Tradition In The Lottery By Shirley Jackson

790 Words4 Pages
“The Lottery” Dictionary.com’s defines tradition as the handing down of statements, beliefs, legends, customs, information, etc., from generation to generation, especially by word of mouth or by practice. In “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson’s she writes about a community of people with deep traditions, who come together and share certain interests and ideas or tradition. In such interactions, the good and the bad among each individual are influenced, and the people tend to think in a specific way without any question if it is right or wrong. The community begins to think of certain ideas as good and evil, and some as necessary. But these ideas do not always have to be right. It could often be completely unthinkable. In "The Lottery", Shirley Jackson uses the change in character of Tessie Hutchinson, to portray the evil that lies within the society, and how deep rooted tradition will change her forever. No one in the community questions the tradition of the lottery, until Tessie, but only when she got picked for it. At first she is in a very good mood and is excited for the lottery. While talking to her friend Mrs. Delacroix, she says "Clean forgot what day it was” and they both laughed (Jackson 252). She just simply follows the traditions of the lottery because it had been done for…show more content…
Everything has change for Tessie and her family but nothing has changed for the rest of the community. The villagers crowd around her in a circle getting ready to throw stones at her. At the same time, Jackson also reveals the deceased society as they move "onto Tessie" to kill her (Jackson 256). The people do not realize the cruelty they are showing and they do not seem to understand that somebody else will have to go through the same thing next year. As each person gets a stone, they do not understand that the stones will hit them some day as well. I wonder if it were a child if it would change could it be

More about Tradition In The Lottery By Shirley Jackson

Open Document