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Essays on personal experience of irony
Symbolic meanings in the lottery
The lottery symbolism
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Irony in the Story The Lottery by Shirley Jackson In Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery” irony is an underlying theme used throughout the story. The setting is introduced as a “clear and sunny” day, but ends with the brutal death of a housewife (715). The two people who essentially run the town, Mr. Graves and Mr. Summers, also have ironic names. In addition, the characters and the narrator make ironic statements throughout the story. 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. The two people who run, and the lottery, Mr. Summers and Mr. Graves. Mr. Graves is the postmaster for the town and is the person who swears Mr. Summers in as the lottery officia...
Typically, when someone thinks of a lottery they think of something positive and exciting but contrary to this idea in Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery”, the connotation has an entirely different meaning. As the story begins, readers lean towards the belief that the town in which Jackson depicts is filled with happiness and joy. “The morning of June 27th 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 247) We soon realize that this notion is far from the truth. As the townspeople gather in the square for the annual lottery, which sole purpose is to stone someone to death by randomly pulling a paper out of a black box with a black dot on it, it is learned
Criminal activities and gangs have mostly always been an on going problem in the United States. Gangs and gang members are frequently involved with a variety of different crimes. The 2008 National Youth Gang Survey reported that there are approximately 774,000 active gang members in the United States (Egley, Howell, & Moore, 2010). The 2008 National Youth Gang Survey also states that there are about 27,900 active gangs in the United States (Egley et al., 2010). The active gangs in California have caused a major impact on the state in many ways. According to the California Department of Justice, approximately 300,000 gang members are living in California (Crawford, 2009). California also attributes more than 25 percent of all homicides to gang activity (Crawford, 2009). This is a staggering huge amount. The rise of gang involvement and gang crime has led law enforcement to issue and enforce gang injunctions. However, these gang injunctions do not completely eliminate gang crime and they have no effect after one year of being issued. Also, gang injunctions interfere with the lives of normal people in society.
In the story, Mr. Summers and Mr. Graves are basically the two men in charge of making sure the lottery is conducted each year. Mr. Summers’ name seems to represent the time of the year the lottery is conducted. Mr. Graves represents the grave the chosen lottery victim will be sent to, as he has no problem administering death to those close around him.
Utilitarianism provides a method for calculating the moral worth of specific actions in terms of their consequences. Utilitarianism teaches that happiness comprises the fundamental purpose and pursuit of human life. Therefore, the value and worth of any given action should be evaluated in terms of its ability to produce happiness. The utilitarian defines happiness as pleasure and the absence of pain, and teaches that in all cases individuals should act in such a way as to achieve the greatest amount of happiness for the greatest amount of people. Utilitarianism...
Gang violence has been an issue within the United States since the colonization in the late 1400s. Although gang violence has always been around, larger more organized factions began arising in the 17th century. Today, according to youthinfo.gov more than 700,000 youth were treated in the ER for gang related incidents. While many actions have been taken against gang related, not all seem effective. While very interesting on how people are drawn into gangs, our government must implement more strict measurements against the clans of hooligans.
Through the use of irony and a combination of an indifferent tone and an unknown, impassive narrator, “The Lottery” reveals the barbarism of human nature that results from blindly trusting and following traditions.
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.
You can start out by looking into the ingredients of the foods you are eating and ask yourself if you are familiar with the ingredients; if you aren 't familiar then perhaps it is an exceptional idea to not eat it anymore. A rule of thumb, according to Michael Pollan, is that if it has more than 5 ingredients, then it must be nowhere near as pure as it should be (12). Don’t eat anything your great, great, great grandmother wouldn’t recognize (Pollan 12). We should all try to eat as many whole foods as possible and one way that will guarantee that you are eating as simple as possible is by going to your local farmers markets and purchasing your foods there (Pollan 15). It is an excellent way to avoid unwanted artificial ingredients and preservatives and push yourself to cook your own meals. Berry would agree that it is an excellent idea to grow your own food so that you know exactly how it is grown and if any chemicals were sprayed onto them. When it comes to the lives of the animals, it is important that you sympathize for them considering they are essentially living creatures, as you and I, who are killed for you to eat them. Whenever possible, try to obtain your meats from farms you know where these animals lived a blissful, healthy life. If you take all these tips and follow them through, you are sure to create a
"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.
for summer break, letting the reader infer that the time of year is early summer.
In Shirley Jackson's 'The Lottery,' irony is a major theme. This story is about a town full of elitist snobs that are stuck on their tradition of a lottery, even though it is a grim ritual and rather detrimental to the people in the town. The characters are honoring a tradition that is handed down to them from former generations. The reader is led through the outwardly normal and charming little village, and is taken on a ride of ironic horror as they slowly grasp the annual fate of one the village?s inhabitants. The title ?The Lottery? implies a contest with a winner of some kind, like a sweepstakes. When in reality the winner is actually the loser or person that will die by stoning. At the beginning of this story, the main character, Mrs. Hutchinson, is in favor of the lottery. The atmosphere of the town is casual yet anxious. Mrs. Hutchinson arrives late because she ?clean forgot? what day it is. This seems quite impossible to any reader that anyone would forget a day like lottery day. Her procrastination is reasonable but her excuse is lame. Mrs. Hutchinson complains that her husband, Bill, ?didn?t have enough time to choose.? And that the results of the drawing were not fair. In these statements, she is implying that the other villagers had more time to choose, and in fact given an advantage over the Hutchinson family. In reality, time had little to do with the drawing of the ?slips of paper.? As soon as they hold the second drawing, Mrs. Hutchinson is chosen. This is the climax of irony of this story. Mrs. Hutchinson is chosen for the lottery. She is shocked and astounded, having believed that she couldn?t possibly be chosen for the lottery. She begs or mercy, but the townspeople are strict with keeping to their traditions and her pleas of mercy fall on deaf ears and she is stoned to death.
Although a standard definition does not exist, gang delinquency can be defined as law-violating behavior committed by groups of youth and adults, that are complexly organized and that have established leadership and membership rules (Curry & Spergel, 1988). Gangs engage in a range of different crimes, but most significantly in violent crimes, as a means of upholding norms and values in regards to: mutual support, conflict relations with other gangs, and tradition (Curry & Spergel, 1988). They are organizations concerned with territory, status, and the ability to control behavior. For disadvantaged youth, who lack the opportunities to succeed in a socially acceptable manner, gangs effectively provide meaningful social and even economic structures. In gang membership, there is the opportunity to create personal identity, but there are minimal standards of acceptable status (Curry & Spergel,
Every year, the lottery is held, and every year a person is killed. Each villager neglects to acknowledge the unjustness of the lottery and continue to participate because of the tradition it represents in their society. The lottery was a cultural tradition passed down from the very first settlers of the village. It makes up a huge part of the village’s history and culture. The villagers pay recognition to their culture by continuing the tradition of the lottery even though the lottery is not morally right. On page 93 it states, “There was a proper swearing-in of Mr. Summers by the postmaster, as the official of the lottery; at one time, some people remembered, there had been a recital of some sort, performed by the official of the lottery, a perfunctory tuneless chant that had been rattled off duly each year… There had been, also, a ritual salute, which the official of the lottery had had to use in addressing each person who came to draw from the box…” This quote shows the tribal-like rituals and traditions associated with the lottery. Through the years, some of the rituals of the lottery were lost, but the main elements of the lottery remained the same. The idea behind the lottery was that the ancestors, of the villagers, believed that human sacrifice would bring in good harvest. This led to the development and continuation
Utilitarianism is a difficult topic to fathom, for it requires a large amount of questions and self-evaluation. In order to understand utilitarianism, think of bad versus bad. A principle stating that when one is faced with two difficult decisions, which choice would be less harmful for all of those involved? John Stuart Mill and Bernard Williams describe utilitarianism as pain versus pleasure or the lesser of two evils approach, and how that approach ties into ones ultimate choice. Utilitarianism is not about the pursuit of happiness, rather, it is really about picking which evil is the best evil.
“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.