The Lottery
In "The Lottery" by Shirley Jackson one learns that tradition is important. There are several supported examples throughout the story including: The timing and date of the lottery, the officiator of the lottery, and lastly, what the lottery represents to this micro society of "their village".Shirley Jackson has made tradition not the central but certainly a prevalent theme in this short story written originally for the New Yorker in 1948. While it is easy to see why some traditions are easy to carry on such as holidays and special occasions like anniversaries or birthdays; as a reader you struggle with why, this particular barbaric tradition has been preserved and even institutionalized by the villagers. The lottery is held the same time every year on June 27. While the same date, may seem a small thing and relatively benign, this particular date does have significance to the lottery and the tradition. As we learn the date is important to the season of harvesting crops. Old man Warner ties this thread for us when he talks of days gone by where the "saying" was "Lottery in June, corn be heavy soon". Were the timing of the lottery mid winter, say in January, the same reference could not be
The lottery must be something to be proud of and be a part of just like the Fourth of July fireworks celebrations. Another example may be when during the Vietnam war we as a country instituted a draft. The lottery in this villagers mind represents civility and social correctness. It would not even occur to the villagers to have anyone else as a natural candidate. This line of thinking says "If you don't follow the tradition you may be next or an outcast". The event is seen as lending civility to the village. It may be a comforting thought to think of ourselves as something different than the villagers are; however, are we always so different than the villager who threw the first stone to hurry up and get to lunch?. He protracts that not having a lottery would revert them all back to "living in caves" and nobody working any more. Summers, nearest to that designation, who otherwise is a business owner in the town, must carry out this event just as it would be traditional for the clergy to carry out weddings and funerals. Making sense of the senseless horror is near impossible! How can a community ban together to do something so appalling and horrific? Maybe, the villagers are thought to be people outside of who we are, however, countless thousands of Japanese Americans were encamped after the bombing of Pearl Harbor based on the premise they might "be" something dangerous. Although this particular lottery had a lot more black spots to be drawn, (almost all black spots) it was nonetheless a lottery. Old Man Warner supports this assertion as well. Summers, who in this village is also responsible for many "civic" events such as square dances, the teenage club, and the Halloween program.
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Acceptance Essays
