The precise origins of this annual ritual have been lost to the mists of time. We never discover exactly how old it is, but it most certainly is old. The lottery's original paraphernalia has long since been lost, but the black box used to draw the tickets has been in use since before Old Man Warner was born, and he's the oldest man in town.
This is a pagan ritual, an ancient sacrificial rite whose ultimate origins hark back to the dawn of civilization. The more the lottery is shrouded in mystery, the more easily it can be presented as a reenactment of the wisdom of our ancestors. Among other things, this serves to justify its continuing centrality in the social life of the town.
The omission of the precise age of the lottery can also be justified on purely literary grounds. If Jackson had revealed this information, then it would have made the ritual much less mysterious and intriguing. By refusing to put an exact date on the ritual's origins, Shirley Jackson does what any good writer of fiction should do—allow readers to use their own imaginations.
In "The Lottery," Jackson does not reveal for how long the lottery has been played by the townspeople. We can infer its history, however, based on some details from the story. Old Man Warner, for example, is the oldest man in town and when he walks through the crowd, he claims that this is the seventy-seventh lottery in which he has taken part. We can assume, therefore, that the lottery is at least seventy-seven years old.
There is some evidence, however, to suggest that the lottery is even older than Warner. Early in the story when Jackson describes the lottery "paraphernalia," for instance, she comments that the current black box has been in use since before the birth of Old Man Warner.
The lottery, then, is older than the living memory of anybody in the town and this adds to the sense of mystery which surrounds this violent ritual.
No comments:
Post a Comment