The Lottery and Two Kinds – Short Stories Review
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In the short story âThe Lotteryâ by Shirley Jackson, a whole village blindly follows cultural tradition. The oldest man of the village, Old Man Warner, said that there âused to be a saying about âLottery in June, corn be heavy soonââ (Jackson 4). Jackson alludes the story to the fact that human sacrifices have been made throughout history in order to assure the community of a good crop season. The âvillagers had forgotten the ritualâ but they âstill remembered to use stonesâ and the allusion to the fact that human sacrifices were made to ensure a lavish harvest suggests that the reason behind the lottery was to offer the community hope for a good crop season (7). The children were âguardingâ their âstones against the raids of other boysâ indicating that the youngest generation took the tradition as a joke because the meaning behind it no longer existed (1). The oldest generation, the parents, had failed to pass on the ritual and the âparaphernalia for the lottery had been lost long agoâ indicating that passing on traditions without background and meaning of the ritual creates ignorance, which is displayed through the children treating the lottery as if it were a game (1). The parents are supposed to be mentors to the children who are initiates, but are failing because they are enforcing the idea that it is acceptable to blindly follow traditions, when in reality, it is not. The children are innocent because they do not have enough knowledge to understand that the lottery is murder, whereas the teenagers are stuck between a mentor and an initiate because they have enough knowledge and experience of the lottery to begin questioning the tradition. Mr. Adams explains that âover in the north villageâ people are âtalking of giving up the lotteryâ indicating that the village has let go of tradition in order to create new culture that will allow them to live better. Old Man Warner was disgusted by this and said, âListening to the young folks, nothingâs good enough for themâ showing that he cannot let go of the past because he is attached to the tradition of the lottery (4).
This shows that the old generation of mentors are caught on how the towns have always been, and the fact that traditions are changing in other towns due to the initiates and teenagers realizing that the tradition is cruel. The âboxâ that represents the tradition is âblackâ but is now âfadedâ and it âupsetsâ people when villagers talk