The Lottery Research Paper: Societal Customs Subject

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The Lottery Research Paper
Shirley’s story explores several subjects that are hidden and require the reader to keenly pay attention to the story to identify them. One of the major subjects of the story is the traditions in the society that depreciate with time. The loss of community cultural practices can be detrimental to the prosperity of the people. Shirley uses inconsistent tone in the story that cannot be easily linked to the subjects matter. This assignment aims at analyzing the subject of traditional practices as depicted in the story.
Societal Customs subject
The story describes how people in the society instinctively follow traditions without seriously evaluating on their relevance to human life. The society tries to maintain the existing cultural practices without questioning the benefit of preserving the tradition in the dynamic society. They also don’t understand the history of lotto although they play it. This is clearly depicted in the story written by Shirley. The urban residents brutally murder Mrs. Hutchison; fail to comprehend the motive behind the lottery game and the elderly man’s caution and criticism of incompatibility. This shows how the people blindly understand their traditions (Johnson & Gary 112).
Shirley was living in the town of North Bennington where she got married to Stanley Herman. Her husband did not give her the freedom to express herself and commanded most of the family issues. He was a traditionalist who believed that women should obey what the man command and had no power over their husbands. Unfortunately, he had no satisfactory reason to substantiate the tradition which he followed blindly. Shirley was living during the era of cold world war when she published her fiction about the lottery. The author’s life has connection to the story and probably the lady was expressing her own experience in the society she was living (Johnson & Gary 114).
The urban people, as described in Shirley’s narrative, misunderstood the purpose of the game. They consistently overlooked and discounted the guidelines of the lottery. They were not honestly observing the instructions used in the game due to narrow understanding of the intention and relevance of lottery to the society. The native kit of the game disappeared sometimes back, but the people seemed not to realize. The urban residents were reluctant to maintain the particulars of the game. They were also not flexible to adapt to the traditional changes (Johnson & Gary 112).
In addition, the people did not welcome Mr. Summer’s idea of introducing an innovative box. They preferred using the traditional dark box which they were conversant with rather than adopting a new one. Failure to assess the societal custom practices can lead to contradictory ethics. The societal disregard of conservation and aversion of their customs clearly demonstrate the people did not comprehend the objective of lottery. Otherwise, the show have keenly observed the requirements of the game or accepted new innovations suggested by their fellow residents (Johnson & Gary 113).
The urban people also demonstrated blindness in the traditions when they declined to the Old Man Warner’s criticism of dissent. They refuse everything that does not obey their traditions. Also, they vehemently censure all what does not conform to the traditions. This is best illustrated when Mr. Adams alerts the community of the intention by the neighboring community to eliminate the lotto. The elderly man disagrees with the dissenters who do not seem to uphold the traditions of the township residents. He warns them that failure to observe their culture will revert back their lives to life in the cavern. His remarks are geared towards condemning the dissenters and secure his position as a traditional advocate for the urban people (Johnson & Gary 110).
The conflict between the customs and apostasy swiftly shift into war of people, instead of war of values. The swing of the debate results from failure of the people to appreciate the motive behind their traditions and denunciation of dissenters’ positions. The urban people demonstrate their visionless acknowledgement of customs by expressing muffling feeling. Wars between individuals eradicate reactions, enabling the contributors’ to fight without recognizing individual associations. The residents reacted violently to their opponents which show baseless and senseless understanding of the society customs (Johnson & Gary 112).
Symbolism Allegory and Imagery
The lotto represents society life which seems peaceful at the beginning, but turns chaotic at the end of the story. A community is guided by traditions and directions which should be adhered to by the people. A breach of those orders lead to unrest and violence in the society. A settlement has recognized families each having a leader. The members of the family are required to obey what the leader appeal. The appeal may favor the fortunate people in the society. Each family member represents the entire household. The tradition of the society marginalize women and deny them power. This is depicted in the narrative where men are the only people allowed drawing, and their female spouses just watch the game (Johnson & Gary 112).
The dark box symbolizes how individuals in the society are bodily linked to their customs. People do not want to be detached from the customs and some object any innovation to improve the existing practice. This is evident when the urban residents reject the introduction of a new box to replace the old one. The residents want to retain it despite gradual loss of its relevance (Johnson & Gary 113). The stoning by people represents communal participation of the young and old people in the ceremonies. It also symbolizes use of stone as armament by the human beings (Shields 411).
Tone
The voice of the story remains constant when the story changes intensely from general pragmatism to terrible allegory. The tone remains the same when the residents gather together to murder one of them (Johnson & Gary 115).
The Plot
The narrative commences with the residents assembling in the town square on summertime. The students are at home and the community collect together to play lotto. The purpose of the lottery is not evidently defined in the story (Johnson & Gary 112).
Suddenly, a battle ensues between Mr. Hutchison and his wife when he rejects the results of the lotto. This obscures the issue and members of Mr. Hutchison anxiously draw play the game. The situation worsens towards the end of the game. The story reach pinnacle when Tess Hutchison defeats the other family members in the lotto. However, she is doomed when selected...