The family member that has chosen the slip of paper with the black dot on it has won the lottery, but the only thing that he or she has won is a cruel and unusual death by stoning. In this story Tessie Hutchinson is the one who wins the lottery. Tradition is an essential element t in any family or town. It sometimes seems as if tradition is the key factor that holds a community together, people bond over similarities such as a common tradition, but what if the very thing that is holding a community together is also destroying its people? Why would a community keep repeating the same mistake year after year and never think twice about why they were doing it in the first place?
When reading the “Lottery” for the first time you don’t realize that it is about randomly selecting a person to sacrifice. It is not until the very last sentence that you realize what the entire craze over a little black-dotted paper is about, “Mrs. Hutchinson screamed and they were upon her.” As the reader you expect the story to be about winning something like money or an all paid expense vacation. As far as I know people do not go around purposely picking up lottery tickets for the next stoning. The same technique that Jackson used was also used by DeLillo when he wrote “Videotape.” For the first twenty-six paragraphs of the story you as at the reader are unaware that the videotape is actually about a
However, a person is about to get chosen to get stoned to death. Moreover, the term, lottery, is usually defined as getting chosen in a positive event, ironically, the lottery in the story is seen as a misfortune pick of death. The story also delivers irony through the character, Old Man Warren, while he criticizes the people who quit lotteries “pack of young fools”. Jackson also wrote, “Although the villagers had forgotten the ritual and lost the original black box, they still remembered to use stones” (pg.80) in order to deliver an ironic tone through her role of a narrator. The story also contains several examples of symbolisms.
In The Lottery, Jackson focuses on the destructiveness of a time-honored tradition. One thing we must be mindful of is that a particular tradition such as the lottery may loose its meaning or purpose over time. The title of the short story misguides the reader into thinking that the story is going to be about winning a prize or sum of money. One does not suspect that the lottery in this community is actually a drawing for death. “The morning of June 27th was clear and sunny, with the fresh warmth of a full summer day; the flowers were blossoming profusely and the grass was richly green.” (The Lottery, 247) Jackson begins the story describing the scenery before the lottery.
He believes they must carry on this tradition and he never has come to realized how awful it is. Old Man Warner did not show value of human life by putting crops over innocent peoples lives. In “The Lottery,” all of the towns people know each other very well due to their community of only 300. They all respect each other and feel bad for General Zaroff also takes pride in what he does, more than any other characters. He finds no harm in the actions he's choosing to make.
By way of her appearance, she has definitely made herself obvious to the reader at this point; she’s pretty much made herself stick out like a sore thumb amongst the townspeople and to the reader. Then we pan to the actual drawing where followed by several other townsfolk have picked their tickets, Mrs. Hutchinson encourages her husband to go up and draw his ticket as if it were some game show; this is definitely not “The price is right!” where the participants come running up stage, excited and exuberantly, to test their luck, no. It’s much worse than that, and Tessie treats the lottery as if it’s the lottery the way
The elaborate ritual of the lottery is designed so that all villagers have the same chance of becoming the victim. The story ends with a popular housewife of the town being unjustifiably stoned to her death. As she dies, she cries for help and it is as if she is no longer a person. It no longer matters who she was. The Chrysanthemums by John Steinbeck is a short story of an
This adventure begins when Nick finds his neighbor, Gatsby, stretching “…out his arms toward…a single green light…” (20-21) in which we later find out to be the same “green light that burns all night at the end of [Daisy’s] dock” (92). Readers will soon find out that Gatsby and Daisy were in love when they were both young, but he had “taken her under false pretenses,” (149) lying to her about his financial situation. Because he couldn’t support her, he worked his way up through shady business deals, obsessing over that moment when he would finally be able to get Daisy back, reliving his happiness with her. Once he finally made his fortune he eventually met up with Daisy one afternoon, thanks to Nick. According to Nick there were moments for Gatsby “that afternoon when Daisy tumbled short of his dreams because of the colossal vitality of his illusion” (95).
As a result, innocent people die in the name of tradition. Human morals and values are thrown away in order to “win”. The first to gather in the square on the day of the lottery are children, who are only taking part in this cruelty because they view it as a fun game. Then the adults begin to gather in the square. They are mature enough to know what is to going to be the outcome of winning the lottery.
From the knowledge Dan taught him, Jay was able to make a fortune from what he calls “…a little business on the side, a sort of sideline” (82). Furthermore, Fitzgerald hints at numerous real world situations, where he refers to Wolfsheim as “the man who fixed the World’s Series back in 1919” ( 73). However, the actual person who fixed the World Series is Arnold Rothstien, Wolfsheim in the novel. In 1919, two men by the names of Arnold Rothstien and Joseph Sullivan paid players on the Chicago White Sox, who were heavily favored to win the series, to intentionally lose the games. The White Sox lost the series 5-2, which at the time, proceeded to be the biggest sports upset ever recorded.