Themes

Author’s note: I am writing about the themes in the short story “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson. My purpose of writing is to identify the themes and support why I believe these are the main themes- Friendship and loss of innocence.

            “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson had a twist to it. When you think of the lottery today, you would think it means you would get money or something good? Well not in this short story. Towards the beginning of the text, as it said the town was gathering together, the little children were collecting stones. This is an example of the theme loss of innocence.

            While the children were just being young, and doing what kids do (collecting little rocks and making piles) they lost their innocence. It seems like they were just being kids, but really they knew exactly what they were doing all along. Gathering small rocks to be thrown at somebody. The lottery was a terrible village tradition, which includes the town getting together and picking a family first, out of a black box, and then picking a member of the family to throw rocks at to their death. The children lost their innocence because they helped kill somebody, and at such a young age.

            Another theme is friendship. Since the mother of the Hutchinson family, Tessie got picked, her best friend helped put her out of her misery faster by chucking a huge rock at her dear friend. By doing so, I’m sure she would rather have big rocks thrown at her rather than having a bunch of little rocks hurt her way more, so she doesn’t suffer. This is an example of friendship because as a friend of Tessie’s, she didn’t want her to suffer a slow, painful death

            These themes are important because they are major themes; they tie the whole story together. The themes Loss of Innocence and Friendship are very important in this short story.