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.
"The Lottery," a short story written by Shirley Jackson, is a tale about a disturbing social practice. The setting takes place in a small village consisting of about three hundred denizens. On June twenty-seventh of every year, the members of this traditional community hold a village-wide lottery in which everyone is expected to participate. Throughout the story, the reader gets an odd feeling regarding the residents and their annual practice. Not until the end does he or she gets to know what the lottery is about. Thus, from the beginning of the story until almost the end, there is an overwhelming sense that something terrible is about to happen due to the Jackson's effective use of foreshadowing through the depiction of characters and setting. Effective foreshadowing builds anticipation for the climax and ultimately the main theme of the story - the pointless nature of humanity regarding tradition and cruelty.
The plot as a whole in “The Lottery” is filled with ironic twists. The whole idea of a lottery is to win something, and the reader is led to believe that the winner will receive some prize, when in actuality they will be stoned to death by the rest of the villagers. The villagers act very nonchalant upon arriving at the lottery; which makes it seem as if it is just another uneventful day in a small town. Considering the seriousness of the consequences of the lottery, the villagers do not make a big deal about it. Under the same note it is ironic that many of the original traditions of the lottery, such as the recital and the salute, had long been forgotten. All that the villagers seemed to remember was the ruthless killing of a random person. It also seems strange that they let the equipment for the lottery, the black box, get into such a poor condition.
Degas uses dull colors, mostly brown beige and melancholy blue for her tutu, instead of the light pink he uses in his other portraits of the ballerinas. Her body is very much gravitated, depicted almost like a tree trunk. We can see his use of earthly colors in this painting, as it is dominated by different hues of blues and earthly browns. His use of light and shadow is prevalent in here, as the canvas seems like it is divided in two, through his use of shadow. We can see that this particular ballerina is the heroine in his painting, as she solely stands alone, exhibiting her grandeur presence. Her figure seems heavy and not ethereal, as Degas presents his other ballerinas. There is something unique about her. We can’t make out her face, or understand her facial expression; we are left only with her body language to predict what she might be conveying. I can’t tell whether her faceless face suggests a generic idea of all ballerinas or he chose not to paint her face due to his failing eyesight. The fact that she doesn’t have a facial expression leaves her without an identity.
"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.
Samasca, G., Bruchental, M., Butnariu, A., Pirvan, A., Andreica, M., Cristea, V., & Dejica, D. (2011). Difficulties in celiac disease diagnosis in children. A Journal of Clinical Medicine, 6(1), 32-35.
The symptoms of celiac disease in children usually occur when the child is taken off milk and started on solid food (familydoctor.org editorial staff, 2010). Celiac, in children, most readily affects their growth. Such as delayed puberty, poor weight gain, slowed growth and shorter than normal height for t...
Green, Peter H.R. and Rory Jones. Celiac Disease A Hidden Epidemic. New York: HarperCollins Publisher, 2010.
In "The Lottery" Shirley Jackson fills her story with many literary elements to mask the evil. The story demonstrates how it is in human nature to blindly follow traditions. Even if the people have no idea why they follow.
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...
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The title of the story, “The Lottery” illustrates irony when knowing the true essence of the title.