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"the lottery" by Shirley Jackson an analysis
The lottery by shirley jackson theme essay
The lottery by shirley jackson theme essay
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Austin Barnhill
In her short story “The Lottery” Shirley Jackson explores the various human tendencies that stem from the heart of the human condition that we cannot break free from. Society's need to follow traditions blindly regardless of reality, the natural cruelty of people, and people’s resolve not to change their ways is the truth behind the horrors of the story and what ultimately leads to the death of an innocent.
As people we say that humanity is always moving forward, learning from the mistakes of the past, however the opposite is more true than we may like to admit. Throughout history, we as people have made the same mistakes multitudes of times and after each catastrophe, though we claim that the world has learned and the events
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The Lottery focuses on this aspect of humanity and explores it to examine the truth behind human nature and in the story we are shown a society that goes through a lottery system to determine the victim of the town’s justice. Though such a tradition seems horrible to an outsider to the occupants of the town who have lived and grown with such a system will find no fault in it. This is the first aspect of humanity that Jackson explores and that is humanity’s need to stay true to the traditions it sets for itself. While traditions may differ across societies, one can find that those societies often stay true to those traditions even if they are centuries old and even if they are unmercifully cruel. One society that could be brought to mind is the Aztecs, who since the dawn of their civilization had a practice of sacrifice where they would take the still beating heart of a man -most of the time prisoners of war and criminals, but not …show more content…
The town when it comes time to deliver the results of the lottery have no complaints or troubles over stoning to death an innocent person. In fact, it is encouraged, for even the families of the victim to take part in the action. The story uses the lottery and the town’s actions to show that people have a natural affinity towards cruelty. The story asks us to look upon ourselves and see that we all have a natural ability to be cruel to others and anything else is just us breaking away from our natural instincts. In fact the town takes the whole event with an unnatural casualness as they are just wanting to get the event over with so they can eat lunch. It is not the stoning of someone they know, no it is the impeding on their dining that has the town in an uproar. It is this casualness that represents the greatest cruelty: that a person’s death means ultimately
“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.
Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery” is a chilling tale of a harsh ritualistic gathering conducted by people of a small village. The word lottery would typically remind someone of a drawing to win a cash prize. A better comparison to the story would be the lottery used to select troops for the Vietnam War; a lottery of death. Another would be the human sacrifices the Aztecs willingly made long ago.
In “The Lottery” the author uses many different types of themes to inspire the reader to feel certain emotions. Themes such as the perils of blindly sticking to outdated traditions. Traditions such as sacrificial murder in which some ancient societies believed that “Life brings death, and death recycles life” (Griffin); this shows how some readers could accept the actions depicted in this story. Yet another way of looking at it and finding a way to accept it is that it’s been said that capital punishment today is a form of ritualistic killing. But other readers may just see it as cold blooded murder in which they may be appalled that some societies could still do this in 1948 when this story was written.
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...
The short story “ The Lottery ” the author Shirley Jackson uses symbolism and imagery to develop a theme the brings forth the evil and inhumane nature of tradition and the danger of when it’s carried out with ignorance.
We are human; despite history's unequivocal demonstration of inhumanity. The individual capacity for evil has continuously proven to lack limitation. It is within this limitation that
The Lottery questions whether or not tradition should be respected for what it is or evolve to suit new generations. When asked the purpose of writing the Lottery, Shirley Jackson responded that the story was “to shock the story’s readers with a graphic demonstration of the pointless violence and general inhumanity in their own lives” (237) Jackson was idealistic as writer who shaped a thought infuriating and shocking story to person who likes to read at a time when tradition was still practiced and recognized a lot in our society.
Shirley Jackson?s insights and observations about society are reflected in her shocking and disturbing short story The Lottery. Jackson reveals two general attitudes in this story: first is the shocking tendency for societies to select a scapegoat and second is the idea that communities are victims of social tradition and rituals.
Tradition is huge in small towns and families and allows for unity through shared values, stories, and goals from one generation to the next. Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery” carries that theme of tradition. The story follows a small town that performs the tradition of holding an annual lottery in which the winner gets stoned to death. It (tradition) is valued amongst human societies around the world, but the refusal of the villagers in “The Lottery” to let go of a terrifying long-lasting tradition suggests the negative consequences of blindly following these traditions such as violence and hypocrisy.
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 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 author of “The Lottery” wrote this story “to shock the story’s readers with a graphic demonstration of the pointless violence and general inhumanity in their own lives” (Jackson 211). This story reflects human behavior in society to show how although rules, laws or traditions do not make sense, people follow them. Throughout the story the three main symbols of how people blindly follow senseless traditions were the lottery itself, the color black, and the hesitation that people had towards the prize.
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.
Shirley Jackson writes “The Lottery”, a short fiction essay about a small town with a skewed perception on human morals. In her essay, which was published in 1948, Jackson writes the consequences of blindly following tradition. When one considers the word lottery they think hope, or luck as tho they are winning a prize. Once reading this essay to the end one understands their lottery is not one of excitement and want but, terror and fear. The townspeople’s superego does not have enough “good judgment”. Jackson mostly portrays this through symbolism. They have grown up in a town in which their morals have become “normal” when in reality they are horrific and uncalled for.
What is it that they really win or do they lose something? When you win the lottery in this small religious town, you actually win death by stoning. That is why the story is so ironic, people actually being competitive and getting excited about death in public. What morals or values do these people really have? None to me. They, (whoever they may be) have taught and brained washed the people of the town that this is the correct and only way that they can relieve themselves of sin but they are sinning by turning their back to the issue and accepting this tradition in their town. This story portrays terrible ethics and morals of humans and I think Jackson tells of the animalistic characteristics that humans are capable of, such as stoning a person to death, in a way that makes it normal and it intensifies the horror of the “lottery’. This story really makes you think, especially back on the history of our country and that people actually took parts in actions such as the one in the story. The author wants her audience to realize that sometime are ethics and morals go away when it seems as if everyone around is doing something so it makes us feel as though we have to do the same thing. This story definitely makes you think about certain decisions you have made and question if they were ethical no matter of what the situation