Themes In The Lottery

“The general population doesn’t know what’s happening, and it doesn’t even know that it doesn’t know”(maybe say smth like “said” or start the quote like “Noam Chomsky once said that “”)Noam Chomsky. When one blindly follows someone or something, he or she can easily turn away from the path of basic humanity without even knowing. Similarly, in “The Lottery” regular citizens murdered someone each year by blindly following their traditions. The overall theme of "The Lottery" is the dangers of blindly following traditions and the theme was supported by three main literary aspects. In "The Lottery" Jackson supports that there is danger in blindly following traditions by showing conflicts in the plot, using symbolism in objects and situations, and using irony throughout the short story. The conflicts in the plot that supports the theme is internal and external conflicts. Right when “The Lottery” started there was a rush of nervousness and a “sudden hush” through …show more content…
The whole lottery was a situational irony because a brutal murder is conducted in the same place as the square dances, teenage club, and Halloween programs (Jackson, 260). Until the conclusion, the gathering seems like a July 4th celebration rather than a sacrificial stoning. The situational irony in “The Lottery” emphasizes the dangers and the brutality of aimlessly following traditions by showing how the villagers treat a murder as a celebration. An example of verbal irony is when Old Man Warner starts to talk about how it was crazy how some people have already quit the lottery and that next thing you'll know people will want to go back to living in caves and no body's going to want to work anymore (Jackson, 263). The verbal irony of Old Man Warner is ironic because he is the one who is stuck on old traditions and staying with the lottery while the other ones are trying to move past