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The Lottery (critical analysis)
Sociological aspects in the story the lottery
Sociological aspects in the story the lottery
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The human nature in Jackson’s short story “The Lottery”
In “The Lottery” Shirley Jackson critiques the rituals and values of American’s small towns. The author uses many symbols to make her point in the story. The Lottery symbolizes a tradition that is accepted by locals, passed down to their descendants, and honored without disregard. The Lottery, been taking place in the village for so many years that people can’t remember the origin and the actual purpose of it. The village represents an American province back in the 1940s, and the villagers illustrate negative characteristics of the human nature. "The Lottery" reveals that people are cruel, prone to scapegoat others, and blindly follow a tradition.
In the story, Jackson portrays human cruelty and lack of empathy to each other. The author questions the human morality and their ability to be compassionate to others. While the stoning is a brutal act in itself, Jackson enhances its disturbing impact by setting the story in a seemingly
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peaceful society on a beautiful day. “The morning…was clear and sunny, with the fresh warmth of a full-summer day; the flowers were blossoming profusely and the grass was richly green” (Jackson 140). The calm imagery of the surroundings is in sharp contrast to the violent actions of its inhabitants. This helps the reader to realize that appearances can be deceiving. Moreover, the villagers cannot wait to be done with the ritual and go back to their regular business. For example, Mr. Summers states, "Let's finish quickly" (143), and Mrs. Delacroix picks the largest stone in order to be done faster and go back home. Thus, Jackson shocks the readers with the characters who have no sense of remorse and independency. Villagers not only lack of ability to make their own decisions and stand up against the lottery, but also follow the cruel ritual and kill their own kind without any doubts in the mind. In “The Lottery” the author shows that humans tend to pick a person to bear the blame for the others. It was always accepted by humans when the bad stuff fall on another person as long it did not become a personal problem. For example, Mrs. Hutchinson participated for many years in the lottery and accepted the rules until one of her family member drew the “lucky’ ticket. Suddenly, the lottery became unfair so she asked the town officials to let the whole town redraw. This action ended in having her young children being included into the drawing within her family perimeters only. Mrs. Hutchinson did not want to change the rules or discontinue the lottery; she only wanted someone else to be the victim. The author also shows how the people tend to disposition their anger and frustration and to be prejudice towards the others. Stones symbolized disposition of the anger and aggression to one person. Thus, Shirley Jackson wants the readers to think about their own values and decide what needs to be done in order to change an established rules and attitudes. The author satirizes people’s ability to blindly follow the tradition and inability to give it up.
Jackson's views on the tradition were negative in the story. All the villagers accepted the lottery and blindly honored it. For example, the reader can feel Mr. Summer’s encouraging voice while he’s talking about the lottery. The resistance to innovations and blind faith in the tradition shows in Warner’s character. He illogically argues and calls the neighboring villagers that have discontinued their lotteries “pack of crazy fools’’ (143). By presenting these characters, Shirley Jackson shows the lack of individualism and people’s tendency to follow the crowd. People are comfortable with the old customs, even for this, any of the villagers can pay with their own life. In spite of this, the author leaves a hope for the readers: people in the other village already abandoned the lottery and eventually time will come and new generation of the village will discontinue the
lottery. Thus, Shirley Jackson in the story reveals some bad traits of the human nature. Many times in life people just go with the flow, follow the crowd. Humans don’t think about cruelty as long it justified and accepted by everyone. People want to have someone else to blame and sacrifice. The author in the story wants the reader to question some common rules and think out of the box.
Tradition is a central theme in Shirley Jackon's short story The Lottery. Images such as the black box and characters such as Old Man Warner, Mrs. Adams, and Mrs. Hutchinson display to the reader not only the tenacity with which the townspeople cling to the tradition of the lottery, but also the wavering support of it by others. In just a few pages, Jackson manages to examine the sometimes long forgotten purpose of rituals, as well as the inevitable questioning of the necessity for such customs.
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.
“The Lottery” is a short story about an event that takes place every year in a small village of New England. When the author speaks of “the lottery” he is referencing the lottery of death; this is when the stoning of a village member must give up his or her life. The villagers gather at a designated area and perform a customary ritual which has been practiced for many years. The Lottery is a short story about a tradition that the villagers are fully loyal to and represents a behavior or idea that has been passed down from generation to generation, accepting and following a rule no matter how cruel or illogical it is. Friends and family become insignificant the moment it is time to stone the unlucky victim.
In Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery,” the theme of the story is dramatically illustrated by Jackson’s unique tone. Once a year the villagers gather together in the central square for the lottery. The villagers await the arrival of Mr. Summers and the black box. Within the black box are folded slips of paper, one piece having a black dot on it. All the villagers then draw a piece of paper out of the box. Whoever gets the paper with the black dot wins. Tessie Hutchinson wins the lottery! Everyone then closes in on her and stones her to death. Tessie Hutchinson believes it is not fair because she was picked. The villagers do not know why the lottery continues to exist. All they know is that it is a tradition they are not willing to abandon. In “The Lottery,” Jackson portrays three main themes including tradition, treason, and violence.
"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 Lottery”, written by Shirley Jackson, shows the corruption in a village whose people treat life with insignificance. Through the use of literary devices, Jackson portrays how practices in traditions can be barbaric;ultimately, resulting in persecution.
“The Lottery,” written by Shirley Jackson in 1948, is a provoking piece of literature about a town that continues a tradition of stoning, despite not know why the ritual started in the first place. As Jackson sets the scene, the villagers seem ordinary; but seeing that winning the lottery is fatal, the villagers are then viewed as murders by the reader. Disagreeing with the results of the lottery, Tessie Hutchinson is exposed to an external conflict between herself and the town. Annually on June 27th, the villagers gather to participate in the lottery. Every head of household, archetypally male, draws for the fate of their family, but Tessie protests as she receives her prize of a stoning after winning the lottery. Jackson uses different symbols – symbolic characters, symbolic acts, and allegories – to develop a central theme: the
Personification is a figure of speech in which human or living characteristics are attributed to nonhuman or nonliving things and events. A writer describes inanimate objects and abstract ideas with behaviors and actions that are associated with people. In The Lottery, Jackson describes the newness of summer vacation as “sitting” on the children. The children assembled first, of course. School was recently over for the summer, and the feeling of liberty sat uneasily on most of them. Jackson uses subtle nuances in her writing: “liberty sat uneasily” on the children. Most students would be excited to be out of school for summer vacation, but by using the word “uneasily,” Jackson foreshadows that students in this village have a reason to dislike
In Shirley Jackson’s "The Lottery," what appears to be an ordinary day in a small town takes an evil turn when a woman is stoned to death after "winning" the town lottery. The lottery in this story reflects an old tradition of sacrificing a scapegoat in order to encourage the growth of crops. But this story is not about the past, for through the actions of the town, Jackson shows us many of the social ills that exist in our own lives.
“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.
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...
When someone thinks of a lottery, they imagine winning a large amount of money. This version of a lottery is quite the opposite. In the short story, “The Lottery,” the villagers of a small town gather together in the square for the annual lottery. This event is conducted by each man of the family picking a piece of paper out of the box and one man would receive the piece with a black dot on it. That man’s family would then all pick a piece of paper as well. Whichever family member picked the paper with a dot, is then stoned and killed by the rest of the village. Shirley Jackson’s short story, “The Lottery,” reveals how innocent people are victimized for absurd reasons through the use of conflict, symbolism,
The Lottery, written by Shirley Jackson, is a prominent short about the power of religion and tradition in society. The story takes place many years ago in a burgeoning New England village. As the name would suggest it is about a yearly lottery in which a single person from the village is chosen at random by the drawing of lots. The person who draws the lot with a black spot is stoned to death because of an old tradition that is said to bring prosperity to the village. Jackson expertly uses the setting to conceal the true intention of the lottery until the very end of the story.
After reading and watching The Lottery, a short story by Shirley Jackson (Jackson) and a YouTube video directed by Augustine Kennedy (Kennedy), I wonder if society needs to revisit a tradition’s origin and objectives before we continue them. In this intriguing story about a small village and its behavior, is an account of one year’s lottery, its purpose, and its winner.
Shirley Jackson’s insights are reflected in a disturbing ritual made every year in this town. Jackson’s short story “The lottery,” which took place in a small town in New England, begins with very welcoming setting, she describes a beautiful place with green fields, lots of colorful flowers, and a hidden valley. Everyone is getting ready for new day because school is over and all children are home. Every year on June 27th, all the families of the town meet together between the post office and the bank, around ten o’clock to play the lottery. It last two hours because is a small village with around three hundred people and after the lottery is over everyone goes home for noon