Essay on Shirley Jackson's The Lottery - Inhumanity Exposed

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Inhumanity Exposed in The Lottery

The story entitled "The Lottery," written by Shirley Jackson is an intriguing and shocking parable. "The Lottery" is set in a small village on a clear summer day. Written in objective third person point of view, "The Lottery" keeps the reader in suspense as the story progresses.

The story begins June 27th on a "clear and sunnyfull-summer day." From the very beginning, irony occurs in the story. The author describes the day as "clear and sunny, with the fresh warmth of a full-summer day; the flowers were blossoming profusely and the grass was richly green." To describe such a beautiful day when the ending is so ill fated, is very ironic. The villagers, all three hundred of them, gather in the square. There is a feeling of excitement and relative normalcy as the people talk of their everyday happenings. The lottery is conducted by Mr. Summers, as he is the one that directs the "civic activities" of the town. The night before the lottery, all of the families have their names placed in a black box. The day of the lottery, Mr. Summers has each head of family draw a slip of paper from the box. When each family has selected a slip, they all open the papers together. The Hutchinson's are the "winners." The process then repeats but this time, ...

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...lso to show the dark side of American society and what it is capable of. This is similar to other points in history, such as: slavery, the Salem witch trials, and the extermination of the American Indians. All three of those examples involve inhumanity without the usual American apathy. Though inhumanity does exist, it is usually without active support. However in the examples mentioned before, people acted on their ordinarily latent barbarity. The Holocaust is another parallel to "The Lottery." The senseless genocide of the Jewish populace is very much similar to the ridiculousness of the lottery. In essence, "The Lottery," is a mirror of the human subconscious.

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