The Brutal Tradition In The Lottery By Shirley Jackson

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Selvi 1 Necip Yasir Selvi Çiğdem Alp Pamuk 6 January 2015 The Brutal Tradition in “The Lottery” The short story “The Lottery”, by Shirley Jackson, is a very unusual story that is uncertain in explaining or telling why events are taking place. In another sense, this story also allows thinking logically and critically about the events and details presented, gives every single detail and characteristic in a story. The story is about an annual lottery that goes on in a small town on every June. The lottery begins by every head of family picking out a piece of folded paper from a small black box. Then, after everyone has chosen a folded piece of paper, they each open and show either paper with a black dot on it or not. After the person who has chosen…show more content…
For example, in this story the author explains in full detail, where the box that the folded papers are drawn from is being kept while the lottery is not taking place, however; she does not write where the village is located and why exactly this lottery is taking place. Another example of the author leaving out an important detail is that during the entire story, she does not explain the reason or result of the lottery. This makes the story more suspenseful, it also never relieves it. By relief I mean that at the end of the story, I am still wondering why this lottery is taking place. For example, at the end of the story, the woman who had chosen the black dot was subject to some sort of punishment with stones. that the stones where to be thrown at her until she died, the author never specifies this. She simply states in the last sentence that the people were “upon her”. This leads me to also think about exactly what happens at the end of the lottery. Does the woman who is getting stoned die? Does she live? If she lives, why does the lottery even take
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