“LOTTERY” Essay 1
Do all the traditions in the world today make sense to members of a different
society? There are many customs and cultures in the world today that seem bizarre to
others. “The Lottery,” by Shirley Jackson demonstrates a perfect example of one of those
traditions. The act of holding the lottery each year symbolizes tradition. The story is told
in an eerie tone to resemble how strange the acts done in this short story are. In “The
Lottery,” it is shown how the village people keep up their tradition of stoning
whoever “wins” because they have always done it, they do not care enough about
each other to stop this gruesome custom, and they are blind to the severity of what
they are actually doing because the act is tradition.
Many people in the village where “The Lottery” takes place do not even have the
slightest inkling as to why this event still takes place yearly. It is because they have done
it for a very long time. “’There’s always been a lottery,’ he added petulantly” (Jackson
4). This is quoting Old Man Warner, the oldest man in town. The lottery has been a
tradition for as long as he can remember. What he says shows his unwillingness to give
up the lottery just because it has become a yearly event. The villagers are not prepared to
make the decision to stop holding the lottery. One reason why is that there might still be
a little tradition left describing the effects of the lottery. Old Man Warner says, “’First
thing you know, we’d all be eating stewed chickweed and acorns’” (Jackson 4). He still
believes that the superstition of having a yearly lottery, which is done by choosing the
family, the household in that family, and then finally the person in that household, has a
positive effect on the agriculture of the town.
The members of the society where the story takes place do not care about each
other as much as members of a community should. Old Man Warner, as previously
stated, believes that the lottery aids to the success of the village. He says, “’Used to be a
saying about Lottery in June, corn be heavy soon’” (Jackson 4). Though many consider
each other to be friends, they clearly do not care about each other enough to discontinue
the awful tradition of stoning the winner of the town-wide lottery. This is shown when
Jackson writes about how Mr. Summers, the man who runs the lottery along with other
major events in town, jokes with other men and treats the day a member of their own
community is going to be executed like any normal day. “’Little late today, folks’”
(Jackson 1). The way Mr. Summers says this, he makes it sound as if the day of the
lottery is just another normal day in the village. “’Bad enough to see young Joe Summers
up there joking with everybody’” (Jackson 4). This is said by the conservative Old Man
Warner, who clearly does not want the tradition that has taken place since his childhood
to end.
Simply because stoning the “winner” of the lottery is tradition, the villagers do
not realize that what they are doing is sinister. Young ones are even encouraged to find
stones for the killing, which would be considered unacceptable in most societies. The
main reason why this is not considered an abomination in the village where the story
takes place is because it is the village’s custom to stone someone to death at the end of
the lottery. At the beginning of the story, the narrator includes that the boys were
gathering stones, which also acts as foreshadowing to the story’s macabre ending. They
treat gathering the stones as a game. “Bobby and Harry Jones and Dickie Delacroix—the
villagers pronounced this name ‘Dellacroy’—eventually made a great pile of stones in
one corner of the square and guarded it against the raids of the other boys” (Jackson 1).
Another topic worth noting is that everyone in town throws stones. “The children had
stones already. And someone gave little Davy Hutchinson a few pebbles” (Jackson 7).
Davy Hutchinson is throwing stones at the person who “won” the lottery, who is his own
mother, Tessie Hutchinson. This is not scorned upon in the village, rather encouraged, to
continue the tradition of stoning the person who “wins” the lottery.
The tradition in “The Lottery,” represents a tradition that would be considered
strange in many places in the world. However, as in a society with a relatively
uncommon tradition, this custom seems very normal to members of that village, because
the tradition has occurred for as long as anyone can remember. Tradition is continued
sometimes just for the sole purpose of that it has always been done, it can keep members
of a community from truly caring about one another, and it can blind people from the
reality of what they are actually doing, which, in the case of “The Lottery,” is taking
someone’s life. Not many societies in the world can explain the reasoning why they
carry out certain practices, and the only real answer to that question is that is simply a
cultural phenomenon.
“LOTTERY” ESSAY 2
Shirley Jackson gives much detail in “The Lottery.” She shows that a village in
which the story is being told is a utopia, but as the readers keep reading the story, they
discover that that utopia the villagers live in isn’t as perfect as the readers thought it
would be. Jackson shows when and where the story is taking place, she describes the
village as if it was a normal town that seems to have nothing wrong with it, and lastly,
Jackson applies that the village lacks important buildings and celebrates not important
holidays over the holidays that should be celebrated.
The setting in “The Lottery” takes place over the summer in the village as Jackson
described it with “the flowers were blossoming profusely and the grass was richly green.”
The village has happy children playing and adults talking about everyday concerns. This
seemingly normal and happy setting contrasts greatly with the reality of the lottery. Few
ideas are given to the specific time and place in the story.
Jackson describes the village as a normal town. She shows that it is
tranquil and peaceful and that nothing is going wrong. She explains that men engage in
the subject of how do things in the village like as she said, “the men began to gather,
surveying their own children, speaking of planting and rain, tractors and taxes.” She also
shows that they communicated well. She adds “they greeted one another and exchanged
bits of gossip as they went to join their husbands.” This applies that the women talked to
their neighbors and they were sociable and not ignorant. All of this shows that they were
a normal village but in some ways the village is abnormal, for example, lacking important
buildings that a normal society would have.
In this village claimed to be a utopia, there happens to be no important buildings
in the village. Jackson points out significant buildings that surround the town square, but
fails to describe a church or a courthouse, which are usually essential buildings to all
communities. Also, Jackson fails to describe the central government in the village. She
doesn’t talk about how the village is ruled or what laws the villagers are supposed to
follow. Also Jackson suggests that the villagers celebrate Halloween but do not celebrate
religious and/or important holidays like Christmas, Hanukah, Easter, or even
Thanksgiving.
Overall, the village may seem normal at first but when you interpret the story, you
realize it is very odd. However, she doesn’t end the story with a resolution to the plot, but
she does clarify the irony she sees in the world through a creative setting.
“LOTTERY” ESSAY 3
Shirley Jackson's esteemed story, “The Lottery,” is a psychological study of the
most horrible recesses of human nature. While the story itself is rich in meaning, its
setting, generally considered to be one of the most important aspects of a story, was
rather vague. There was very little setting described at all – the reader receives only small
hints that mean very little at all. The reader is told about friendly dances being organized,
a statement that leads one to believe it is a more modern time, but at the same time, the
reader is convinced that the story takes place in a horrible, immoral past that humanity
has left far behind. The story's vaguely described setting gives only just enough
information to produce a general air around the story, and this vagueness in setting is
what allows the story to contain the message it did.
The setting of “The Lottery” leaves much in the hands of the reader's imagination
– the setting is only used to give the reader a general air of what is going on in the story –
but the rest of the description can be interpreted in many different ways, leaving the
reader with more questions than answers. When Shirley Jackson writes, “The lottery was
conducted--as were the square dances, the teen club, the Halloween program--by Mr.
Summers” (Jackson), the reader is given the impression that the story takes place in a
more modern setting. There is no direct impression given of a fully modern world
from this statement, but rather of one from 50 or 60 years ago, a calm rural village with
nice children and a friendly environment. However, as the story progresses and the reader
is shown the horrible traditions of the town, a much darker view of the society is formed
– of a very old, dark, ritualistic town – one almost gets the image of a voodoo ritualistic
tribe. Many readers jump to this conclusion because of the denial that humans today are
as capable of performing the same horrible acts of violenceas humans hundreds of years
ago. The discrepancies in the implication of the setting create a setting just vague enough
to fulfill Shirley Jackson's needs.
Although the setting description is very sparse, this style reinforces Jackson's
message about the human psyche. In essence, it makes the story what it is. If the story's
setting had been written any more specifically in any way, it would not have the same
mystique that it does now. The only description the reader gets is: “...in this village,
where there were only about three hundred people...” (Jackson). Anything further is
merely guesswork. Jackson's work is a journey into the human psyche – and if a
region was specified, this would have been ruined. Specifying that, say, the story took
place in Tibet paints the picture of Tibetans as horrible people – and does not speak of all
of humanity, as Jackson attempts to. By keeping the region unspecific, Jackson manages
to apply her work to all of humanity. In the same way, keeping the time unspecified
allows the story to speak to all humans – it cannot be dismissed as ancient humanity, with
modern humans being considered more civilized, and it cannot be attributed to current
corruption. This lack of setting allows the message to be about all humans, regardless of
where they are.
As it has been shown, the setting of the lottery is very confusing, and this
confusion brings Jackson's message to full impact. Her horror story of the beast within
each person would not have been as influential a message if not for the vagueness in
which she describes the setting. By keeping the setting vague, a confusion and mystique
is placed around the reader. This very mystique is one of the many elements that creates
the truth throughout the message Jackson tried to send.