Demented Violence In Shirley Jackson's The Lottery
698 Words3 Pages
Demented violence in a well suited community
Have you ever exasperated to end a tradition that you know is utterly wrong, but everyone around you has followed and supported this tradition for as long as anyone can recall? Well, this is exactly what is going on in this story. Jackson presents us to a disturbing tradition in a small township that is done every year around the end of June called “The Lottery”, this “lottery” is based on a drawing which has been practiced by every member of the township for roughly seventy plus years.
Jackson exemplifies this lottery as a hospitable event; she compares it to several other hospitable events such as: the Halloween program, the square dance and the teen club. The townships atmosphere is believed…show more content… The reader immediately notices that the ritual is murder and the fact that we as readers detected it as such makes it even more intriguing.
The main point in “The Lottery” apprehends the nature of tradition and how it affects generations of people. Since the lottery has always been practice from generation to generation the township appears to consider it just a part of their daily life and expects it every year. Even though, anyone reading this story can notice that the people in the township are anxious, septic, and oblivious to get this day done and over with, they still don’t do anything about it, they just go along with the madness of the lottery.
The two most predominant literary methods in this story to me would be irony and symbolism. Irony because the lottery takes place annually in which there is always one winner, Ironically, the “winner” of the lottery is brutally murdered to death in a demented manner. Another prominent literary method would be symbolism. There are quite a few symbols throughout this story. One in particular that stands out would be the black box of course, where all the lottery tickets are conveniently…show more content… That a township of such kind can be so engaged in brutally murdering one of their own. The will of the township incorporates the autonomy of the chosen individual. At some point in the story the sense of compassion in the townships departs and a malicious sense of vindictiveness travels into the atmosphere.
The danger of blindly following tradition is what I envisioned in this short story by Shirley Jackson, an unusual ritual that suggests how dangerous a tradition can be when people follow it blindly. Tessie’s death is a prime example of how society can persecute innocent people for illogical causes. Family bonds are a substantial part of the lottery, but the importance on family only amplifies the killings of brutality because family members are so easily turned against one another. Family bonds form the lottery’s basic configuration and implementation. In this township everyone is supposed to stand side by side everyone has to be accounted for. Elaborate lists of heads of household families are generated and these lists determine which member draws from the