The Most Dangerous Game, by Richard Connell, and The Lottery, by Shirley Jackson, are both post-war short stories that use death and destruction to illustrate their themes. In the Most Dangerous Game we are introduced to a hunter, General Zaroff, who grows bored of hunting animals and begins to hunt the protagonist, Sanger Rainsford, on a remote island. Through Rainsfords tribulations, Connell examines the themes of the hunter becoming the hunted, and how it affects human condition. On the other hand, The Lottery hosts a traditional raffle yearly where the chosen gets stoned to death by their peers, showing the dangers of blindly following tradition. In both of these compelling stories, the authors show the dark side of humanity, our potential for violence, and the …show more content…
Connell wrote this not only to entertain, but also to portray his time in WWI. Rainsford goes through a lot of struggles in the story that represent the hardships Connell faced in the war. In the story, Rainsford falls off a yacht and is forced to swim to an island, which he learns to be Ship-Trap Island. This relates to Connell and how he was forced to serve in WWI due to being drafted (Ariffin, 9). The act of war is so mentally damaging to many soldiers that it could be described as feeling hunted by the other side, much as Rainsford was Harsh 2 hunted in The Most Dangerous Game. Connell’s experiences in WWI seem to be in line with some of the experiences that Rainsford had on that island. The Lottery was published in 1948, a couple of years after World War II. This story may not be written directly about the war, but it does have some thematic connections that are important. One of the thematic connections that links the war and The Lottery is how people do bad things under certain circumstances because everyone is doing it, rather than thinking of how ethical it actually
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.
Did you know even though nature can be beautiful it can sometimes be deadly. In The Most Dangerous Game, Rainsford begins to see the awe-instilling power of nature and how it can hurt us. The Most Dangerous Game Written by Richard Connell is a story about the dangers of nature and the ethical question of if we should kill animals. Connell uses irony to instill a question in the mind of the reader”Is killing animals moral?” In “The Most Dangerous Game,”Richard Connell uses a flip between man and animal to convey irony in the story while also using the dangerous environment of the Island to show suspense.
Jackson, Shirley. "The Lottery." Literature: Structure, Sound, and Sense. 5th ed. Ed. Laurence Perrine. San Diego: Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich, Publishers 1998.
during the infamous short story called “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson. The lottery was celebrated on June 27th of every year and was created for the conflict of the village being too over crowded . What's ironic about “The Lottery” is that the beginning starts off with peaceful events making the reader blinded of what’s yet to come later on in the story. In “The Lottery,” Shirley Jackson uses different types of themes and symbols to offset the reader’s perspective view on how the story is going to end.
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.
Why would a civilized and peaceful town would ever suggest the horrifying acts of violence can take place anywhere at anytime and the most ordinary people can commit them. Jackson's fiction is noted for exploring incongruities in everyday life, and “The Lottery”, perhaps her most exemplary work in this respect, examines humanity's capacity for evil within a contemporary, familiar, American setting. Noting that the story’s characters, physical environment, and even its climactic action lacks significant individuating detail, most critics view “The Lottery.” As a modern-day parable or fable, which obliquely addresses a variety of themes, including the dark side of human nature, the danger of ritualized behavior, and the potential for cruelty when the individual submits to the mass will. Shirley Jackson also addresses cruelty by the citizen’s refusal to stand up and oppose “The Lottery.” Violence and cruelty is a major theme in “The Lottery.”
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.
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.
Out of all the short stories that were assigned, it can be seen that they have all one thing in common. They all show the realms of violence each of them different. The story “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson is a story where violence is shown in the most barbarous way possible. But with it, the author wants us to understand that violence is abhorrent and “The Lottery” shows that violent behavior can even corrupt the most innocent minds.
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.
Jackson, Shirley. “The Lottery.” Literature: An Introduction to Reading and Writing. Ed. Edgar V. Roberts and Robert Zweig. 5th Compact ed. New York: Pearson Longman, 2012. 136-41. Print.
“The Lottery” is a story written by Shirley Jackson. By looking at the title you may think about money prize. In this story takes the readers expectation to another level. By the two words of the title there is no way the reader did not get hook to reading this story. In “The Lottery” Shirley Jackson, uses symbolism, irony, and imagery.
“The Lottery” is a story which shows the complexity and capability of human behavior. Something immoral, like stoning a person to death once a year, is a normal occurrence. The main character, Tessie Hutchinson, is the victim of the lottery. Tessie is a character with a number of seemingly good characteristics, yet her surrounding culture rejects these characteristics. The majority of the people in the village has opposite attitudes and beliefs in comparison to Tessie’s. These attitudes and beliefs reflect her personal desires which quickly struggle against the culture’s expectations. Tessie is unlike the other villagers; she is initially indifferent to the lottery indicating her desires are unrelated to the lottery. Upon winning the lottery, Tessie changes and her personal desires to survive and reject the lottery emerge in her selfishness and outspoken personality. These struggles against the village’s expectations are shown through the culture’s emphasis on tradition and small town ties.
“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.
Mary Shelley originally named her novel , the main character Victor Frankenstein is inspired by science to create human life. In the Greek myth Prometheus and the fire bringer, Prometheus wants to help humankind by creating fire. Both Prometheus and Victor put lives in danger by their creations. However, both Prometheus and Victor have their differences. In the story Prometheus and the Fire Bringer, Prometheus creates fire to help create humans.