Write a paragraph to explain the warning that Jackson gives her readers about the dangers of tradition. How does she use symbolism to convey this theme?
Be sure to use CREST, and indentify at least one symbol used by the author, and explain how it conveys her theme or warning to readers.
Post your response on this thread.
Due: 0850hrs Thursday 15 May
Shirley Jackson's gives a couple of hints about how tradition can be dangerous. A quote that Mrs. Delacroix said "Seems like we got through with the last one only last week".This hint states that she didn't win last year and hope she doesn't win at all. The second quote is " Their was a great deal of fussing before the lottery started ". Here she was hinting that the towns peoples didn't want to get to win. The last quote is "although they lost the original black box they still have the rocks". This says that they still have the tradition by the scarify. She uses symbolism on the word lottery which to us means winning money and the probability of winning , but in the story it is how someone would win and die of rocks. In conclusion i think that this was an interesting story on how it ended. T.C
ReplyDeleteI think Jackson is trying to say about traditions is, don't do them if they hurt someone and don't take traditions too seriously. The reason why I think this is because in the story when they pick Bill's family the wife says it was unfair, and then they kill her. The lottery also hurts the other people in the family as well because its never nice hearing that a family member passed away especially If you saw them get murdered in front of you. One reason why they are taking it too serious is they don't want to change anything about the lottery, like the box. Also they have had this "tradition" for more then 77 years. An example of a tradition like the one villagers do is mourning of muharram, this tradition is where people with whips that have knives attached to them go around whipping people, some people end up with their heads cut off. That is what I think Jackson is saying about traditions.
ReplyDeleteIn Shirley Jackson's short story, she gives a few hints on how the tradition with the lottery can be dangerous. The first quote from the story would be; "guess we better get started, get this over with, so's we can go back to work." (Paragraph 10) In this sentence, I feel that he wasn't saying it overly exciting, and showing that he wasn't really pleased with what was going to be happening in a few moments. The second quote that represents the danger of this lottery, in a small town would be; "Seems like we got through with the last one only last week."(Paragraph 23) In this quote, my says that maybe last year, when the lottery was happening, his family was called and had to throw rocks at a family member. Which would lead to him never forgetting that moment when he killed either his children, or wife. For both these reasons, I feel that Shirley Jackson was symbolizing that the traditions were terrible in this little town, when it came to the morning of June 27.
ReplyDeleteM. F
Shirley Jackson tells the reader the danger of the tradition by giving little hints. A word she uses as a hint is pebble. This was a hint because at the end the person that wins the lottery gets stoned. They way Shirley Jackson makes it seems like a real lottery is by making it seem all happy leading up to it. The reason they were all happy was because it was a tradition the towns did. A symbol that Shirley Jackson uses is the pebble.
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I think Jackson does give a few warnings about the danger of the lottery. I say this because the kids piling up the stones are kind of a hint but the hint is a very small one. Also it says that the girls were clenching on to their older brothers and sisters. I think this shows the anxiety of the little girls which is also a hint. Jackson says in the story that the men made jokes quietly and they smiled instead of laughed, this I think is another hint of fear and anxiety from the men. Also when the box is brought to the square everybody tries to back away from it. When the Hutchinsons got picked some of Nancy’s school friends hoped that Nancy didn’t get picked. These examples help me show that Jackson is trying to show symbols to warn about the danger of the lottery.
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before the twist ending, There were a few hints in the story that foreshadowed that the lottery is dangerous. The first most notable one was "guess we better get started, get this over with". This is said by Mr. Summers in a less than enthusiastic mood. It seemed almost like it was more of a chore than a privilege. The second hint was "There was a great deal of fuss". This shows that something less than bright is happening, which turns out to be the lottery.This short story explain that not all traditions are good, but that some are almost like bad habits. Like sacrifice, which back then may have seemed normal since it was a tradition, but today is considered brutal and evil.
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I think that in “The Lottery”, Shirley Jackson tries to convey symbolism and tradition throughout the short story. She shows symbolism by describing how the summer day is clear and sunny, this reflects the people’s emotions. This shows how excited the town’s people are and what a big event this is for them. When I was first reading this I couldn’t tell that the lottery was something that you didn’t want to win. This was because there was no reason to treat it as a bad thing in the community’s perspective; this event was merely a tradition that happened every year. The tradition in this short story is shown through out numerous times. In the writing, it tells us that the community didn’t want change to their tradition. When the Adams’ and Old Man Warner are talking about how some places have already stopped the lotteries, Old Man Warner calls them a “Pack of young fools”, and says that there is “Nothing but trouble in that”. Towards the end of the story though, Jackson starts to hint at how the lottery might not be the best tradition. I think that the same tradition doesn’t always make sense to everyone. I also think that tradition isn’t always good, and that change is good to have.
ReplyDeleteA.N.
Shirley Jackson told her readers the dangers of traditions by telling them about the lottery. It starts off as a happy day and everyone is at the town square. All the people there have to get a paper slip and Bill Hutchinson got the slip and Tessie Hutchinson says it was not fair. But she was the one that was going to be stoned to death. The hunger games is just like the lottery because they are the tribute. Some traditions like the lottery are bad but not all of them are bad.
ReplyDeleteShirley Jackson gives a few hints to the reader about how tradition can be dangerous she describes a happy, sunny day it shows the emotion that is dispersed through the town. When it says "It's Tessie," Mr. Summers said, and his voice was hushed. "Show us her paper. Bill." You can tell it is in a dark mood because his voice was hushed, that usually means something "fishy" is going on. Unlike a lot of other books, The Lottery has a lot of hints that tell something bad is going to happen. Even though they kept the tradition for over 70 years, it doesn't mean it is a good tradition. Overall i think some traditions can be good and some can be bad.
ReplyDeleteShirley Jackson gives a few hints before the plot twist that imply that the "lottery" tradition may not be good. In that beginning, she describes the setting as a cheerful town on a sunny day and everyone was out chatting. This made me sort of confused as the story continued on. For example; "The villagers kept their distance, leaving a space between themselves and the stool. and when Mr. Summers said, there was a hesitation before two men (volunteered)" It made me wonder, because isn't a lottery supposed to be exciting? The way it was described made it seem like the people were a little uneasy and nervous for it to start. Also, when Mr. Warner says; "Seventy-seventh year I been in the lottery, seventy-seventh time." The way that the diologue was written makes it sound like being in the lottery for 77 years is a big deal when it normally wouldn't be. I think that Jackson's moral is that not all tradition is good and it's ok to sacrifice tradition for what is right.
ReplyDeleteC.R.
Jackson shows that sometimes tradition can be bad. She made you think that the tradition is good but the twist at the end makes you realize. Tradition can be both good and bad. Like when she put in the part where the kids were gathering rocks. I didn't realize until the end what it was for, so she used foreshadowing. A way Jackson symbolized that the lottery was bad was when Tessie was complaining about not having enough time to pick. Because of that you could tell she was worried. I thought this book was a very interesting book because the ending was so surprising.
ReplyDeleteTradition can be good and sometimes even bad. Jackson really shows how far your beliefs can go and how dangerous it can go. The lottery is a great example because you would think the lottery is winning money but it is about killing people. For example, if your name is drawn then the town will throw stones at you. The worst part about the lottery is that families can throw stones at each other. Sometimes can beliefs can brainwash you to to awful things, but the worst part is you think it is completely fine. Some kids in that village were born into that community so they don't see anything wrong with the lottery. The lottery is a great example of how religious can be dangerous and bad for the community people are in.
ReplyDeleteAt the end, the tradition of the lottery was to kill whoever got the note with the dot on it. This shows that tradition can be dangerous. But for people who grow up with these seemingly harmless traditions, it is normal and not cruel. But for us, it is completely wrong because we weren't raised to believe that this was normal. In the lottery there was a point where the villages around them where giving up the lottery. The villagers believed that the other villages were crazy. Coming back to why we think that the lottery was crazy. You could tell how, in realty. The lottery was crazy just by listening to the conversation in class. That the winner or loser of the lottery was pelted by stones and rocks until they were dead.
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ReplyDeleteWhat Shirley Jackson is trying to convey is, why bother have a tradition if nobody likes it. I agree...I would never participate in an activity where I know that someone is bound to get hurt. Shirley gives many hints to what the lottery really is. Personally, I didn't catch on. One hint is: "although they lost the black box, they still have the rocks". The second one is: the kids were picking up rocks, even when you could tell that they didn't want to. All in all, they didn't really like it, but they dealt with it.
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