The Lottery by Shirley Jackson - Essay Example

The Lottery" by Shirley Jackson Shirely Jackson’s short story, ‘The Lottery,’ has achieved solemn attention from its readers as well as literary critics and captured the status of a prominent work in the field of American fiction. The author has developed the plot through the life of village people who celebrate the lottery as a ritualistic ceremony. Author uses tradition, rituals, and social class division as her major themes in “The Lottery.” Author presents suburban settings for her story which has been modeled after the Vermont community mentioned in the story.

A reader can simply identify that the villagers practiced the lottery as a ritual to ensure enough rain to have a thriving corn crop in the coming monsoon. The story reveals the misguided beliefs of the villagers and their specific customs. The day, in which the lottery was conducted, Mr. Summers, an old man in the village, gives guidance for the villagers. He arrives in the village square carrying a black wooden box with slips of paper in it and Mr. Graves, a young man in the town, follows Mr.

Summer, carrying a three- legged stool. People keep a distance from the box and the reader can see that the villagers show their willingness as well as their hesitations towards the rituals. Amelia Tibbet observes that “Basically, the story revolves around the misguided belief that if the villagers sacrifice one of their own to what readers are led to believe is a Rain God, then they will have good crops the next year” (Tibbett). The villagers believe that if they fail to follow the tradition of the lottery, they will face some tough consequences like starvation, poverty and drought.

Before the lottery is conducted, various lists had to be made, such as the heads of households, heads of eminent families, and the members of each family. The old man keeps and classifies all the details and begins the lottery. From the words of the old citizens in the town, the reader can see that there had been a ritual solute which the officials of the lottery used to practice. They had addressed each and every person who come up and draw from the box. Examining the procedures, the reader can see “there had been a recital of some sort, performed by the official of the lottery, a perfunctory, tuneless chant that had been rattled off duly each year” (Jackson).

After the drawing, the winner is stoned to death by the villagers, and their activity exposes their superstition and brutality. Here, the modern reader may feel the situation as absolutely ironic because they have positive expectations about the fortune of the ‘winner.’ The entire process of the lottery is intrinsically unfair, unreasonable and often portrayed as unbelievable to the reader. It also reflects the inhuman and cruel nature of the people who are cynical about the system. The process of selecting individuals to be stoned to death is absolutely unjustifiable, and one can easily consider it as an act of mindless evil.

No sensible man will agree with the brutal murder of a person, even if it is part of a ritual. The author discloses some secret American myths and witchcrafts with equal importance. As Darry Hattenhaver comments, “she also treats American rituals as witchcraft” (Hattenhauer 95). The death of Tess Hutchinson in Jackson’s ‘The Lottery’ underlines the mischievous and brutal nature of some American rituals practiced among the uncultured American villagers. Why the people in the village practiced these rituals and pulled their brothers in to the world of death is not very clear in the story.

However, the reader can infer that, through the story the author may be trying to expose greed of man who goes behind sudden riches. Through mentioning the rituals, Shirley Jackson demonstrates the power of conformity and also depicts the passive attitude of the town people towards such unfair rituals. Works citedHattenhauer, D. Shirley Jacksons American gothic. SUNY Press, 2003. Print. Jackson, S. The Lottery. wibg.pbworks.com. Web. 5 Feb. http://wibg.pbworks.com/f/The+Lottery.pdf.Tibbett, A.

Literary analysis: The Lottery, by Shirley Jackson. 17 Jan. 2008. Web. 5 Feb. 2012 http://www.helium.com/items/802683-literary-analysis-the-lottery-by-shirley-jackson.