Authors Note: This piece of writing is to explain a main theme in the story “The
Lottery” by Shirley Jackson.
Have you ever read a story that has
one main topic? These topics are called themes, every story has to have them, and
it’s what makes a story up. In the short story called “The Lottery” by Shirley
Jackson it has one major theme, tradition. These them have good and bad effects
on the story and what is going on in the story.
They have tradition. The tradition
plays a big role because every year in this town they have the lottery. Now,
this isn’t any ordinary lottery this lottery is very different from what we
know today to be the lottery. In this story everybody gathers in the town and
they each pick a slip of paper and if your paper has a black dots your dead. Literally
the whole town is forced to throw stones at you until your death. The boys
begin to pick all the stones at the beginning of the day until the lottery
starts. You know this is one of their traditions when Old man Warner says “I
have been forced to go to this lottery seventy-seven years, and I still haven’t
been picked.” This story is a lot like
the book called “Hunger Games.” Their districts (cities) all have to line up and
all their names are in a bowl. A person draws your name and if your name is
called you have to play until everyone is dead. You are left with the winner.
Except in the lottery the person has to be stoned for it to end, it could go on
forever.
As you can see this theme tradition
really has an effect on the story. Whether it’s good or bad you can connect to
other stories, it is a common theme.
