Rizwan Mahmood

Works Cited
Griffin, Amy A. "Jackson's The Lottery." Explicator 58.1 (1999): 44. Academic Search
Complete. Web. 1 May 2013.
Jackson, Shirley. "The Lottery." 1949 Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, and Drama
Ed. X. J. Kennedy and Dana Gioia. 6th ed. New York: HarperCollins, 1995. 298-300.

Rizwan Mahmood

Jackson's The Lottery

Amy Griffins article Jacksons The Lottery focuses on societys need for rituals and
cycles, specifically the cycle of life and death. Griffins thesis states that by transferring one's
sins to persons or animals and then sacrificing them, people believed that their sins would be
eliminated, a process that has been termed the scapegoat archetype. In her short story The
Lottery, Shirley Jackson uses this archetype to build on man's inherent need for such ritual
(Griffin). Throughout the greater extent of society mankind has always been looking for a certain
medium that which they can cleanse themselves of any actions they did that was morally wrong.
In other words, man always needs some sort of cycle or ritual, be it something daily or yearly
that can clear their conscience.
Griffin emphasizes the fact that the seriousness of the ritual that is the lottery is seen with
lightheartedness, and the only one who actually sees it as a serious occasion is Old man Warner.
Even though people may not fully understand what the ritual means or what it symbolizes, it
ends up bringing people together and gives an individual a place and a meaning in the life of
the generations (Griffin). And the cycle simply repeats generation after generation, with the
value of the lottery going away. However, just because the value is going away doesnt mean that
what is going on has lost its gravity. The life and death cycle that the lottery represents shows
that despite any loss of substance in morals, values, or principles, the cycle of life and death still
goes on. Two characters, Mr. Summers and Mr. Graves, are foils of each other in that Mr.
Summers, the man who conducts the lottery, jokes around during the ceremony and Mr. Grave,
who is quietly helping Mr. Summers, has a darker undertone. The lighthearted nature of the
ceremony goes against the dark undertone that the lottery actually isa sacrifice of a villager.
For like the seed, a sacrificial person must also be buried to bring forth life. Jackson creates

Rizwan Mahmood

balance by juxtaposing Mr. Summers and Mr. Graves to share in the responsibilities of the ritual:
Life brings death, and death recycles life (Griffin).