In Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery," the village members largely conform to the practice of the lottery because the villagers have done so for generations. Characters like Old Man Warner are symbolic of the older generation that clings without question to practices that may not continue to be beneficial for the community. Tessie, however, is the outlier in the story: she arrives to the lottery drawing late, and she is ultimately the one who ends up...
In Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery," the village members largely conform to the practice of the lottery because the villagers have done so for generations. Characters like Old Man Warner are symbolic of the older generation that clings without question to practices that may not continue to be beneficial for the community. Tessie, however, is the outlier in the story: she arrives to the lottery drawing late, and she is ultimately the one who ends up drawing the black spot that signifies her death. Tessie's rebellion prompts the reader to question the role of tradition and whether people should blindly follow traditional practices or revise them to suit the development of culture over time. Jackson's story may be read as an allegory, so research into the cultural practices of groups of people may provide a context for analyzing "The Lottery."
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