A Critical Analysis Of Tradition In Shirly Jackson’s Short Story The Loterry

Abstract

Tradition is one of the most fundamental and hierarchical components in any human society. Tradition holds the collective memory of a society and acts as the platform on which values, customs, rituals, and beliefs are passed from generation to generation. Tradition gives people an identity, continuity, and sense of belonging through its association of people with their ancestors and tradition. Traditions in various societies and cultures are feted as a binding influence that unites people, builds stronger communal ties, and brings stability in the face of social change. They enable communities to preserve their cultural distinctiveness and guarantee that rituals and practices are not lost with the passage of time.

But tradition is not a purely positive phenomenon. It has both positive and negative aspects. While traditions can reinforce cultural identity and communal togetherness, they may also become stagnant, oppressive, and debilitating when adhered to rigidly without moral considerations. When traditions remain unchallenged or re-examined in the light of reason, ethics, and changing social values, they can turn into instruments of violence and control instead of unity. Traditions, after all, like human beings, must change with time. If they do not change, they become outdated practices that injure instead of benefit subsequent generations. It is here that fiction tends to critically engage with tradition, challenging its influence in molding human behavior and society.

Shirley Jackson, an American author widely known for her disturbing portraits of social existence and human psychology, skillfully examines the darker aspect of tradition through her controversial short story The Lottery (1948). At first glance, the story describes the daily activity of a rural town converging for a community event. But as the story goes on, this innocent-looking gathering ends up in the ghastly ritual of stoning one person to death—a ritual that is legitimized merely because it has always been done. The story forces readers to confront the dangers of blind conformity, stifling influence of unreflective traditions, and cruelty that comes when individuals abandon moral responsibility in favor of conforming to others.

This research is concerned with how Jackson characterizes tradition in The Lottery and how it influences the belief patterns and actions of the townspeople. It is critical of the naïveté of the people in the community in accepting ritual violence and points out how tradition within the narrative serves to reinforce conformity and oppression instead of being a unifying factor or measure of cultural preservation. The overall purpose is to expose the danger of going along unquestionably with traditional practices, particularly if such practices offend morality, justice, and human compassion.

Shirley Jackson (1916–1965) is still one of the most powerful twentieth-century American authors. She became famous because she had a talent for combining mundane domestic or small-town backgrounds with strange, unnerving occurrences that revealed the more sinister side of human nature. Her fiction frequently involves themes of psychological horror, suspense, and social commentary. Jackson's narrative style is defined by its apparently simple artifice: she creates normal, recognizable situations and then adds elements of the uncanny or the disturbing very slowly, thereby unnerving readers and encouraging examination.

Her short story The Lottery, first published in The New Yorker in 1948, shocked and repelled readers when it was issued. The story's representation of a quotidian society engaging in ritualistic murder as a part of an annual lottery was perceived both as grotesque and profound. It was one of the most commonly anthologized American short stories and later came to be regarded as a classic denunciation of unthinking tradition-following. Jackson's later novels, such as The Haunting of Hill House (1959), a gothic classic, and We Have Always Lived in the Castle (1962), continue to show her mastery of combining psychological depth with a mood of horror. Suffering personal struggles as well as backlash throughout her life, Jackson's own image endures, and her writing continues to impact readers and writers across many different genres.

The Lottery is particularly significant because of its universality. The story occurs in a small town in the countryside where citizens go with celebration and recognition. Initially, the scene reads like a familiar community event, but the epiphanic conclusion shows the brutality of their tradition: one citizen is randomly selected by lottery and slaughtered by family, friends, and neighbors. This terrifying twist illustrates the dangers of blind traditionalism, the menace of violence in everyday people, and the dangers of conformity gone too far. With understated characterization, irony, and a slyly calm narrative voice, Jackson shows how unreflective cultural preconceptions can become instruments of oppression and brutality.