The Lottery Essay Example for Free

The Lottery EssayThe LotteryThe specific details capital of Mississippi describes in the beginning of The Lottery even out us up for the horrible conclusion. In the first paragraph, Jackson provides specific details about the day on which the drawing off takes place. She tells us the date (June 27), while (about 10 A.M.), and temperature (warm). She describes the scene on the button there argon flowers and green grass, and the town squ ar, where every single gathers, is between the bank and post office. She provides specifics about the town, including how m any people live there and how long the lottery takes, as well as about neighboring towns, which offer more people and must(prenominal)iness start the lottery earlier. In the paragraphs that follow this introduction, Jackson gives us characters all in all-inclusive namesBobby Martin, Harry J nonpareils, and Dickie Delacroix, among early(a)sand even tells us how to pronounce Delacroix. Far from being superfluous or i rrelevant, these initial specific details ground the myth in reality. Beca apply she sets the story firmly in a specific place and time, Jackson expects to suggest that the story willing be a chronicle of sorts, describing the custom of the lottery. The specifics continue throughout the story, from the numerous rules Mr. Summers follows to the names of the people who are called up to the blow. In a way, there is safety in these detailsthe world Jackson creates seems much like the one we know. And then the stoning begins, turning reality on its head. Because Jackson is so meticulous in grounding us in realistic, specific details, they sharpen the violence and fudge the ending so incredibly surprising.ThemesThe Danger of Blindly Following TraditionThe village lottery culminates in a violent murder each year, a bizarre ritual that suggests how dangerous tradition can be when people follow it blindly. Before we know what gentle of lottery theyre conducting, the villagers and thei r preparations seem harmless, even quaint theyve appointed a rather pathetic man to lead the lottery, and children run about gathering stones in the town square. Everyone is seems preoccupied with a funny-looking black box, and the lottery consists of little more than handmade slips of authorship. Tradition is endemic to small towns, a way to linkfamilies and generations. Jackson, however, pokes holes in the reverence that people redeem for tradition. She writes that the villagers dont really know much about the lotterys origin but try to bring through the tradition nevertheless.The villagers blind acceptance of the lottery has allowed ritual murder to become subdivision of their town fabric. As they befool demonstrated, they feel powerless to changeor even try to changeanything, although there is no one forcing them to keep things the same. Old military personnel Warner is so faithful to the tradition that he business concerns the villagers will take back to primitive times if they stop h graying the lottery. These ordinary people, who have just come from work or from their homes and will soon return home for lunch, advantageously kill someone when they are told to. And they dont have a campaign for doing it other than the feature that theyve always held a lottery to kill someone. If the villagers stop to question it, they would be forced to ask themselves why they are committing a murderbut no one stops to question. For them, the fact that this is tradition is reason enough and gives them all the justification they need.The Randomness of PersecutionVillagers persecute individuals at random, and the victim is guilty of no transgression other than having tearn the wrong slip of paper from a box. The elaborate ritual of the lottery is designed so that all villagers have the same chance of becoming the victimeven children are at risk. Each year, someone new is chosen and killed, and no family is safe. What makes The Lottery so chilling is the swiftne ss with which the villagers turn against the victim. The instant that Tessie Hutchinson chooses the marked slip of paper, she loses her identity as a popular housewife.Her friends and family social functionicipate in the killing with as much enthusiasm as everyone else. Tessie essentially becomes invisible to them in the fervor of persecution. Although she has done postcode wrong, her innocence doesnt matter. She has drawn the marked papershe has herself become markedand according to the logic of the lottery, she therefore must die. Tessies death is an extreme practice session of how societies can persecute innocent people for absurd reasons. Present-day parallels are easy to draw, because all prejudices, whether they are based on race, land up, appearance, religion, economic class, geographical region, family background, or sexual orientation, are essentially random.Those whoare persecuted become marked because of a trait or characteristic that is out of their controlfor exampl e, they are the wrong sex or from the wrong part of the country. Just as the villagers in The Lottery blindly follow tradition and kill Tessie because that is what they are expected to do, people in real life often persecute others without questioning why. As Jackson suggests, any such persecution is essentially random, which is why Tessies bizarre death is so universal. MotifsFamilyFamily bonds are a significant part of the lottery, but the emphasis on family only heightens the killings cruelty because family members so easily turn against one a nonher. Family ties form the lotterys basic structure and execution. In the town square, families stand together in groups, and every family member must be present. profuse lists of heads of families, heads of households within those families, and household members are created, and these lists determine which member draws from the box. Family relationships are essential to how the actions of the lottery are carried out, but these relations hips mean nothing the moment its time to stone the unlucky victim. As soon as its wee-wee that Tessie has drawn the marked paper, for example, her husband and children turn on her just as the other villagers do. Although family relationships determine almost everything about the lottery, they do not guarantee loyalty or love once the lottery is over. RulesThe lottery is rife with rules that are helter-skelter followed or disregarded. The intricate rules the villagers follow suggest that the lottery is an efficient, logical ritual and that there is an important purpose behind it, whereas the rules that have lapsed, however, reveal the essential entropy of the lotterys dark conclusion. Mr. Summers follows an elaborate system of rules for creating the slips of paper and making up the lists of families. When the lottery begins, he lays out a series of specific rules for the villagers, including who should draw slips of paper from the black box and when to open those papers.When someo ne is unable to draw, the lottery rules determine who should be next in line. At the same time, there are ghosts of rules that have been long forgotten or will richly abandoned altogether, such as those for salutes and songs that accompany Mr. Summers induction as thechairman of the lottery. The fact that some rules have remained while others have disappeared underscores the disturbing randomness of the murder at the end of the lottery. SymbolsThe Black BoxThe shabby black box represents some(prenominal) the tradition of the lottery and the illogic of the villagers loyalty to it. The black box is nearly falling apart, hardly even black anymore after years of use and storage, but the villagers are unwilling to replace it. They base their attachment on nothing more than a story that claims that this black box was made from pieces of another, former(a) black box. The lottery is filled with similar relics from the past that have supposedly been passed down from earlier days, such as t he creation of family lists and use of stones.These are part of the tradition, from which no one wants to deviatethe lottery must take place in just this way because this is how its always been done. However, other lottery traditions have been changed or forgotten. The villagers use slips of paper instead of wood chips, for example. at that place is no reason why the villagers should be loyal to the black box yet disloyal to other relics and traditions, just as there is no logical reason why the villagers should continue holding the lottery at all. The LotteryThe lottery represents any action, behavior, or idea that is passed down from one generation to the next thats accepted and followed unquestioningly, no matter how illogical, bizarre, or cruel. The lottery has been taking place in the village for as long as anyone can remember. It is a tradition, an annual ritual that no one has thought to question. It is so much a part of the towns culture, in fact, that it is even accompani ed by an old adage Lottery in June, corn be heavy soon. The villagers are fully loyal to it, or, at least, they tell themselves that they are, despite the fact that many parts of the lottery have changed or faded away over the years. Nevertheless, the lottery continues, exclusively because there has always been a lottery. The result of this tradition is that everyone becomes party to murder on an annual basis. The lottery is an extreme example of what can happen when traditions are not questioned or addressed critically by new generations. Foreshadowing and SuspenseMany of the seemingly innocuous details throughout The Lottery estimate the violent conclusion. In the second paragraph, children put stones in their pockets and make piles of stones in the town square, which seems like innocent play until the stones true purpose becomes clear at the end of the story. Tessies late arrival at the lottery instantly sets her apart from the crowd, and the observation Mr. Summers makesThough t we were going to have to get on without youis eerily prescient about Tessies fate. When Mr. Summers asks whether the Watson boy will draw for him and his mother, no reason is given for why Mr. Watson wouldnt draw as all the other husbands and fathers do, which suggests that Mr. Watson may have been last years victim. Jackson builds suspense in The Lottery by relentlessly withholding explanation and does not reveal the true nature of the lottery until the first stone hits Tessies head. We check out a lot about the lottery, including the elements of the tradition that have survived or been lost.We learn how important the lottery is to the villagers, particularly Old Man Warner. We go through the entire ritual, hearing names and watching the men approach the box to lead their papers. But Jackson never tells us what the lottery is about, or mentions any kind of prize or purpose. She begins to reveal that something is awry when the lottery begins and the crowd grows nervous, and she intensifies the relish when Tessie hysterically protests primes winning selection. And she gives a slight clue when she says that the villagers still remembered to use stones. But not until the moment when a rock in reality hits Tessie does Jackson show her hand bangly. By withholding information until the last possible second, she builds the storys suspense and creates a shocking, powerful conclusion. Quotations1. Mr. Summers spoke frequently to the villagers about making a new box, but no one liked to upset even as much tradition as was correspond by the black box. This quotation, from the fifth paragraph of the story, reveals how firmly entrenched the villagers are in the lotterys tradition and how threatening they find the idea of change. The villagers have no good reason for wanting to keep the black box aside from a vague story about the boxs origins, and the box itself is falling apart. Beyond shabby, it barely resembles a box now, but the villagers, who seem to take su ch pride in theritual of the lottery, do not seem to care about the boxs appearance. They just want the box to stay the same. Their strident belief that the box must not change suggests that they fear change itself, as though one change might lead to other changes. Already, some towns have stopped holding lotteries, but these villagers do not seem to be headed in that direction. Instead, they hold firm to the parts of the tradition that remain, afraid to alter even this seemingly insignificant part of it for fear of starting line down a slippery slope.2. Although Mr. Summers and everyone else in the village knew the answer perfectly well, it was the business of the official of the lottery to ask such questions formally. This quotation appears about center(prenominal) through the story, just before the drawing of names begins. Mr. Summers has asked Mrs. Dunbar whether her son, Horace, will be drawing for the family in Mr. Dunbars absence, even though everyone knows Horace is still too young. There is no purpose to the question, other than that the question is part of the tradition, and so Mr. Summers adheres to the rule despite the fact that it seems absurd. Even though other parts of the ritual have changed or been discarded over the years, this rule holds firm for absolutely no logical reason.Large things, such as songs and salutes, have slipped away, and wood chips have been replaced with slips of paper. just this silly, pointless questioning continues. The villagers seem strident in their adherence to the tradition. Old Man Warner, in particular, is adamant that tradition must be upheld and the lottery must continue. But the reality is that there is no consistency among what rules are followed and which are discarded. This lack of logic makes the villagers blind observance of the ritual even more arguable because the tradition they claim to be upholding is actually flimsy and haphazard.3. Although the villagers had forgotten the ritual and lost the orig inal black box, they still remembered to use stones. This quotation, which appears near the end of the story, distills the lottery down to its essence murder. The villagers may talk of tradition, ritual, and history, but the truthas this quotation makes clearis that the traditional parts of it have long been discarded. The original ritual and box may indeed have borne along a tradition, violent and bizarre as it may be, but now, without the original trappings, songs, and procedures, all that remains is the violence. Thehaphazard ritual, the bits and pieces that have been slapped together into some semblance of the original, have led to this essential moment of killing. The villagers are all too eager to embrace what remains, eagerly filling up the stones and carrying on the tradition for another year.Character AnalysisTessie HutchinsonWhen Tessie Hutchinson arrives late to the lottery, admitting that she forgot what day it was, she immediately stands out from the other villagers as someone different and mayhap even threatening. Whereas the other women arrive at the square calmly, chatting with one another and then standing placidly by their husbands, Tessie arrives flustered and out of breath. The crowd must part for her to reach her family, and she and her husband endure good-natured teasing as she makes her way to them. On a day when the villagers single focus is the lottery, this breach of properness seems inappropriate, even unforgivable everyone comes to the lottery, and everyone comes on time. The only person absent is a man whose leg is broken. Although Tessie quickly settles into the crowd and joins the lottery like everyone else, Jackson has set her apart as a kind of impoverished spirit who was able to forget about the lottery entirely as she performed her chores.Perhaps because she is a free spirit, Tessie is the only villager to protest against the lottery. When the Hutchinson family draws the marked paper, she exclaims, It wasnt fair This refra in continues as she is selected and subsequently stoned to death, but instead of listening to her, the villagers ignore her. Even Bill tells her to be quiet. We dont know whether Tessie would have protested the fairness of the lottery if her family had not been selected, but this is a moot point. Whatever her motivation is for speaking out, she is efficaciously silenced. Old Man WarnerOld Man Warner, the oldest man in town, has participated in seventy-seven lotteries and is a staunch advocate for keeping things exactly the way they are. He dismisses the towns and young people who have stopped having lotteries as crazy fools, and he is threatened by the idea of change. He believes, illogically, that the people who want to stop holding lotterieswill soon want to live in caves, as though only the lottery keeps society stable. He also holds fast to what seems to be an old wives taleLottery in June, corn be heavy soonand fears that if the lottery stops, the villagers will be forced to e at chickweed and acorns. Again, this idea suggests that fillet the lottery will lead to a return to a much earlier era, when people hunted and gathered for their food. These illogical, irrational fears reveal that Old Man Warner harbors a strong belief in superstition. He easily accepts the way things are because this is how theyve always been, and he believes any change to the status quo will lead to disaster. This way of thinking shows how dangerous it is to follow tradition blindly, never questioning beliefs that are passed down from one generation to the next. Mr. SummersDespite his breezy, light-hearted name, Mr. Summers wields a frightening make sense of power in the village, power that seems to have been assigned to him arbitrarily. A married, childless business owner, Mr. Summers is jovial and pitied by the townspeople for having a nagging wife. No one seems to question his leadership of the lottery, and it seems to have never been challenged. Perhaps he took on the role h imself, or perhaps someone offered it to him. Whatever the case, he now has complete control. Mr. Summers not only draws the names on the day of the lottery, but he also makes up the slips of paper that go into the black box. Its up to him to make the black circle that ultimately condemns someone to death. Jackson never explains why the villagers put such pure faith in Mr. Summers, and the assumption that he will continue to conduct the lottery is just one more inexplicable but universally accepted part of the ritual.