Short story analysis of The Lottery

Name
Professor
Course
Date
Following rituals blindly is catastrophic.
Shirley Jackson in her short story ‘The Lottery’ illustrates how following rituals blindly could be catastrophic. She begins the s story in a calm tone. She carefully and cunningly depicts the setting giving every single detail that illustrates peace. Jackson portrays the scenery as "clear and Sunny." She further describes the village as one that is flourishing with flowers and green grass everywhere. The reader is introduced to the innocence of the children as they arrive at the scene before the adults. Jackson maintains her serene tone as she illustrates how the children innocently gather the stones. The calm tone she uses in her introduction gives the reader a false belief of how peaceful the whole process may turn out to be. The idea of a lottery depicts a happy ending where one individual's luck shines brightly by winning the lottery. One would think that her cunning introduction is meant to unveil the lucky winner of the lottery. The title to the story is ironic since no lucky winner is unveiled, but rather a sad ending that one would not easily resonate with as the story begins. Jackson introduces Tessie Hutchinson as a latecomer to the event, having forgotten about the day's event. Ironically, her husband and children were at the scene. The author is keen to point out people making fun of her late arrival. Under such circumstances, the reader had no room to think that the unlucky character would be Tessie. Her stoning by the villagers highly conflicts with the calm tone Jackson begins her narration.
The author depicts incautious villagers who seem not perturbed by the days' event. Even though the lottery was the day one of them was to be stoned, a ritual they had practiced for ages. The villagers did not pay attention to Mr. Summer's instruction to be followed since they had been practicing the ritual for ages, assuming that they knew the rules better. Despite knowing the atrocities, they were to commit. Children were allowed into the event, a clear indication the villagers did not put many thoughts about the lottery and the ritual they were about to perform. They never cared about the trauma this action would cause to the mind of these young children. As Mr. Adams commented to the old man warner about some people not turning up for the lottery is a clear indication that this ritual is slowly fading from the minds of the younger generation.
The main tradition and rituals that villagers in the story practice are based on how they conduct the ritual process. They start by surrounding the black box. They then made it a tradition that the husband was the first to pick the paper slip to represent a household. A family who picked the black dotted paper needed was to go for a second round to determine who to be stoned. It is a ritual that shows that people in different societies follow rituals and traditions blindly without being concerned about the effects their actions will bring to others. For instance, the Americans celebrate Halloween every October 31st; all adults and children wear attires and narrate stories of witches and ghosts. The children are tasked to knock on doors from one house to another, calling out 'trick or ...