... is custom through foolish and outdated traditions in order to keep morals and ethics intact. The story demonstrates that most notable flawed logic that Jackson demonstrates in "The Lottery" over time is that traditions get dilute, with rituals changing and ultimately losing the meaning of the ... since the result of the lottery is as savage and barbaric of a ritual as practiced by any primitive being. The point that Jackson makes to the readers through this quote is that blindly following tradition allows people to abdicate critical thinking needed in the present. The villagers ... and ...

• Word Count: 1719
• Approx Pages: 7
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... one side to show the original wood color, and in some places faded or stained" (566). By describing the box's growing decrepitude, Jackson is using the box to symbolize how the original tradition has lost its original meaning over the years and yet how this tradition is still ... lottery box instead of a wood chip makes no material difference. Either way, the tradition dictates that she be stoned to death. In this way, Jackson implies that tradition itself must be questioned rather than the mere surface trappings of tradition. Another crucial symbol is the stones that end Mrs. Hutchinson...

• Word Count: 874
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... , so it could begin at ten o'clock in the morning and still be through in time to allow the villagers to get home for noon dinner." (Jackson 291) Still, the author never revealed what the story is really about until the very last paragraph of the story. "It isn't fair, it isn ... 't right," Mrs. Hutchinson screamed, and then they were upon her."(Jackson 302) By the author calling the action "it" the audience still doesn't know exactly what "it" is. Furthermore, throughout "An ... dying. In "The Lottery" the first foreshadowing clue is the little boy Bobby Martin "had already stuffed his ...

• Word Count: 903
• Approx Pages: 4
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... due to the unknown fear and evil of human nature. She presents the very destructive rituals in mankind that the people in this town engage in blindly. Through this story Jackson expresses her perceptions concerning traditional rituals which she considers cruel and unworthy of human observance. The story of this fictional lottery is a very disturbing and shocking reflection of a violent ... tradition following society. Jackson reveals two main attitudes that are prevalent in this society; the disturbing tendency of society to identify a scapegoat and the perception that societies are alw...

• Word Count: 1254
• Approx Pages: 5
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... anxiously await the end of this annual, ritualistic event known as the lottery, no one expresses a single opinion about the behavior. In the short story "The Lottery" the author Shirley Jackson utilizes several propaganda techniques in order to show that people need to think for themselves. To begin with, exigency, one of the main techniques of propaganda ... Jackson uses shows that when people don"t have enough time to think they blindly follow the crowd. From the beginning, the villagers rush the lottery and expect it to last "less ... 's finish quickly," and "get this over with" (14...

• Word Count: 626
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: Undergraduate