Examples Of Conflict In The Lottery By Shirley Jackson

Traditions are cultures’ products from history, often, people respect and obey them to continue the roots of their identities and conspiracies. However, later on people realize the complications exist in these practices. Should societies continue their rituals and ignore the complications that exist or should they modify or drop their belief because of the conflicts? The conflict in the short story “The Lottery” depicts as Man Versus Society, between the struggle of tradition and questioning. Shirley Jackson reveals the message of people should question their doings instead of neglect disagreements, even though is against convention, because the ignorance can result in tragic consequences. Conflict contributes most to the story’s theme since the literary element represents the contradicting ideas and …show more content…
The introduction of a new idea about the practice of lottery by Mr. Adams was reprobated by the Old Man Warner. Although the town continues the lottery ritual, however, neighbor towns had dropped their customs. Nevertheless, the oldest man in the village strongly dissented with the youth’s decision, and described them as “Pack of crazy fools,” and he believed in “Lottery in June, corn be heavy soon.” As it demonstrates, the introduction of new idea often considers as rebellion by old people, they felt offended and disappointed about youth. Old traditions represent people’s beliefs, experiences and wisdom in life, and they insist to practice them to achieve an ideal future. Although the new generation constantly wonder and question the use of rituals, since they usually don't contribute any differences and serve their purposes in reality, thus they disregard by the young people, yet the aged consider them as a way to repose their hope for a future, even though the reality can contradict the