The Lottery by Shirley Jackson

Introduction

The village lottery culminates in a violent killing each year, a bizarre ceremonial that proposes how dangerous tradition can be when people pursue it blindly. Before we understand what kind of lottery they're carrying out, the villagers and their groundwork's appear innocuous, even quaint: they've nominated a rather pathetic man to lead the lottery, and young children run about accumulating stones in the town square. (Jackson 2)

Themes

The Danger of Blindly Following Tradition

Everyone is appears preoccupied with a funny-looking very dark carton, and the lottery comprises of little more than handmade falls of paper. Tradition is endemic to small towns, a way to connection families and generations. Jackson, however, pokes apertures in the reverence that people have for tradition. She composes that the villagers don't really understand much about the lottery's origin but trial to maintain the tradition nevertheless. (Jackson 8)

The villagers' unseeing acceptance of the lottery has allowed ceremonial killing to become part of their town fabric. As they have demonstrated, they seem powerless to change—or even trial to change—anything, whereas there is no one compelling them to hold things the same. Old Man Warner is so trustworthy to the tradition that he fears the villagers will return to primitive times if they stop retaining the lottery.

These commonplace people, who have just arrive from work or from their homes and will shortly return home for midday serving of food, effortlessly kill someone when they are notified to. And they don't have a reason for managing it other than the detail that they've habitually held a lottery to kill someone. If the villagers stopped to inquiry it, they would be compelled to inquire themselves why they are committing a murder—but no one stops to question. For them, the detail that this is tradition is reason sufficient and devotes them all the justification they need. (Jackson 10)

 

The Randomness of Persecution

Villagers persecute persons at random, and the casualty is at fault of no transgression other than having drawn the incorrect fall of paper from a box. The complicated ceremonial of the lottery is conceived in order that all villagers have the identical chance of evolving the victim—even young children are at risk. Each year, someone new is selected and killed, and no family is safe. What makes “The Lottery” so chilling is the swiftness with which the villagers turn contrary to the victim. The instant that Tessie Hutchinson selects the assessed fall of paper, she misplaces her identity as a well liked housewife. Her associates and family take part in the killing with as much enthusiasm as everyone else. Tessie essentially becomes unseen to them in the fervor of persecution. Although she has finished nothing “wrong,” her innocence doesn't matter. She has drawn the assessed paper—she has herself become marked—and according to the reasoning of the lottery, she thus should die. (Jackson 7)

Tessie's death is a farthest demonstration of how societies can persecute innocent people for absurd reasons. Present-day parallels are so straightforward to draw, because all prejudices, ...