The Role Of Change In Shirley Jackson's The Lottery

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The Lottery Often in society, one can feel that their opinion is insignificant when compared to the whole population. They can feel that they are unable to make a difference. However, change has to start somewhere. One person can make a significant difference in this big world. That’s exactly what Tessie Hutchinson needed in this abominable short story. She herself could have made the change to save a life. Tessie however, was of equal power as the rest of the community. In the story “The Lottery”, the town is symbolic of how humanity is defenceless in the state of change; the town also represents how some people, unless they feel empowered to do so, have no intention to change tradition, and often are only inclined to change if it affects one directly. In this story, the towns people potrayed just that: weakness against change. There were many reasons for this falter, and in this particular situation: the older generation was stagnant when it came to breaking the unlawful tradition. The reason the town followed the tradition was for no other reason than it was what they had always known. Old Man Warner, the oldest man in town, said “There’s always been a lottery”(2). When Mrs. Adams said “some places have already quit lotteries”(2), Old Man Warner responded by saying “nothing but trouble in that… Pack of young fools”(2).…show more content…
The town in “The Lottery” was symbolic of how humanity can become cemented to certain traditions and events, and find trouble when trying to create something new. The following generations will then imitate this, and find it hard to empower change, due to the fact that they have never lived in any different state. When reaching a state of change, one must empower a whole society to start innovation. Some traditions can keep communities linked together through generations, but it can also keep them restricted to insipid, unstable, or menacing events and

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