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The Lottery Notes

Shirley Jackson warns readers about the dangers of blindly adhering to tradition through her story "The Lottery." She uses symbolism to convey this theme. The townspeople commit a heinous act by stoning a person to death in the annual lottery, showing how tradition can influence people to act in terrible ways. The black box symbolizes the townspeople's strict adherence to tradition, keeping the lottery going each year without questioning it.

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209 views1 page

The Lottery Notes

Shirley Jackson warns readers about the dangers of blindly adhering to tradition through her story "The Lottery." She uses symbolism to convey this theme. The townspeople commit a heinous act by stoning a person to death in the annual lottery, showing how tradition can influence people to act in terrible ways. The black box symbolizes the townspeople's strict adherence to tradition, keeping the lottery going each year without questioning it.

Uploaded by

revanpolo
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd

WHAT WARNING DOES JACKSON GIVE READERS ABOUT THE DANGERS OF TRADITION?

HOW
DOES SHE USE SYMBOLISM TO CONVEY THIS THEME?

In “The Lottery”, Shirley Jackson conveys a warning to readers through her theme by demonstrating that blind
adherence to tradition can cause otherwise ordinary and seemingly “good” individuals to commit heinous acts.

Possible details:

 The lottery happens every year, and no one questions its cruelty or takes a stand to stop it
 The Black Box symbolises the townspeople’s adherence to tradition. It is old and decrepit, but they
refuse to replace it because the townspeople don’t like to upset tradition
 The townspeople don’t know why they do the lottery beyond the fact that there used to be a saying
that the lottery would bring heavy crops
 Even as Tessie is being stoned to death, she claims that the drawing itself is unfair; she never
questions whether the lottery should occur

WHAT IS THE SETTING OF “THE LOTTERY?” WHAT MOOD DO THESE DETAILS ESTABLISH, AND
WHAT DOES THIS LEAD YOU TO THINK ABOUT THE LOTTERY THAT’S ABOUT TO OCCUR? USE
EVIDENCE FROM THE TEXT TO SUPPORT YOUR ANSWER

“The Lottery” is set in a small, unnamed tow on a summer day. The details in the text tell us that

Possible details:

 It is the morning of June 27th


 The day is sunny and clear
 The flowers are blossoming profusely and the grass is green
 All of the people in the village are gathered in the village square, and they gather here every year for
the lottery
 Because the people always present for the lottery, it suggest that they place importance on tradition
 While together, the townspeople seem to be relaxed and happy: the children are playing and
laughing, the men are telling jokes, and the women are gossiping
 These setting details help establish a mood of a relaxed excitement because the day is beautiful, all of
the townspeople are present, and they seem happy and carefree
 Give the warm, sunny day and sense of happy excitement of the townspeople, it’s likely that the
lottery is a fun community event for the townspeople

Original purpose of the lottery was supposed to bring good crops.

It’s important that the original paraphernalia is lost as I’s likely people have tried to get rid of it and it’s
changed over the years. The other villages stop as they likely are sick of losing their loved ones and realised it’s
so far from the original purpose. This village is smaller and likely place more value on tradition.

Tessie is questioning the process of the lottery and not the lottery itself.

Foreshadowing, black of the box, the men.

Shirley Jackson is trying to say about humanity, that we think its okay to sacrifice people for the greater good,
Tessie is turning on her family to survive (asking to redraw), what people do when push comes to shove

‘Strange’ traditions and customs: whaling, honour killings, gender mutilations, stoning

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