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The Lottery

 

            "The Lottery" by Shirley Jackson is a short story about a small town with ignorant rituals. The most appalling ritual that occurs within this town is the lottery. Now, in today's society, the purpose of the lottery is to be the winner, but with this town's lottery nobody wanted to win. There was a slight twist with this lottery, and the person who picked the paper with coal on it got the lucky prize of being stoned to death. The lottery itself functions symbolically to show how mindless rituals and traditions work to promote and reinforce gender-based stereotypes.
             First of all, the lottery in this town existed not because it was enjoyable, but it was because it supposedly helped the crops flourish throughout the growing season. As ancient and untrue as this ritual was, the town continued to do it regularly even though it was beginning to become unwanted by some people. The lottery was something that had been around for a very long time and was very much a ritual. For example, the narrator said, "The black box now resting on the stool had been put into use even before old man Warner was born" (132). This shows just how long the ritualistic lottery had existed. The people in the town were not even bothered by the fact that they might be stoned to death. This is not moral for any human being to not be bothered by death, and is just revolting that people would join together and stone a person they knew and may have liked. Secondly, old man Warner said, "There's always been a lottery" (135). This shows the town's lack of ability to change over time. No person in the town would stand up and say that this ritual was absurd. Instead a person would comment that other towns around them were giving up the lottery. In reply old man Warner said, "Pack of crazy fools" (135), and then, "Listening to the young folks, nothings good enough for them" (135). Old man Warner is symbolic of resistance to change in this community.


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