Perceiving Racism as a Tradition - Essay Example

For instance, The Lottery (page #) by Shirley Jackson seems to be difficult to understand especially when one looks at the story literally. Lotteries are known to let winners earn a sumptuous amount of money however the story instead, presents the winner with a judgment that endangers her life, being stoned. The Lottery is a short story full of metaphors, making the story quite difficult to make sense of. For a reader, it would be stupid for a community to engage in a lottery where the winner will be stoned instead of given a reward.

Such a concept would all the more boggle the mind of a reader to learn that the story has been well acclaimed, with lots of praises given to the writer for such a story that seemed not to make any sense. However, delving into a deeper study, one will come to see and understand the figures of speech used in the story that will put all the events into place. The short story presents the lottery as a tradition that has been running through generations with old man Warner, the oldest man in town, being a witness to the length of time the tradition has been existing.

This is a metaphorical representation of anything people usually engage in without any thought about its consequences, of who would benefit or suffer from it rather is done for the mere fact of wanting to continue a practice, a tradition. The black box is a representation of the origins of the tradition, one that is old and getting out of place in a community where people are being enlightened about the negative consequences of the tradition. Its color could as well speak of what it bears, which is the judgment of one of those involved in the lottery.

The passivity of the characters reflects the attitudes of most people about traditions, wanting to have nothing to do in changing what they have been used to. Mr. Summers, the postmaster on the other hand, represents those who may have noticed something wrong in a tradition and have voiced out his thoughts but finds reason with the passive attitude of his companions. The story holds an ironic tone of voice as it presents realities of life. First, looking at the story on a literal way, the lottery is an irony because as it is well-known, lotteries are supposed to give winners a fortune.

However, in the story, the winner is stoned. Figuratively spoken, and generally observed, there are a lot of lotteries people engage in, activities that seem to be good, tried and tested, seemingly harmless for them but in the end bring them to their destruction. Lotteries on the other hand, sometimes are perceived as good for the winner nevertheless, lack of skill in managing fortune could be a stone a person himself brings on his head. Still, as a tradition, lottery is passed on from generation to generation and it continues regardless of what it brings.

In an interesting note for comparison, the short story of Kate Chopin entitled Desiree’s Baby (page #) portrays racism, a theme commonly used in stories not only in the nineteenth century but in earlier and later centuries as well and probably even until the modern times. In contrast to the former short story mentioned earlier, Desiree’s Baby is a narrative that uses direct speech to describe the events in the story, relying more on descriptions to give color to the story. Desiree, as it was narrated was adopted by her foster parents, thought to have come from Texan ancestry because of the sighting of a