The Lottery Theme

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The Lottery Theme
The setting of the story takes place is a small town with a population of approximately three hundred people. In the story setting, it seems that strong family is the most important to consider as it becomes clear that before the lottery game begins families gather right from the young ones to the senior most member of the family. There is a given allocation for the head of the family, the head of households and the members of every family in attendance. Mr. Summers ensures that every person who needs to be in attendance is personally present while at the same time he accounts for those individuals who were unable to attend the lottery. Throughout the setting, there seems to be togetherness among families and all participants in attendance (D.Dona 1).
The lottery is widely acclaimed as Jackson’s masterpiece and is known for combining various themes ranging from horror, family, hypocrisy, irony and tradition. It is realizable that the sub-urban setting under which the play is conducted is critical in bringing about the various themes under discussion. The town where the lottery takes place is an ordinary and middle-class community where the lottery is a significant ritual kind event conducted annually. In this environment, the children greatly value their relationship with others as they indulge and share openly more on various issues affected their day to day lives such as the classroom or favorite books. The women, on the other hand, enjoy togetherness as they share of greater life issues and other personal gossips as they join their husbands in the lottery.

In general, the environment is so pleasant and a conventional town where everyone seems friendly and kind.
However, it stands that the setting of the lottery is ironical as it purposely stands to highlight the hypocritical, brutal and evil nature of humans not only within the region where the setting takes place but the regions beyond. The fact that the winner of the lottery ends up being stoned to death is an indication of a corrupt society. The stoning of Mr. Hutchinson seems normal and not even considered a murderous act among the individuals in the setting. The society typically seems to have accepted that the event is meant to be sacrificial and through it a member of the society is lynched to death. The worse part of it is that the killers of the lottery winner involve the children and the husband of the lottery winner. Ironically, this indicates that the society is significantly falling apart and that the closest ones should not be trusted in any given situation. The killing in the lottery setting is somehow brought out to contrast the nature of the society which in the real sense is rotten. The society might look calm from the outside appearance, but the scenario brings out the never pleasing and attractive state that for many is not easily visible. Typically, the setting brings out the reality that the otherwise known normal town with friendly and kind individuals is a center for senseless murders committed in day broad daylight (Lohafar 68).
On the other hand, the title of the given story is typically ironical for every reader in a special way. Often a lottery is associated with winning and always a winner is positively acknowledged with a gift or anything else that is positive. However, the case is different in Jackson’s lottery as the perceived winner is stoned to death by the village. Every reader would accept positive experiences based on the topic of the story, but it turns out that everything in the story is a depiction of what seems unacceptable in the society. The author used the irony of the title to bring out the inhuman nature and violence in the society in an indirect way
Hypocrisy is another important point to note in the lottery story. Tess Hutchinson displays hypocrisy and a greater sense of human weakness and even though she entirely acts brave and looks unconcerned with the lottery she is hypocritical. She arrives late and pretends to have forgotten the date but later on she becomes the first one to protest when her family becomes endangered. She ironically complains that the process is unfair yet she has been on the watch all along without giving a comment on how the gaming was progressing. At first she was not interested with the lottery not until her family was put into the spotlight when she then realized the whole thing was a mess. The pretense portrays the greater sense of hypocrisy and does not only exist in Tess but the society, and individuals will only play to be interested when the issue affects them personally otherwise it becomes a non-issue.
Moreover, the lottery indirectly creates a picture on the rituals and traditions that often adhere to without knowing their significance. In the play setting the random distribution does imply that some families is greatly fortunate while others are disadvantaged. Therefore in the case of choosing either lottery or cash, the paper can be an implication of bad or good fortune, and it becomes so surprising when life can be left out to chance through the process of gambling (Lohafar 68). Gambling is a game of thirst and great that does not put the need of others at hand. The villagers in the lottery resort to killing their colleague for the love of material wealth and, therefore, it indicates that as civilization strikes in there are a greater chance that humanity resorts to more self-driven ways that solely benefit individual needs while putting the lives of others at stake.
Also, the clearest thing about the lottery is the fact that it plays around with the family issues in a more interesting way. Typically, each particular participant has to draw based on household each and every year the lottery is conducted. The planning and setting of the family are appropriate and one with a clear indication of unity and togetherness throughout the lottery play. However, the division that occurs later on in ritual is of great significance to the entire family. It is one full of betrayal and cruel nature as part of the family members take part in taking way the life of a fellow family member (Jackson 2).
In conclusion, the lottery has a wide number of themes that have significantly been used to bring out the real picture of the society. In a general view, the whole events in the story have been ironically altered to bring out the true picture of the society in the times of civilization where a lot of negative things are taking place both at the family level and the overall society.

References
D. Dona Le. Kissel, Adam ed. “The Lottery and Other Stories “The Lottery” Summary and Analysis.” GradeSaver, 31 July 2009 Web. 2 December 2015
Jackson, Shirley. The Lottery. Mankato, MN: Creative Education, 2008. Print.
Lohafer, Susan. “The short story.” The Cambridge Companion to American Fiction After 1945 (2012): 68.