Analysis of The Lottery by Shirley Jackson
“The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson was written in 1948. The story takes place in a village square of a town on June 27th. The author does not use much emotion in the writing to show how the barbaric act that is going on is look at as normal. This story is about a town that has a lottery once a year to choose who should be sacrificed, so that the town will have a plentiful year for growing crops. Jackson has many messages about human nature in this short story. The most important message she conveys is how cruel and violent people can be to one another. Another very significant message she conveys is how custom and tradition can hold great power over people. Jackson also conveys the message of how men treat women as objects.
The primary message that Jackson shows in “The Lottery” is that people can be involved with such a violent act and think nothing of it. In the story all the people are happy, “they stood together, away from the pile of stones in the corner, and their jokes were quiet and they smiled rather than laughed.”(244) All the people in the town gather together without question to perform this horrible act of murder. All the people think nothing of this terrible act. Mr. Summers the man that runs the whole lottery says, “guess we better get started, get this over with, so’s we can go back to work.”(245) This illustrates how they think of the lottery as an everyday occurrence. Old Man Warner says, “lottery in June, c...
Shirley Jackson wrote many books in her life, but she was well known by people for her story “The Lottery” (Hicks). “The Lottery” was published on June 28, 1948, in the New Yorker magazine (Schilb). The story sets in the morning of June 27th in a small town. The townspeople gather in the square to conduct their annual tradition, the Lottery. The winner of the lottery will stoned to death by the society. Although there is no main character in the story, the story develops within other important elements. There are some important elements of the story that develop the theme of the story: narrator and its point of view, symbolism, and main conflict. The story “The Lottery,” by Shirley Jackson, argues practicing a tradition without understanding the meaning of the practice is meaningless and dangerous.
1. The narrator was from a dramatic, objective point of view. The narrator sees all that is going on but does not know all, such as the lottery choosing who will be stoned. The narrator only provides the information that is currently going on, they do not draw conclusions or interpretations. It is written more like a show that you watch where you can only see what is currently happening, but you can see what is currently happening for everyone.
Written by Shirley Jackson and published in 1948, “The Lottery” is a dystopian short fiction about a cruel and barbaric lottery ritual. The plot and characters illustrate that certain traditions ought to be abolished for the betterment of society. At the beginning of the story, the entire village gather around every year on June 27th to attend the lottery, which is mandatory. Once everyone arrived to the center, an old man named Joe brought a black box. Eventually, the heads of each family have to pull a ticket from this box, but they cannot be opened and must remain folded until everyone took their turn. Eventually, after everyone had their turn, everyone has to open up the paper and show it up for everyone to witness. If the head of the family pulled a blank ticket, then the family has nothing to
Shirley Jackson's “The Lottery” is a short story about the annual gathering of the villagers to conduct an ancient ritual. The ritual ends in the stoning of one of the residents of this small village. This murder functions under the guise of a sacrament that, at one time, served the purpose of ensuring a bountiful harvest. This original meaning, however, is lost over the years and generations of villagers. The loss of meaning has changed the nature and overall purpose of the lottery. This ritual is no longer a humble sacrifice that serves the purpose of securing the harvest but instead is a ceremony of violence and murder only existing for the pleasure found in this violence.
Jackson uses the lottery itself to function as an ironic symbol of tradition in the story. In today’s society, a lottery is an event that has positive connotations related to it. A lottery a game that is associated with fun, chance, fun, and expectation. Good things usually result from lotteries especially for those who win. Furthermore, those who don’t win have nothing to lose. Lotteries bring forth a feeling of great expectation of a wonderful outcome. Through out the story, the lottery is projected as a harmless and affable pastime, which is how it is used in today’s society; however, by the end of the story it ends with disaster.
"The Lottery" is "symbolic of any number of social ills that mankind blindly perpetrates" (Friedman 108). The story is very shocking, but the reality of mankind is even more shocking. Isn’t it funny that Jackson gives us a description of our nature, and not only do we not recognize it for what it is , but it shocks us.
In "The Lottery," by Shirley Jackson, there are a series of traditions the story revolves around. The characters in the story don't seem to follow their traditions anymore. The story begins by explaining how the lottery works. The lottery takes place in many other towns. In this town it takes place on June 27 of every year. Everyone within town would gather at the town square, no matter what age. The black box is brought out and each head of the household pulls a small paper out of it. Only one of the papers will not be blank, it will have a black-penciled spot that is put on by the owner of the coal company. The black spot will send someone, from the family who chose it, to death. This is decided by a draw. The family member who pulls out the spotted paper will be stoned to death. After a long period of time, people forget the traditions by slowly disregarding as the years pass.
Set in 1948 and published in The New Yorker, “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson describes a village ritual of sacrifice. Contrary to the positive feeling associated with the word “lottery,” the story strikes fear into the readers’ hearts as the winner is stoned to death. Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery” uses symbolism and genre conventions of a classic dystopian story to show the different ways in which human cruelty can occur.
In conclusion, the use of symbolism, irony and setting in the Lottery is very evident, the author indirectly implicates the true darkness within the human heart. The Lottery remains relevant in society today because the overall vagueness of the city allows this story to be true to all people around the world. The short story shows us that humans are evil enough to follow traditions blindly, even if they cause pain and death in loved ones we know. Jackson also centers a lot of symbols and irony on religion and how they affect our culture and decisions. In this the reader can learn that sometimes it’s better for a person to follow his moral compass, and not just blindly follow his evil heart, and the evilness of others.
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...
“‘It isn't fair, it isn't right,’ Mrs. Hutchinson screamed, and then they were upon her” these words from Shirley Jackson's “The Lottery”. As stated by literary critic A.R. Coulthard, in “ Jackson’s ‘The Lottery’” “ A grim, even nihilistic, parable of the evil inherent in Human nature”(226). Written in 1948, “ The Lottery” was a short horror story written by Shirley Jackson. “The Lottery” regarding an array of neighbors pertaining to all age groups, who in which take part in a foolish scheme or ritual to sacrifice one’s life to determine the growth of corn, “The lottery in June, corn be heavy soon”(Jackson 308). "The Lottery" was a eerie parable story about the perversion of democracy. Meaning that it's a short story used to illustrate a moral being tradition with principles with wrong human character, that a population or eligible members in the small town played. Shirley Jackson
Tessie Hutchinson was chosen to be to be killed June 27th for the sake of an old tradition. “The Lottery” written by Shirley Jackson demonstrates an extra unordinary interpretation of what she defines as a lottery. The lottery is usually a time when someone is rewarded or loses money not a time for someone to lose a life. In a small village populated by 300, each family’s last name is taken into account and put into the black box. This box is significant as it has continued to exist throughout the many years this tradition has made it through. Once there is declared a winner, chosen by chance, they will get stoned to death. Villager’s lives are then continued until the next year. Communicated well in this reading is the style, tone, and theme as well as a sense of
The Lottery by Shirley Jackson is about how society runs towards violence to practice tradition whether it have a purpose and meaning or it is bizarre and pointless and people tend to look for such event to vent their rage and anger out towards others. The story is written based on irony, making the reader thinks that nothing is wrong and everything is going well in this little village. Jackson mostly uses situational irony throughout the story, surprising the reader by the characters actions and the event of the story. Irony in this story comes in different ways and in different parts throughout the story, starting with the title itself to the setting of the story, character actions plays a huge part and also the significance
"The Lottery" is a short story by Shirley Jackson that was published in 1948 and gave a good example of the definition of the term sociological theory. This theory is a set of ideas on how people behave and how institutions operate. The analysis of this short story and the of the work of Emile Durkheim shows the relationship of the two in the field of Sociology. There are many well defined intertwining theories that Durkheim gave to society that are also included in "The Lottery". Solidarity is the theory that will be analyzed.
Thesis: Shirley Jackson’s usage of irony, characters, and plot portray the stories theme of the dangers of unconsciously following tradition.