More handpicked essays just for you.
Themes for the lottery by Shirley Jackson
Themes for the lottery by Shirley Jackson
Themes for the lottery by Shirley Jackson
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Shirley Jackson’s short story “The Lottery” Shocked everyone and many people believed that they understood it but didn't. To others it was very insulting or offending. In South Africa was one of those countries to ban the story itself. Jackson was then informed about the ban and simply relied, “Good, at least they understood the story”. This got me thinking that her story is more than just a creepy, original tale. I believe that her story is a realization of the real world we live in masked by misleading names. Also the Lottery today is not a great winning as everybody thinks. Mrs. Jackson creates these ideas through her plot , symbolism, and point of view.
The main question is how did she even come up with the idea of the winning be getting
…show more content…
stoned to death. It was recorded that she was diagnosed with depression in her life and oddly enough won the lottery at the age of twelve. Did her winning the lottery at such a young age have an effect on her famous story “The Lottery”. There is no record of stoning lottery's known making her story so original. As stated in her Biography(289) she dropped out the the University of Rochester and married a man. While married she wrote “Life among savages and raising Diamonds”. All of this evidence turns to a depressing life where she could only escape through her writing. The writings that she presents are not just a gothic writing but a dejected view of the world. The plot itself is used to create the realization of the world. Throughout the story everything seems fine and normal in their village. Just in life as we look at society or even just your own community and everything seems fine. Everybody is “happy”. We never know what each other is thinking though. We never know the situations a human has endured. Sure, we can imagine but it is that person's choice to inform you or not. Jackson did not open up to anybody. Instead she wrote. What about all those people in abusive relationships or those families who are suffering to feed their newborn child much less themselves. She is not talking about the people who do not have a drive or workethic, but those who do work hard everyday and barely “make ends meet”. This is the allegory of life. We are worried about silly things such as celebrities and politics rather than those who are suffering with more serious manners. We are blessed beyond belief and yet we find something to be offended by. Some may argue that is just human nature. Human nature is to help one another survive but is competitive. Not to let others slowly lose livelihood. The title of “The lottery” is enough to confuse yours perspective of the story. She does this by creating a point of view just within the title of the story. Our perspective of the lottery is great winnings. The setting of the story also created the perspective as everyone still accepts the cost of the lottery and shows up. Even those who cannot make it send a representative. The neighboring towns have banned it for obvious reasons but the village keeps the tradition alive. However something so uplifting in the community ends with leaving the livelihood of a citizen behind. Jackson has a different point of view though. The lottery destroys livelihood. What is masked to become a great winning and all your troubles to be gone creates a monster of the person you are creating greed and selfishness with those winnings. In our society those people who do win are successful with money, opportunity, or even social ranking. However we never see the aftermath of the winners. Many of those people end up losing more than what they had before the winning. Today in daily life we are after money all day or even opportunity rather than being a good human being. Helping one another and making us a better species. We feel the need thought to step on each other and discriminate. This is the point of view that Jackson has but leaves that for the people who do understand what it means to be a good human. Another aspect of “The Lottery” is the symbols.
Many remember the actions throughout the story but never really think about the symbols. The box that the villagers were drawing from was old and black. This represented their tradition of having the lottery. The box was falling apart and faded black from how old it was. The box is a symbol to their loyalty to the tradition. They all had to know what they were doing was wrong. Yet they came back every year willingly. Another Symbol that is used is the two main characters, Mr. and Mrs. Graves. Thier last names being “graves” hints at the end of the story but rarely anyone pays attention to it. This symbolises how we are warned about our economy and the risks of our “winnings” all the time but never pay any attention to it. We always have our eyes on the prize rather than what could come of it. I believe that Jackson did not mean to always look at the negative in life but be more aware of the real world in front of us and the predicaments we are faced with everyday that goes unacknowledged. In the beginning of the story the boys piled up a bunch of stones which seemed to have irrelevance until the end of the story where they were put to use. Theses stones represent how we are fighting against each other instead of helping each other. Hurting each other just for money or power instead of helping each other. We are fighting ourselves instead of seeing what the true issues
are. All the success stories we hear inspire us but mask what our world truly is. Jackson saw our true world and informed us in her gothic writings. However only few understood because we must remove the mask ourselves. What we ignore day by day is detrimental to ourselves and we are slowly drowning ourselves. Shirley Jackson shows the allegory of our world. How we must see the negative in our world to make it a positive place.
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.
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.
Shirley Jackson's 'The Lottery', is a story that is filled with symbolism. The author uses symbolism to help her represent human nature as tainted, no matter how pure one thinks of himself or herself, or how pure their environment may seem to be. The story is very effective in raising many questions about the pointless nature of humanity regarding tradition and violence. 'The Lottery' clearly expresses Jackson's feelings concerning mankind?s evil nature hiding behind traditions and rituals. She shows how coldness and lack of compassion in people can exhibit in situations regarding tradition and values. Jackson presents the theme of this short story with a major use of symbolism. Symbolism shows throughout the setting of 'The Lottery,' the objects, the peoples actions, and even in the time and the names of the lucky contestants.
In Shirley Jackson's short story "The Lottery" symbols are used to enhance and stress the theme of the story. A symbol is a person, object, action, place, or event that in addition to its literal meaning, suggests a more complex meaning or range of meanings. (Kirszner & Mendell 330) The theme of the story is how coldness and lack of compassion can be exhibited in people in situations regarding tradition and values. That people will do incredibly evil and cruel things just for the sake of keeping a routine. Three of the main symbols that Shirley uses in the story is the setting, black box, and the actual characters names. They all tie together to form an intriguing story that clearly shows the terrible potential if society forgets the basis of tradition. The story also shows many similarities between the culture of the village, and the culture of Nazi Germany. How blind obedience to superiors can cause considerable damage to not only a community, but the entire world. Symbolism plays a large role in "The Lottery" to set the theme of the story and make the reader question traditions.
When “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson was first published in 1948, there were different reactions to it. Most people were terrified and off put that such a story should be published, but there were others who wanted to know where it happened “so that they could go and watch” (Hicks 1). In a way, that is an example of what the story was trying to show; humans, by nature, are fearful and apathetic towards other people. The story seems to take place in a recent time and in a civilized community. Almost as if it were happening now; though it is hard to even think that something like that could happen, especially here in America, which is where it seems to be taking place. As Cleveland puts it, “The crimes being committed here are not illegal,
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.
box. We do not always enjoy change, even if it might prove beneficial to us.
In the story, Jackson introduces characters whose names are very symbolic to the story. The ultimately foreshadow the climax of the story. There is Mr. Summers who conducts the lottery. His name is significant because the lottery takes place on a warm summer day. There is also Mr. Graves who is the postmaster. He helps Mr. Summers prepare the names for the lottery and helps him conduct the lottery. His name is significant because it foreshadows that there will be a grave because at the end of the lottery some one will die. Mr. Graves is also one of the first people in front of the crowd ready to throw stones. He is ultimately sending her to her grave. This hints that there will be a death during the summer, which is the end result of the lottery drawing.
Symbolism is used heavily in “The Lottery”. One of the first symbols revealed in the short story is the Black Box, used by the townspeople as the raffle box. “The black box now resting on the stool had been put into use even before Old Man Warner . . .was born. Mr. Summers spoke frequently to the villagers about making a new box, but no one liked to upset even as much tradition as was represented by the black box” (Jackson). The Black Box stands as a symbol for the lottery itself and tradition of all types. Although it may be difficult to “upset” or change parts of traditions that have been practiced for ages, it is necessary to do so to grow as people. “Another symbol in the story is the black box. Although it is old and shabby, the villagers are unwilling or unable to replace it, just as they are unwilling to stop participating in the lottery” (Wilson). The...
Shirley Jackson was a criticized female writer that wrote about US’s scramble for conformity and finding comfort in the past or old traditions. When Jackson published this specific short story, she got very negative feedback and even death threats. In the fictionial short story, The Lottery, by Shirley Jackson, a drawing takes place during the summer annually in a small town in New England. In this particular work, the lottery has been a tradition for over seventy years and has been celebrated by the townspeople every year. In detail, Richard H. Williams explains in his “A Critique of the Sampling Plan Used in Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery””, he explains the process of how the lottery works. “The sampling plan consists of two
Immediately, the women of “The Lottery” seem to be a friendly group who stick by one another’s sides. However, as the plot uncovers, the reader discovers that each woman would easily choose tradition over friendship. The traits of the women include endorsement of the “dominant culture” (Hattenhauer, 45), value of tradition, and belief in fairness. As the lottery transpires, the women advise Tess to “be a good sport” (Jackson, 140) because they all “took the same chance” (Jackson, 140). This simple encounter provides evidence that the women of “The Lottery” would undoubtedly lose a friendship to preserve the morals of tradition. When Tess finally reveals the paper with the mark on it, Mr. Summers is quick to begin the final step in the Lottery. The women oblige, and are even quicker to grab a stone from the children’s pile. One woman even orders another to “hurry up” (Jackson, 141) before picking up a “stone so large” (Jackson, 141) it required the use of both hands. “The Lottery” ends with the town’s people stoning Tess to death. Among the killers are the women that Tess once called friends.
In stories there will be objects that will constantly be mentioned within the story. This is what is known as Symbolism. Symbolism is the use of object, name, or person to represent an idea. If a name is being use, a name such as autumn can represent the adulthood of a human. Creatures such as an Eagle, represents ‘Freedom’ and ‘America’. Even inanimate objects can represent ideas; the light bulb represents ideas that just sparked into a character’s head.
Black, white, summer, grave: all of these words have something in common. Each word used by an author creates a tone. In “The Lottery,” Shirley Jackson used tone and symbolism to create a representative story that portrayed struggles that occurred near the time of conception of the story. She used symbolistic words to create a more intricate, underlying story than what was publicized. Throughout the story, character names and objects, symbolic actions, and the countless other details supporting the overall theme of conformity and tradition create a fascinating, but gruesome, experience.
Another symbolism is the village itself. Jackson does not just tell a story of this small town, but it is represented for the entered society where people blindly follow tradition. Also, the village represented for the reality of human society. People are selfish, and they are willing to change, to go against the people they know, or even the people they love. It is also reminding the readers that in reality we can’t really trust anyone because they might change before we would
In the story “The Lottery,” Shirley Jackson manages to catch the reader’s attention by the title, but shockingly reveals the true meaning of it with an unexpected ending. Jackson uses symbolism throughout the story to help her find ways to make the reader analyze how suspicious the characters’ are. The readers will observe the symbols of the people who attended the lottery, black box, and stones and how each is used for symbolic purposes.