Blindly Following “You shouldn’t blindly accept a leaders advice. You’ve got to question leaders on occasion.” This quote by Richard Branson explains that people must not always simply follow go with the flow all the time, but must stand up to question leaders on occasion if they believe that what is happening is wrong. People will blindly follow a tradition, and will do so without knowing the true reasoning behind it. Often times, they will use the excuse of not wanting to break the tradition as a reason to keep doing it. Shirley Jackson uses the short story, The Lottery, to point out how people will blatantly follow a tradition regardless of the consequences that the tradition may hold. Jackson portrays many smaller themes and symbols throughout
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This is an underlining theme that adds to the main theme in the story because Tessie goes along with the lottery and what it is about until she is drawn. She denies her fait, but she didn’t stand up against the lottery until it didn’t go in her favor. This same situation happens in a variety of situations in today’s society. An illustration of this in America’s history is when the draft started. Many people thought it was great and that it was a necessity, until either themselves or a member of their family was chosen to go to war because coming home from World War II was almost inevitable. America’s Selective Service and the lottery are similar in many ways and since The Lottery was published shortly after the draft was put into place, it is possible that Shirley Jackson incorporated the way Americans think about the draft too the way Tessie handles being picked in the lottery. Another piece of history that this smaller theme encompasses is how the general public of Nazi Germany blindly followed Hitler. They did not know what he was doing to the Jews and the ones that did, did not question his leadership. By the time that his authority was questioned, it was too late as millions of people had lost their lives. This relates back to the story because Tessie never questioned the lottery until she knew she was going to
This is an underlining theme that adds to the main theme in the story because Tessie goes along with the lottery and what it is about until she is drawn. She denies her fait, but she didn’t stand up against the lottery until it didn’t go in her favor. This same situation happens in a variety of situations in today’s society. An illustration of this in America’s history is when the draft started. Many people thought it was great and that it was a necessity, until either themselves or a member of their family was chosen to go to war because coming home from World War II was almost inevitable. America’s Selective Service and the lottery are similar in many ways and since The Lottery was published shortly after the draft was put into place, it is possible that Shirley Jackson incorporated the way Americans think about the draft too the way Tessie handles being picked in the lottery. Another piece of history that this smaller theme encompasses is how the general public of Nazi Germany blindly followed Hitler. They did not know what he was doing to the Jews and the ones that did, did not question his leadership. By the time that his authority was questioned, it was too late as millions of people had lost their lives. This relates back to the story because Tessie never questioned the lottery until she knew she was going to