The Lottery Tradition Essay

Trapped in Traditions

In the short story, The Lottery by shirley Jackson, blind tration and resistance to change are explored through the story. Presented to anyone who might find themselves in the similar situation that the main character of The Lottery, Tessie Hutchinson found herself in. The invisible pressure that is enforced by society to act a certain way, and follow certain traditions is one of the main themes of this story. More importantly though, this story also encourages individuals who feel oppressed by society in one way or another to speak up and defend what they truly believe in, even though the price of that might mean their lives. In addition, author utilizes literary elements such as irony, symbolism and allegory.
Shirley Jackson, who was born in San Francisco, CA. Jackson grew up in the time of WWII. She didn’t have a close relationship with her mother, as she discovered that her parent were not expecting to have her. During her childhood years, social interactions were challenging for her, therefore, she spend much of her time writing stories and reading. Later on, she wrote The Lottery. Unfortunately, the story was writing during times in which brutality accepted, a time where massive amount of people were being murdered for no particular reason. Despite all the chaos, people who were not affected by this brutality, ignored the fact that it was still going on. This is reflected in the story, when Mr. Summers, the activities coordinator of the small village announced, “Well, now.. Guess we better get started, get this over with so’s we can go back to work”. The nature of the ritual is peaceful, however, the ritual ends up being extremely brutal. Much like the Holocaust, where an specific group of people were targeted and penalized with death for no reason whatsoever. Thus there was great suffering during the time of WWII, everyone else ignored the macabre massacre of millions of