Blindly Following Tradition In Shirley Jackson's The...

Imagine that you lived in a world like the Hunger Games where murder was accepted. Wouldn't you want to change it? In the short story, "The Lottery", tells of a village where the town conducts a murder in order to have a good harvest. The people gather to conduct a lottery every June where the head of the family-usually male- picks a slip of paper from a black box to know if they will be sacrificed. Then, if they get the black dot their family will be chosen to do another lottery to choose who will get stoned to death. Jackson uses "The Lottery" to warn others of the dangers of blindly following tradition. We are also able to see how the people are blindly following a tradition that is dangerous. In Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery”, the villagers …show more content…
Tessie stands out from the other women because unlike the other women of the village, she was late and forgot what day it was. Tessie's ability to "clean forgot what day it was"(Jackson, 3) portrays her free spirit and separates her from the townspeople. Tessie’s ability to forget the most important day of the town unlike the others shows how different she was from the others. Her joking around with her husband as the townspeople have to separate to make room for her makes Tessie one of the main characters of the story. Tessie’s eagerness only sets her apart even more. Tessie then tries to regroup with her family, but it is too late because Jackson has already set her apart from everyone else. Tessie exclaims “It wasn’t fair” (Jackson, 6) as during the process of the lottery, which is something that was not done. Jackson chooses her to question the concept of tradition and how it can be dangerous. Jackson gives her the ability to forget a day as important as this or proclaim that "It wasn't fair" (Jackson, 6) helps the reader see how resistant they are to change. Tessie is then shunned by the village and her family. Tessie is told "shut up" by her husband because she questioned the lottery. Tessie is the only character to be able to 1) forget the lottery and 2) question their long standing tradition. “It …show more content…
The townspeople did not want to "...upset [the] tradition as [it] was represented by the black box"(Jackson, 2) because it was a part of their history. The town’s main connection they had to the past was the Lottery and the black box. Moreover, the village is extremely resistant to change, although in other passages, it is seen that other parts of their tradition have changed. The villagers surround their entire lives around the black box for those two days. “The rest of the year the box was put away, sometimes one place, sometimes another…”(Jackson, 2) because the people were afraid to keep it around them. Even though they wanted to keep their paraphernalia they feared the bad karma of the black box. The black box was seen as a symbol of death that is why they were hesitant to touch the box, the black box also represented their coffins. It meant that every time they went through with this ritual they were closer to death. "The black box grew shabbier each year: by now it was no longer completely black but splintered badly along one side to show the original wood color, and in some places faded or stained."(Jackson, 2). The wearing away of the black box represents the falling apart of the

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