Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery” is a short story about a small village that gathers annually to perform a lottery tradition. The lottery appears to be a benign tradition, with the villagers looking forward to it and children excitedly collecting stones to be used in the lottery. The villagers uphold the lottery tradition without questioning the purposes it is supposed to serve. Irony uncovers the existential crisis facing the villagers and warns about the perils of following tradition and making presumptions about social norms without considering their consequences
Jackson uses verbal irony to uncover the existential crisis facing the villagers. According to Andrews, an existential crisis refers to the moments of confusion and high anxiety when someone is trying to resolve and find the answer to the question of who they are (104). The villagers are confused about whether to do away with the lottery tradition thereby losing their identity or maintaining their identity by continuing it, but in doing so blindly adhere to the barbaric nature of the lottery. The villagers are confronted with a crisis where they have to choose between continuing with the barbaric tradition they have been following for generations or discarding it.
Faced with this crisis, the villagers often use words that are incongruent with their implied meaning. This creates verbal irony, which happens when a speaker’s intention is the opposite of what they are saying such that the implied meaning is different from what is conveyed (Abrams and Harpham 184-185). For instance, Mr. and Mrs. Adam suggest giving up the lottery, similar to what another village had done. Mr. Adam tells Old Man Warner about the other village, saying “They do say that over in the north village, they’re talking of giving up the lottery (Jackson 221). Mrs. Adam also supports this idea, stating “Some places have already quit lotteries” (Jackson, 222). From their words, it appears that Mr. and Mrs. Adam want to end the cruel tradition. However, later when the winner of the lottery is found, Mr. Adam is among the villagers at the front of the line to stone Mrs. Hutchinson, along with Old Man Warner and Mrs. Graves. Jackson uses verbal irony to show that while some villagers are troubled by the cruelty of the lottery, they still did it because they did not wish to upset the long-held tradition.
Further, the use of irony reveals the greatest threat to the survival of the village. The greatest threat to the village’s survival is the blind adherence to the annual lottery tradition without questioning its consequences, and that it comes from within. When Mr. Adam suggests that other villages have abandoned the lottery, Mr. Old Man Warner rejects the idea of stopping the lottery. He dismisses those who suggest it calling them a “pack of crazy fools” (Jackson 222). He further claims that abandoning the lottery is similar to going back to living in caves and subsisting on foraged food. Mr. Old Man Warner even cites a saying that implies the lottery is necessary for a good harvest: “Lottery in June, corn be heavy soon” (Jackson 222). However, Old Man Warner’s words are ironic because the act of randomly killing one person in the village is far from civilized and is, in fact, a primitive and barbaric tradition. Mr. Old Man Warner’s insistence on continuing the tradition despite its cruelty highlights the threat of blindly following tradition without questioning its morality or consequences. His belief that the lottery is justified, while those who oppose the tradition are the ones in the wrong and the unwillingness of the opposing villagers to proactively stop it shows that the threat is from within rather than without.
Lastly, the use of irony warns about the perils of following tradition and making presumptions about social norms without considering their consequences. Jackson ironically uses the word lottery to warn about the dangers of readily accepting societal norms without critically analyzing them. In contemporary culture, winning the lottery is often associated with grand prizes. Jackson emulates this through the portrayal of the setting for the lottery. Jackson describes children playing boisterously in the square collecting the roundest stones, men speaking of planting and rain and smiling at their jokes, and women greeting one another and exchanging bits of gossip as they went to join their husbands (217). In addition, when parents called their children, they came reluctantly with Bobby Martin ducking under his mother’s hands to run back to the pile of stones laughing (Jackson 218). Thus, the readers prematurely perceive the lottery as a pleasant tradition that provides an opportunity for the villagers to win great prizes. However, as the story progresses, it becomes clear that the lottery is not a desirable event at all. The irony behind the name lottery becomes apparent when the winner is stoned to death instead of receiving a grand prize. The villagers stone the winner, Mrs. Hutchinson, revealing the true nature of the lottery. The juxtaposition between the initial portrayal of the lottery and its gruesome reality serves as a warning against following traditions and making presumptions about social norms without considering their consequences and actual nature.
In conclusion, irony uncovers the existential crisis facing the villagers and warns about the perils of following tradition and making presumptions about social norms without considering their consequences. Irony also reveals the greatest threat to the village’s survival comes from within, as the villagers themselves perpetuate the violent tradition of the lottery. By using irony to uncover the existential crisis facing the villagers, Shirley Jackson underscores the importance of critically examining the values and beliefs that underpin our society.
Works Cited
Abrams, Meyer Howard, and Geoffrey Harpham. A glossary of literary terms. Cengage Learning, 2014.
Andrews, Mary. “The existential crisis.” Behavioral Development Bulletin 21.1 (2016): 104-109.
Jackson, Shirley. “The Lottery and Other Stories.” Farrar, Strauss and Giroux, 2005.
write