Traditions And Customs In The Lottery By Shirley Jackson
After reading the short story The Lottery by Shirley Jackson, I think the most important theme was Traditions and Customs. In this short story, the village that the story takes place in has a tradition every year called the lottery. In this tradition, one person is picked out of the village and is given a stoning, a punishment where people take rocks and throw them at you until you die. This tradition has been going on so long that the villagers cannot remember when it started. Also in this tradition, there are some customs like a black box which is never replaced, a black dot to indicate the winner of the lottery, and the head of the family, usually the husband, picks a slip out of the black box. In the story, Mr. Summers starts the lottery
by saying "Now, I'll read the names--heads of families first--and the men come up and take a paper out of the box.” The black box is the box where people will pick out the tiny slips of paper in order to see who gets the black dot. The unfortunate winner of the lottery was Tessie which was revealed when “Bill Hutchinson went over to his wife and forced the slip of paper out of her hand. It had a black spot on it”. These customs have been going on since the village first started the lottery. In normal traditions, you would usually do something that is good but in this story, the tradition is a bad one. What makes this tradition so bad is that whoever wins the lottery get a stoning to death. The people in the village do not even know how this tradition started, they just think it is an annual thing to do. For example, “Although the villagers had forgotten the ritual and lost the original black box, they still remembered to use stones.” These people have taken a tradition into a really bad area which causes death. The winner of the lottery expresses her frustration with this tradition as the stones start to hit her, “‘It isn't fair, it isn't right,’ Mrs. Hutchinson screamed, and then they were upon her.” This is why I think the most important theme in this short story was Traditions and Customs.
by saying "Now, I'll read the names--heads of families first--and the men come up and take a paper out of the box.” The black box is the box where people will pick out the tiny slips of paper in order to see who gets the black dot. The unfortunate winner of the lottery was Tessie which was revealed when “Bill Hutchinson went over to his wife and forced the slip of paper out of her hand. It had a black spot on it”. These customs have been going on since the village first started the lottery. In normal traditions, you would usually do something that is good but in this story, the tradition is a bad one. What makes this tradition so bad is that whoever wins the lottery get a stoning to death. The people in the village do not even know how this tradition started, they just think it is an annual thing to do. For example, “Although the villagers had forgotten the ritual and lost the original black box, they still remembered to use stones.” These people have taken a tradition into a really bad area which causes death. The winner of the lottery expresses her frustration with this tradition as the stones start to hit her, “‘It isn't fair, it isn't right,’ Mrs. Hutchinson screamed, and then they were upon her.” This is why I think the most important theme in this short story was Traditions and Customs.