebel and question tradition. The character that symbolizes superstition and blind faith in traditions is represented in Old Man Warner. Warner grudgingly says to another character Mr Adams when he talk about other towns stopping the lottery, “Next thing you know, they’ll be wanting to go back to living caves, nobody works anymore, live that way for a while”. The statement shows his obvious bias to changing the tradition and his superstition that it is the tradition that is keeping the community from total even though there is with no evidence support his ideology(4). Another character Mr. Summer, symbolizes those who have the power to change traditions, but don 't for fear of an uprising from the community. It is Summers who draws the black spot on the piece of paper that condemns a citizen to death. He also calls forth each member of a family to draw next from the box(1-2). When it comes to speaking with the villagers about changing tradition, he suggests rebuilding the box, from which families choose the pieces of paper. He listens to the villagers but does not make the hard choice to change the tradition(2). Tessie Hutchinson symbolizes individuals in a community, who question tradition and often get persecuted for their rebelliousness. Tessie …show more content…
The black box symbolizes the randomness of rules and the corruption of tradition. In the story the black box is a constant part of the lottery. The community is loyal to the black box, though they have dropped other rules to the tradition such as chanting before the lottery and replacing papers instead of pieces of bark to go into the black box(1-2). The lackadaisical following of the rules to the tradition shows that they don 't care so much about the rules as much as the end result. This is portrayed as the community keeps the old worn out black box but change other rules. The narrator shows how tradition can be random and irrational such as the random picking of a piece of a paper from a black box ending with a killing. This black box symbolizes how blind people become to their traditions and never thinking to question the end
Professor Bolton
English 102
January 30, 2014
The Traditions They Follow Why do some societies follow traditions that have pointless rules? “The Lottery” is a short story written by Shirley Jackson that asks the same question. The narrator presents a small-town where a traditional lottery is held annually every summer on June 27th. The town’s people get together for a lottery (1). The reward is unknown at the beginning to reader, but increasingly becomes more apparent as the story continues to its climax. The reward is a sadistic random tradition in the form of murder by stoning. The killing, which is the purpose of the lottery, is foreshadowed at the beginning of the story when children pick up stones (1). How the …show more content…
These characters represent individuals in a society who blindly follow without question the standards of their traditions as well as those who rebel and question tradition. The character that symbolizes superstition and blind faith in traditions is represented in Old Man Warner. Warner grudgingly says to another character Mr Adams when he talk about other towns stopping the lottery, “Next thing you know, they’ll be wanting to go back to living caves, nobody works anymore, live that way for a while”. The statement shows his obvious bias to changing the tradition and his superstition that it is the tradition that is keeping the community from total even though there is with no evidence support his ideology(4). Another character Mr. Summer, symbolizes those who have the power to change traditions, but don 't for fear of an uprising from the community. It is Summers who draws the black spot on the piece of paper that condemns a citizen to death. He also calls forth each member of a family to draw next from the box(1-2). When it comes to speaking with the villagers about changing tradition, he suggests rebuilding the box, from which families choose the pieces of paper. He listens to the villagers but does not make the hard choice to change the tradition(2). Tessie Hutchinson symbolizes individuals in a community, who question tradition and often get persecuted for their rebelliousness. Tessie …show more content…
The black box symbolizes the randomness of rules and the corruption of tradition. In the story the black box is a constant part of the lottery. The community is loyal to the black box, though they have dropped other rules to the tradition such as chanting before the lottery and replacing papers instead of pieces of bark to go into the black box(1-2). The lackadaisical following of the rules to the tradition shows that they don 't care so much about the rules as much as the end result. This is portrayed as the community keeps the old worn out black box but change other rules. The narrator shows how tradition can be random and irrational such as the random picking of a piece of a paper from a black box ending with a killing. This black box symbolizes how blind people become to their traditions and never thinking to question the end