Many Americans tend to believe that traditions or customs represent the nation, as it is key, that once opened a possibility and since then than a possibility is transformed from generation to generation. But in Shirley Jackson’s short story, called The Lottery, the tradition is described through a cruel lottery, that does not give prizes, it takes one human’s life each year instead.
First and foremost, the procedure of the lottery was quite easy, the people of the village should gather in the square, and they were supposed to take part in a random drawing. Common sense seems to dictate that the winner will be given a reward, but no in Jackson’s story. The prize is to be stoned to death by the villagers. Furthermore, some interesting facts come up while reading the story, for example, the author states:“In this village, where there were only about three hundred people, the whole lottery took less than two hours”, basically Jackson emphasizes that this village is about to die out, and this tradition will only help to do it quicker (Jackson). The little black spot on the slip of paper took the life of an innocent human that summer and had already taken seventy-seven lives before, some villagers wanted to stop this immoral tradition, but these people were blinded and believed that if they would stop, that action might bring fatal consequences to the whole village.
Ruth Franklin in “The Lottery” Letters overlooks the deeper problem of Jackson’s society. The author of the article states: “In 1948, the time when the fresh horrors of the Second World War were hardly forgotten and the Red Scare has just begun, it is not strange that the readers’ reaction would be so vehement, calling the author perverted and groundlessly disagreeable ”(Franklin). In other words, Franklin believes that Jackson wanted to portray the horrible consequences of the Second World War, the times when relatives betrayed the family, neighbors, and one’s children. The times when the people had forgotten about the concept of humanity, and were ready to stone to death others in order to be alive.
Works cited
Franklin, Ruth. “The Lottery” Letters. The New Yorker. 25 June 2015.Web.19 June 2016.
Jackson, Shirley. The Lottery.1948. Web. 19 June 2016.
