The Lottery vs State of Grace Essay -- essays research papers

Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery" talks about a community that follows a tradition. Every year the people take everyone's name, put it in a black box, and pick the name of a person. This person they stone to death. Their reason range from an idea that having the lottery makes them civilized to an idea that the lottery makes for good crops. The author suggests that the real reason is society’s need for a victim. When talking about communities that have given up the tradition of choosing one person to stone to death, "Old Man Warner snorted, 'Pack of crazy fools' he said. 'Listening to the young folks, nothing's good enough for them. Next thing you know, they'll be wanting to go back to living in caves, nobody work any more, live that way for a while. Used to be a saying about "Lottery in June, corn be heavy soon."'" (Jackson, The Granta... Page 66) This tradition causes the people of the town to destroy each other instead of working together to destroy the tradition. As Tessie Hutchinson is getting stoned, someone from her community puts a stone in her son's hand. Even the closest family member participates in the horror. "The children had stones already, and someone gave little Davey Hutchinson a few pebbles." (Jackson, The Granta... page 62-63) This action shows how tradition is being passed on literally from hand to hand. This stoning is the way that the people of the community act out their fear of being ...