Introduction
The main theme of the work is Lottery and death, which is considered unnecessarily fair by the new residents in the town. The story follows several characters whose lives intersect in ultimately tragic ways. One of the most important aspects of the story is its exploration of luck and chance. Each character in the story is essentially at the mercy of fate, and there is no telling what might happen next. This idea is further reinforced by the recurring motif of lottery tickets (Jackson 6).
Ultimately, Jackson suggests that life is often unfair and that people have little control since they follow traditions without question. Shirley’s work is important for readers to understand because it shows how easy it is for people to be manipulated and how dangerous it can be to unquestioningly obey societal norms. The Lottery by Shirley Jackson, with the help of allusion, hyperbole, and metaphor, demonstrates the danger of blindly following traditions that can have a detrimental effect on human nature.
Critical Sources
There are fundamentally different approaches to the analysis of this literary work. In the article written by Mon (2020), The Lottery by Shirley Jackson is analyzed based on the use of particular vocabulary by various characters, reflecting their real essence and nature. Thus, the author seeks to demonstrate to readers what it is necessary to pay attention to when reading the story to interpret Shirley Jackson’s idea correctly.
In addition, an article written by Sari and Tur (2019) should be mentioned, which demonstrates the features of the presentation that create the effect of tension and horror. The main element in The Lottery by Shirley Jackson highlights the expressive expressions of various characters of arbitrariness, which strive to create a special perception of the negative reality of the existing tradition among readers. The noted articles pay attention to the study of the work from the point of view of lexicology in order to interpret the author’s idea.
Topic
Lottery promotes the careless killing of innocent individuals due to adhering to traditions by the townspeople. The townspeople are so accustomed to their monotonous lives that they do not even realize how boring it is until a new family moves in and shines a light on their dull existence. The new family is different in many ways, but most notably, they do not participate in the Lottery, which has been a tradition in the town ever since (Robinson 5). This upsets the status quo and arouses suspicion among the townspeople, who start to wonder what the newcomers are hiding.
The Lottery is a ritual that involves selecting one person to be killed by stoning. Tessie Hutchinson is the unfortunate person who is chosen to be part of the town’s Lottery and ends up being the victim of the Lottery to be stoned to death for winning the Lottery unfairly. At the time, it was Hutchinson’s turn, “Tessie Hutchinson was in the center of a cleared space by now, and she held her hands out desperately as the villagers moved in on her” (Al-Joulan 34). The quote shows how the townspeople were quick to kill people for minor reasons that Al-Joulan discourages. However, it is worth noting that the main problem is that innocent residents were killed, which demonstrates the cruelty of tradition.
Audience
The audience for the Lottery is people looking for a short, suspenseful story. Jackson builds suspense by hinting at the tragedy that will befall the townspeople without providing enough information (Robinson 5). The story is similarly effective in getting readers to think about the role that fate and chance play in human lives. Although some readers may find the ending predictable, most will be surprised by how brutal Jackson is in her depiction of human nature.
The harshness of the story is when the text mentions that “the story describes modern-day Americans performing the ritual stoning” (Robinson 1). The townspeople have been participating in the Lottery for so long that they no longer question it. They go through the motions of selecting a victim without any real sense of horror or outrage. The only characters who realize how terrible the Lottery is are the outsiders who move into town and witness it for the first time; this reveals to the audience the limitation of blindly following traditions.
Purpose
The mysterious and tense construction of the narrative is aimed at revealing human nature. In the story, a small town gathers to participate in a lottery that will choose one person to be killed. The townspeople go about their lives as usual until the day of the Lottery, when it becomes clear that there is someone who does not want to participate.
The story examines human nature and the darker side of human beings. It shows how easily people can be swayed into doing terrible acts, even when they may not want to participate. The Lottery is undertaken, and then the winner is chosen by the lot and savagely killed by the rest of the townspeople. Jackson uses the Lottery as a metaphor for society’s need to find a scapegoat, someone to blame for all of its problems.
The characters in the story were willing to kill an innocent person to maintain the status quo and avoid facing their shortcomings. “The pile of stones the boys had made earlier was ready” (Jackson 7). The quote shows that the townspeople did not value others’ lives. Such killings also occur in Islamic religions, but they are practiced rightfully by punishing criminals, “Islamic lapidation is designed to kill somebody because he or she has committed an offense” (Al-Joulan 34).
The source, “Islam in Shirley Jackson’s The Lottery,” disagrees with innocent killing and provides that killing should only be for serious crimes such as adultery among married by stoning to death (Al-Joulan 34). The Islamic interpretation of such killings is that they are to punish criminals and guilty individuals. The belief is that killing someone who has sinned will cleanse their soul and allow them to enter heaven (Al-Joulan 33). Whereas, if they were to be pardoned, they would live out the rest of their life in sin and would not be able to enter into heaven.
Conclusion
In conclusion, “The Lottery” is a short story by Shirley Jackson about a small town that holds a lottery each year to choose one family to be sacrificed to the town’s deity. The story is an allegory for the American dream and explores human nature’s dark side. This narrative is relevant today because it speaks to the modern obsession with winning and the desire for wealth and status. It equally shows how easily people can be manipulated into committing violent acts when authority figures permit them.
Works Cited
Al-Joulan, Nayef Ali. “Islam in Shirley Jackson’s the Lottery.” Cross-Cultural Communication, vol. 6, no. 2, 2018, pp. 29–39. Web.
Jackson, Shirley. “The Lottery.” The Lottery and Other Stories, 1948, Web.
Robinson, Michael. “Shirley Jackson’s ‘The Lottery’ and Holocaust Literature.” Humanities, vol. 8, no. 1, 2019, pp. 1–20. Web.