“The Lottery” Shirley Jackson (foreshadowing)

In the short story “The lottery” Shirley Jackson establishes a theme of following tradition blindly. This story is basically about the people in town refusing to let go a tradition that was called the lottery and, they would sacrifice somebody from their village every summer to keep the numbers down so there would be enough food. Also, the town was caught up in a tradition that was not in their best interest. The villages would gather together and await for the arrival of Mr. Summers and the black box, and would determined who be the sacrificed for that year. Jackson has plenty of messages that were in this short story. The most important message was that shows how corrupt and violent people can be to one another, and how tradition can over power what the people would rather have.

Nevertheless, Jackson shows that people in the world are dedicating their lives based on old traditions that may not seem right to the people. Mr. Summers was very big on tradition, he lived through seventy-seventy years of the lottery and he got the black dot on his piece of paper which is very weird. The people in the village did not question him on the lottery and his leadership with it, but maybe he took the role of being the leader the village or maybe someone before him offered the leader of the village. It’s crazy Mr.Summers draws the names from the box, but also makes up the slips of paper with the black dot on it that ultimately gives their death date.

Furthermore, throughout the short story tradition plays a big role on how things go in there village. The village seems to be accumulating a violent murder each year around the same time, and each time there is a bizarre ritual that is took place and it shows how dangerous traditions are when people follow it. This was not an ordinary lottery where somebody ends up with a prize this was a kind where they win and die, but it did not seem like it. The kids were getting the stones together and everyone seemed to be happy not worrying about will they be the next victim of this gruesome tradition. The villagers are accepting this old tradition and are allowing their loved ones to die because of this tradition. They are blind to the tradition and feel as if though they can not make a change or even try to make a stand for what they think is wrong.

In conclusion, the lottery is a short story that is based on tradition, and that over goes anything else. This tradition has lead to many deaths over the years and nobody from the villagers has not put there foot down and said this enough. This tradition has had many winners and chosen to be the lucky ones, but really that black dot on the piece paper is the moment they lose their earthly form. This shows that some old traditions are not meant to be, and that the old people need to come with something new. 

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