Shirley Jackson's The Lottery: Characters, Traditions, and Themes

This essay, authored by Demetrius Jenkins, provides a detailed analysis of Shirley Jackson's short story, 'The Lottery.' The essay examines the significance of blindly following traditions, as portrayed through the story's characters and events. It highlights the irony and ugliness of the villagers' actions, emphasizing their adherence to a ritual without understanding its purpose. The analysis delves into the roles of characters like Graves, Summers, and Dickey Delacroix, exploring their symbolic importance. The author argues that the tradition has become a meaningless custom, sustained by a lack of historical evidence. The essay concludes that the villagers are blindly and ignorantly following the tradition which leads to series of murders. The paper references Jackson's original work and critical analyses by Nebeker and Tutaş to support its claims, providing a comprehensive understanding of the story's themes and societal critique.

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THE LOTTERY
Demetrius Jenkins Sr.
Professor Jessica Harkness
201801 English 101_OL1
6 August 2017
Characters Showing Two Sides of Humanity
Introduction
The Lottery written and composed by Shirley Jackson depicts significance of ignoring and
disapproving the traditions which are blindly ad ignorantly followed by the people without any
aim or purpose. It is portrayed by Shirley through senseless murders without any cause which are
partaken by the villagers every years. The story also represents the world which is developed by
her that completely resembles to the world where we live, i.e. a world where people are
following and continuing the ritualized customs and traditions such as acting and practicing high
hostility with each other and decorating the Christmas trees (Jackson 25).
Thesis Statement
The Lottery written by Shirley Jackson portrays a dynamic and complex world which is full of
Ironic events, ugly truths, customized and rigid traditions that are under the veil of evil reality
about people as they blindly and ignorantly follow the tradition. In this paper we will detail about
the notion of people who have faith in a “tradition” but is misapprehending it as if they do not
know about the point of continuing with the lottery. The main thesis point in this paper is: People
are blindly and ignorantly following the tradition which leads to series of murders.

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THE LOTTERY
Argument
Shirley Jackson has put up various intriguing elements in her story for example with her main
characters in the story for any reader to consider it with deep details. Firstly the characters like
Graves and Summers are the two men in the story who are involved to run the lottery (Tutas 46).
Summer is portrayed as a happy and jovial person but he is also keeps the control and monitors
the box which contains the slips of paper having dot of death over it. Graves, in the story, is
known to be right hand and significant partner of summers but is less talkative as compared to
summers. Still he remains in the minds of the readers as he gets himself introduced in the story.
Though the character does not have enough dialogue and conversation part in the story, Graves is
inevitable similar to the death which awaits the “Lottery’s Winner”. Another name in the story
which is quite less clear but plays a significant role is Dickey Delacroix that comes up in the
starting of story (Nebeker 100). The most interesting and ironic thing regarding Dickey
Delacroix is that villagers utter the name as Dellacroy which is specifically intriguing as
Delacroix in French means “Cross” that implies a religious belief (Nebeker 100). It represents
that it is a type of religion which is incorrectly used because of misunderstanding. In the climax
of story, it was written that “Mrs. Dellacroy had chosen a stone so big that she used both the
hands to pick it up.” This statement showed that Dellacroy (his name being misrepresented) is
carrying a big stone that yielded highest damage to kill.

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Conclusion
Delicate Hints all through the “Lottery” written by Shirley Jackson shows and indicates that
tradition of villagers has turned to become the meaningless customs and rituals which are
followed till present era. It is only due to the seemingly lack of historical evidences that makes
the tradition stronger like a nature’s force and the villagers cannot imagine to rebel or fight
against the same.

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THE LOTTERY
References
Jackson, Shirley. "The lottery." The New Yorker 26 (1948): 25-28.
Nebeker, Helen E. "" The Lottery": Symbolic Tour de Force." American Literature 46.1 (1974):
100-108.
Tutaş, Nazan. "Critical thinking through literature." Ankara Üniversitesi Dil ve Tarih-Coğrafya
Fakültesi Dergisi 46.1 (2006).