Shirley Jackson 's "the Lottery" is a short story about the faults of tradition, dealing with multiple forms of traditions. Given that the "the Lottery" presents the idea of tradition as superfluous in circumstances regarding social negativity; also given the time period that the short story, "the Lottery" was published--the year of 1949--which is only one year before the second wave of feminism began (from 1950-1970) with these two givens one could assume that one of the traditions that the short story was eluding to was the traditional gender roles within the society of the story itself, and the society of those who read it. Through "the Lottery" Jackson conveys a feminist perspective via three themes: sex and gender, family, and tradition.
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Joe?" (Jackson, 256) This introduction observers the gender roles had during the time period. These gender roles lead to inequality in a capitalist society because even if the work done in the home is similar in complexity and the psychical strength required to complete the tasks just as jobs outside the house, but jobs outside the house make money which is the cause for inequality of value of labor in a capitalist society making this introduction the beginning of the theme of sex within the short story "the Lottery." In another instance within the story we have the character Janey whose husband broke his leg and she had to draw in the lottery this year. The community 's response to this is as follows " ...and Mr. Summers turned to look at her. 'Wife draws for her husband. ' Mr. Summers said. 'Don 't you have a grown boy to do it for you, Janey? '..." In response to this Shirley Jackson has Janey "regretfully" say that she has to "fill in for [her] old man this year" (256) this section of the story speaks to another inequality of the sexes, specifically towards duty and how when it comes to ceremonies that are socially considered important are …show more content…
One could also associate the families in the lottery similarly with a traditional Indian family structure where there is the idea comparative to the dowry system and once the daughter is married off she goes to take care of the husband 's family and does not stay with their own family. This can be assumed with the context of the story. "...Daughters draw with their husbands ' families, Tessie...You know that as well as anyone else..." (258). This shows a bit of devaluing of the daughters who marry off, disconnecting them from the family, as soon as the daughters get married, they are no longer a part of the family, but they become part of the husband 's family; it is like a transfer of ownership of the daughter from one family to the next; this dehumanizes the daughter making her more of an object than a
Joe?" (Jackson, 256) This introduction observers the gender roles had during the time period. These gender roles lead to inequality in a capitalist society because even if the work done in the home is similar in complexity and the psychical strength required to complete the tasks just as jobs outside the house, but jobs outside the house make money which is the cause for inequality of value of labor in a capitalist society making this introduction the beginning of the theme of sex within the short story "the Lottery." In another instance within the story we have the character Janey whose husband broke his leg and she had to draw in the lottery this year. The community 's response to this is as follows " ...and Mr. Summers turned to look at her. 'Wife draws for her husband. ' Mr. Summers said. 'Don 't you have a grown boy to do it for you, Janey? '..." In response to this Shirley Jackson has Janey "regretfully" say that she has to "fill in for [her] old man this year" (256) this section of the story speaks to another inequality of the sexes, specifically towards duty and how when it comes to ceremonies that are socially considered important are …show more content…
One could also associate the families in the lottery similarly with a traditional Indian family structure where there is the idea comparative to the dowry system and once the daughter is married off she goes to take care of the husband 's family and does not stay with their own family. This can be assumed with the context of the story. "...Daughters draw with their husbands ' families, Tessie...You know that as well as anyone else..." (258). This shows a bit of devaluing of the daughters who marry off, disconnecting them from the family, as soon as the daughters get married, they are no longer a part of the family, but they become part of the husband 's family; it is like a transfer of ownership of the daughter from one family to the next; this dehumanizes the daughter making her more of an object than a