The Lottery Rhetorical Analysis

562 Words2 Pages

If you live in fear, you won’t have the courage to stand up for what you believe is right. Citizens of a small village gather in the town square every year for the lottery. The lottery is where someone gets chosen by random to get stoned to death. “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson wanted us to think about our actions and how if we do something, it could affect someone else’s life tremendously. Since this is so, Shirley Jackson put some reasons to why people should stand up to what they believe is right.
When everyone got to the town square to where the lottery was to be held, people were a little nervous, but were still going on with their conversations. “The villagers kept their distance, leaving a space between themselves and the stool and when Mr. Summers said, ‘Some of you fellows want to give me a hand?’ there was hesitation…” (pg. 1) The people around were filled with anxiety because of the black box. When Shirley Jackson said that there was hesitation, people were skeptical on whether they should stand and help Mr. Summers out. Everyone in the town had fear, so they were all hesitant, which makes them gullible to getting chosen in the lottery. When everyone …show more content…

The head of the household went up and they were very nervous until they opened the slips of paper. “After that, there was a long pause, a breathless pause, until Mr. Summers, holding his slip of paper in the air, said, ‘All right fellows.’ For a minute, no one moved, and then all of the slips of paper were opened.” (pg. 4) The farther they got into the lottery, the more people felt apprehension. Before, they were talking about other towns getting rid of the lottery, but now, since no one did anything about it, someone will flip their slip of paper and find the black dot on it. When they do get it, they will become deceased. After everyone found out who had the slip with the dot on it, that didn’t mean that their dismay would be

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