Authority In The Lottery By Shirley Jackson

there is quiet conversation between friends. Mr. Summers, who runs the lottery, arrives with a black box. The original box was lost many years ago, even before Old Man Warner, the oldest person in the village, can remember. Each year Mr. Summers suggests that they make a new box, but no one is willing to go against tradition. The people were willing to use slips of paper instead of woodchips as markers, as the village had grown too large for the wood chips to fit in the box. A list of all the families and households in the village is made, and several matters of who will draw for each family are decided. Mr. Summers is sworn in as the official of the lottery in a specific ceremony. Some people remember that there used to be a song and salute as part of the ceremony, but these are no longer performed. Tessie Hutchinson arrives in the square late because she has forgotten what day it was. She joins her husband and children before the lottery can begin. Mr. Summers explains the lottery’s rules: each family will be called up to the box and draw a slip of paper. One of the villagers tells Old Man Warner that the people of a nearby village are thinking about ending the lottery. Old Man Warner laughs at the idea. He believes that giving up the lottery would cause nothing but trouble, and a loss of civilized behavior. A woman responds that some places have already given up the lottery. Everyone finishes drawing, and each

And now it becomes meaningless, and they are just blindly following the tradition that they have always done. Old Man Warner is the oldest person in the town and have been a part of the lottery for seventy-seven years. He is the only one that strongly believes that the lottery is a good thing and they should never stop doing it. Old Man Warner says, “[There] used to be a saying about ‘Lottery in June, corn be heavy soon.’ First thing you know, we’d all be eating stewed chickweed and acorns.” (52) Old Man Warner talks about how the lottery correlates to the presence of more corn crops, and he strongly states that without the lottery, they would be eating chickweed and acorns. This is probably the original reason for why they started the lottery, it was to have good crops. Old Man Warner is the only one who truly cares about the lottery, the other villagers just do it to follow their tradition. Old Man Warner thinks that “nothing’s good enough for [the people who have stopped the tradition of the lottery.]” (52) He strongly opposes the idea of not having the lottery and he thinks that the people who have stopped it are out of their minds.

?The people had done it so many times that they only half-listened to the directions?? The villager?s passiveness towards the lottery shows, not only that they don?t want to be there, but that the lottery is just another task they need to mark off of their to-do lists. In actuality, the lottery is a tuned-way of choosing someone to die, but the villagers are so desensitized to it, that they fancy the lottery as nothing more than an errand that they must complete.

Shirley Jackson writes about this social conduct in order to reflect her childhood trauma of being bullied by other kids, leading to her depression in school (Kellman 1213). Conveying the selfishness of man through her writings, Shirley Jackson displays her consciousness within “The Lottery” and shows how society can influence the conscious at developmental stages and leading examples through psychoanalytic lens.

Lots of people have to deal with a situation with two choices that have very different outcomes, and could even mean life or death. Either standing up in the face of injustice, or following the crowd. This is also known as peer pressure. “The Lottery,” written by Shirley Jackson, is a fictional short story about a lottery that takes place in a village every summer. First, every family has a representative that draws a slip of paper, then every member of the winning family draws, and however gets a black dot on their paper “wins,” which means that person gets stoned to death. Then, “First They Came,” by Martin Niemoller, a man who wrote about his perspective on justice and indifference based from his experience of not standing up for others in the face of injustice. The two stories, “The Lottery,” and “First They Came,” deal with injustice, but they do so in different ways.

Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery” is a story littered with warnings and subtext about the dangers a submissive society can pose. While the opening is deceptively cheery and light Jackson uses an array of symbols and ominous syntax to help create the apprehensive and grim tone the story ends with. Her portrayal of the town folk as blindly following tradition represents the world during World War II when people’s failure to not mindlessly accept and heed authority lead to disastrous consequences. . Shirley Jackson uses a large array of techniques to help convey the idea that recklessly following and accepting traditions and orders can lead to disastrous consequences.

The theme of crowd psychology is also explored in this story. The villagers believe that since the ritual has been going on for years, it must continue. They follow it without any sense of logic. Though they act sensibly before the lottery, when the time comes, they can do anything in the name of tradition. The psychology of the crowd affects every person’s action. When Mr.

He believes that the lottery will make society stable and towns that have stopped doing them are crazy fools.

Through use of having community events, celebrating traditions, and repeating the traditions, Shirley Jackson is able to prove that the townspeople are not as cruel as the audience may think. They have many community gatherings that are happy, unlike the lottery. “Jovial man” Mr. Summers conducts the lottery, “the square dances, the teenage club, and Halloween program.” It is very obvious that Mr. Summers, is not a bad man, so he cannot, and should not be blamed for the lottery. Shirley Jackson is trying to prove that although the lottery itself is bad, the people who participate in it are not. Even though the lottery appears to be horrid, Jackson attempts to make the town look civil and human. All the town does the lottery so that they can have good crops that season. The saying goes “lottery in June, corn be heavy soon.” People are considered “crazy fools” if they do not continue with the lottery. Jackson tries to show that the people who second guess the lottery are not popular with some people in town. Also if the town has a bad crop year townspeople will probably blame the doubters. The townspeople have always had a lottery, so it is unknown what would happen if they decided to skip it. Old Man Warner is the town’s oldest townsperson, and he is most experienced with the lottery. No one‒Old Man Warner included‒ ever remembers a time where there was not a lottery. “There’s always been a lottery”

Shirley Jackson strongly conveys the motif of peer pressure throughout her short story, the Lottery. The first signs of peer pressure appear as everyone in the town gathers to participate in the inhumane annual lottery. In this most recent lottery, Mrs. Hutchinson is chosen. No one steps up to protect her, not even her husband, Mr. Hutchinson. The rest of the people in the town cannot think past the idea that it is better that Mrs. Hutchinson gets stoned instead of them. The final cruel act of peer pressure is played out when all the villagers gather to throw large stones at Mrs. Hutchinson. One person is so utterly heartless, or feels such enormous pressure to conform, that they give Mrs. Hutchinson’s son a few pebbles to throw at his own mother.

In today's society the actions taken in this story would have been considered morally wrong and punishment for committing these crimes would be handed down by the court system. The judicial system of today would punish them with incarceration or death by leathal injection. This legal system was actually illegal, more of a marshal law. These people were ruling themselves. The best example is Mr. Summers, he made it a happy gathering, conducted all the civil activities, and then was also the executioner. He brings with all his justice and ruling, death. The purpose of the lottery is to weed out the people and learn the cycle of life is to accept democracy.

One aspect of human nature that is examined, and that adds to the effectiveness of the story, is man's tendency to resist change. This is shown in more than one way. The first way is the way some villagers tolerate the lottery even though they know it is wrong, and it serves no purpose. They talk about how other towns have already stopped having

In the fictional short story “The Lottery,” by Shirley Jackson, on June 27th a small village gathered together to participate in the annual lottery, an old village tradition, conducted by Mr. Summers, the lottery official. During the lottery, the head of each household in the village draws one slip of paper. Whoever draws the slip of paper with the charcoal dot on it is sacrificed for the crop season. This time it was Mr. Hutchinson, who drew the dire slip of paper. So then each member of his household had to draw, including his three small young children, Bill, Jr., and little Dave.

Shirley Jackson’s use of characters is very detrimental to keeping the theme of the story lively. Whether they play a minor or significant role to the story each character reveals a lot of information about the tradition of the lottery and its intentions, varying from subtle to obvious details. One of the most important characters is Old Man Warner, an elderly man who is very conservative about the preservation of this tradition He holds it dearly to his heart, despite the fact that this tradition is slowly deteriorating in villages around him. Old Man Warner represents the stubborn nature of all the townspeople who are reluctant to

There are various cause and effects of peer pressure. Peer pressure is pressure or influence from a person’s peers. Peers are often described people of the same age group or social group. Peers will feel the need to be in control and will often surround themselves with weak-minded or people with low self-esteem to have the do their bidding. The causes of peer pressure include the need to fit in, low self-esteem, fear of rejection, and at most time the need to feel safety and security from peers. The effects of peer pressure can be negative and also have the worst outcomes.