Winning at a price
“Although ominous symbolic details prepare for the tragic outcome the reader's attention is skilfully distracted”(Schaub). The word Lottery makes a person think of winning and good fortune in this ironic short story an unexpected change of events occurs. Shirley Jackson was born in December 14, 1916 and died August 8, 1965. Growing up she wrote poems and short stories she fluctuated in colleges but ended up earning her degree and meeting her future husband, Stanley Edgar Hyman, at Syracuse University. She suffered weight gain throughout her life and also was a heavy smoker causing her early death at the age of 48. In the short story, The Lottery, there is a small town on a nice spring day gathering in the towns center to conduct the annual Lottery. Whichever family pulls the unlucky black dot on a piece of paper is the winner. In the end of the story you discover the winner of the lottery is not so lucky and is actually stoned to death. Shirley Jackson develops her theme that questions if traditions are always good in her short story “The Lottery” through the use of symbolism, characterization, and irony.
The story contains many symbols, some of these are the Box and the Stones. One symbol are the stones collected by the children in the beginning of the story. “The children arrive first, and some of the boys begin to put rocks and stones into a pile” (Du Bose). At the beginning of the story the atmosphere is festive like and cheerful more than morbid. Although it is unusual for children to be collecting stones the detail is overlooked because of the rest of the descriptions of the town. It is simply tradition to the children and even their parents do not see anything wrong with it which proves my theme. “Bob...
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...rtray this idea of an imperfect tradition. When people lose sight of why they are doing something then its time to change it.
Works Cited
Du Bose, Thomas. “The Lottery.” Masterplots, Fourth Edition (2010): 1-3. Literary Reference Center. Web. 29 Jan. 2014.
Jackson, Shirley. “The Lottery.” 1950. Modem Short Stories: A Critical Anthology. N.p.: Harcourt, Brace ed., 1986. 394-90. Print.
Schaub, Danielle. “Shirley Jackson’s Use of Symbols in ‘The Lottery..’” Journal of the Short Story in English 14 (Spring 1990): 79-86. Rpt. in Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism. Ed. Thomas J. Schoenberg and Lawrence J. Trudeau. Vol. 187. Detroit: Gale, 2007. Literature Resource Center. Web. 29 Jan. 2014.
Wagner-Martin, Linda. “The Lottery: Overview.” Reference Guide to Short Fiction. Ed. Noelle Watson. Detroit: St. James Press, 1994. Literature Resource Center. Web. 29 Jan. 2014.
Jackson, Shirley. "The Lottery." Gioia, Dana and R.S. Gwynn. The Art of the Short Story. New York: Pearson/Longman, 2006. 390-396.
Jackson, Shirley. “The Lottery.” Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, Drama, and Writing. Ed. X. J. Kennedy and Dana Gioia. 12th ed. New York: Pearson, 2013. 262-268. Print.
The setting of the story helps to magnify its impact on the reader because it is set in a small town similar to the one many of us may know of, and that is symbolic of everything that we consider to be right in America. The story begins on a wonderful summer day in a small town. The author describes the day as very joyful but strikes a contrast between the surroundings of the town and the atmosphere of the people gathered in the square. The atmosphere is sober, where the adults ?stood together, away from the stones in the corner, and their jokes were quiet and they smiled rather then laughed."(268) This, in just the third paragraph, is a indication through symbolism of the townsfolk?s sober mood that something was amiss. The setting for the lottery also takes place in the same place as the square dances, the teen-age club, and the Halloween program.(268) This unifies our lives with those of the story sense we can relate to those types of events, and is symbolic in showing that even though this dastardly deed happens here that it is still the main place of celebration. Showing how easy it is for us, as human beings, to clean our conscientious by going back to a place that, on June 27, is a place of death and make it a place of delight.
Abcarian, Richard, and Marvin Klotz. "The Lottery." Literature: the Human Experience. 9th ed. Boston: Bedford/St Martin's, 2006. 350-56. Print.
“Bobby Martin had already stuffed his pockets full of stones, and the other boys soon followed his example.” (Jackson 1) This statement serves to illustrate the actions of the younger children following the actions of the older children. This statement caused much of a distraction in which it made me visualize something that didn’t contribute to the ending of the story. The statement, “Bobby and Harry Jones and Dickie Delacroix eventually made a great pile of stones in one corner of the square and guarded it against the raids of the other boys,” (Jackson 1) made me visualize boys creating a wall of stones of their own sides and that they would playfully throw rocks at the other side and that the pile of stones serves to protect them from the raid. This seems normal to me when boys play rough games because that’s stereotypical for a boy. Some people may think that it’s deleterious for children to throw rocks others, but I didn’t think of that from when they collected specifically “smoothest and roundest stones”. “Bobby Martin ducked under his mother’s grasping hand and ran, laughing, back to the pile of stones.” (Jackson 1) The statement illustrated how the children were reluctant to stay with their parents when they were called and returned back
The short story “ The Lottery ” the author Shirley Jackson uses symbolism and imagery to develop a theme the brings forth the evil and inhumane nature of tradition and the danger of when it’s carried out with ignorance.
Did you know that Merle and Patricia Butler from Red Bud, Illinois and three teachers from Baltimore Maryland won the biggest lottery in American history at $656 million dollars? That means every person acquired $218.6 million dollars each from the lottery (Carlyle). Unfortunately, the citizens of Shirley Jacksons’ fantasy short story “The Lottery” were not imbursed with money, but were stoned to death by their peers. “The Lottery” is a lottery of death in which the town uses to keep the population down (Voth). The story consist of many subjects to analyze which include: irony, imagery, and pathos.
Hicks, Jennifer. "Overview of 'The Lottery'." Short Stories for Students. Detroit: Gale, 2002. Literature Resource Center. Web. 19 Feb. 2014.
The title of this story is ironic and sets for a dramatic resolution. It is Jackson’s constant foreshadowing that put readers at an uneasy space after reading this story. Miriam Friend, a reader of the New York Times in 1948, when this story was published said “I frankly confess to being completely baffled by Shirley Jackson’s ‘The Lottery,’ ” (qtd. in The New Yorker). She and
Jackson, Shirley.. "The Lottery." Trans. Array Literature, An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, Drama and Writing. . Seventh. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson, 2013. 250-256. Print.
Jackson, Shirley. "The Lottery." Perrine's Literature: Structure Sound & Sense. 11th ed. Belmont: Wadsworth, 2010. 282. Print.
Jackson, Shirley. “The Lottery.” A Portable Anthology. Ed. Janet E. Gardner. Boston: New York: Bedford/St Martin’s, 2013. 242-249. Print.
Jackson, Shirley. “The Lottery.” Literature: A Portable Anthology. Gardner, Janet E.; Lawn, Beverly; Ridl, Jack; Schakel, Pepter. 3rd Edition. New York: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2012. 242-249. Print.
Jackson, Shirley. "The Lottery." The Harper Anthology of Fiction. Ed. Sylvan Barnet. New York: HarperCollins, 989.
What thoughts come to mind when you think of "The Lottery?" Positive thoughts including money, a new home, excitement, and happiness are all associated with the lottery in most cases. However, this is not the case in Shirley Jackson’s short story, "The Lottery." Here, the characters in the story are not gambling for money, instead they are gambling for their life. A shock that surprises the reader as she unveils this horrifying tradition in the village on this beautiful summer day. This gamble for their life is a result of tradition, a tradition that is cruel and inhumane, yet upheld in this town. Shirley Jackson provides the reader’s with a graphic description of violence, cruelty, and inhumane treatment which leads to the unexpected meaning of "The Lottery." Born in San Francisco, Jackson began writing early in her life. She won a poetry prize at age twelve and continued writing through high school. In 1937 she entered Syracuse University, where she published stories in the student literary magazine. After marriage to Stanley Edgar Hyman, a notable literary critic, she continued to write. Her first national publication “My Life with R.H. Macy” was published in The New Republic in 1941but her best-known work is “The Lottery.”(Lit Links or Reagan). Jackson uses characterization and symbolism to portray a story with rising action that surprises the reader with the unexpected odd ritual in the village. While one would expect “The Lottery” to be a positive event, the reader’s are surprised with a ritual that has been around for seventy-seven years , demonstrating how unwilling people are to make changes in their everyday life despite the unjust and cruel treatment that is associated with this tradi...