The Lottery

A detailed Summary of The Lottery

Merriam-Webster's online dictionary defines tradition as, an inherited,

established, or customary pattern of thought, action, or behavior (as a

religious practice or a social custom) and the handing down of

information, beliefs, and customs by word of mouth or by example from

one generation to another without written instruction. If we are to go

by the latter definition , we can understand how traditions are easily

lost. Have you ever played the game telephone? You whisper something in

someone's ear and they whisper it in another person^s ear until it

finally returns back to you and normally what is returned isn't even

close to what you originally whispered into the first person's ear In

Shirley Jackson's short story ,"The Lottery" ,the main theme is how

traditions that lose their meaning due to human forgetfulness can cause

dreadful consequences to occur. Jackson uses a lot of symbolism to show

this. The story is set in a small town, ^on the morning of June

27th^(272). It opens with false innocence , using the children building

a rock pile, tricking the reader into a disturbingly unaware state.

The reader almost expects the Lottery to be something wonderful since

the "normal" lottery has the winner g

the murderous rituals. In paragraph two, the children are so

reader finally finds out what the lottery "winner" will

she screams "It isn't fair, it isn't right"(Text, 789).

In "the Lottery" we discover that the town-folk use a lottery, to pick

feeling that the lottery being described isn't going

Approximate Word count = 2068
Approximate Pages = 8 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: English

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