Beatrice Rukenwa
Literary Criticism/Persuasive Essay
ENG 101 7762
November 14, 2013
Brutal Tradition
“Tradition often doesn't appear to have a history or logic of its own; it just is, and this type of thinking makes tradition hard to question. We can read "The Lottery" as a kind of plea: if your only reason for doing something is that you've always done it, Jackson suggests that might not be a reason at all.” (Shmoop Editorial Team)
Shirley Jackson’s short story THE LOTTERY begin with villagers preparing for the lottery. This preparation does not indicate any sign of violence or harm to anyone. They have a jobless man organizing the lottery, children running up and down gathering stones. On the other hand everyone seem preoccupied with a weird looking old black box and the lottery slips made from ordinary papers. Villagers gather for lottery every year on June 27th, when the corn is ripe. It is a traditional event that has been passed from generations to link the families and all villagers. None of the villagers understand why the lottery has to go on or what are the consequences of not performing the lottery. However, each year in the lottery tradition, one member of their own end up persecuted by the people he or she has loved and trusted. Using reader’s response, The Lottery, written by Jackson, supplies reader information about the disadvantages of blindly following traditions that causes lots of negative effects, such as human sacrifice rituals and bizarre violence.
The people let the strong rule over their primary beliefs. The story give the reader the view how people become victims of their own traditions that they can easily condemn and stop. “… man's victimization by … unexamined and unchanging traditions which he could easily change if he only realized their implications." (Kosenko). In this story, none of the villagers has taken time to examine the lottery that happens every year. Perhaps few people think it is the thing of the past, but...