Tradition In The Lottery By Shirley Jackson

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Many traditions are taught to individuals which influence them throughout their entire lives. Unfortunately, some traditions are useless and consist of unnecessary violence and evil. In “The Lottery,” by Shirley Jackson, explains the useless tradition that caused the death of Tessie, an innocent woman (Jackson 874). So why would individuals take part in such a violent tradition? Shirley Jackson wants to reveal that the pressure of the community, family teachings, and bloodlust to be the reasons why such traditions continue.
Shirley Jackson, the author of “The Lottery,” created a text that resembles the ways of people from centuries ago to those years later in life. Traditions are passed through generations without question by most of the participants. …show more content…
In the short story “A Good Man is Hard to Find,” there is a man who considered himself to be an outcast or The Misfit. This man was apart of a family who were considered to have hearts of “pure gold” (O'Connor 1292). The heritage in The Misfit’s family had been richly blessed, yet the idea of being an outcast, the idea of not being accepted by society, left the The Misfit to feel separated from his family. Like “The Lottery” the traditions of others turned people against each other. The man had made excuses to conceal the evilness that was the cause of all the madness that was taking place inside his head. In “The Lottery” the villager seemed to know what they were participating in was wrong, but like The Misfit, they went along with others for the purpose of tradition. The traditions of O'Connor's parents led to The Misfit believing he was not good enough because of the high standards that were set by his …show more content…
The instance that this man did this was after the family just experienced a car crash. The power of violence was shown in the Lottery as well in even fatal circumstances. The lottery ends off in a not-so-lucky winner who ended up trapped in a horrific scene. Tessie Hutchinson was selected to be brutally stoned by the people in the community: her friends, her family, her children. The people did not want to go back and went to a much more severe and harmful activity to participate in. The Misfit fits along with Tessie as a person who got separated from the rest of the crowd and the result of both instances was violence. The purpose of the people in the lottery was given by the idea of change and the lottery was not wanted to change for tradition’s sake. The Misfit was also looking for a change in life and violence was the answer in both
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