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Narrative essay the lottery summary
Narrative essay the lottery summary
The lottery literary elements setting
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“People never change. They just become more of who they really are.” In the story, “The Lottery” Shirley Jackson shows how selfish people can be and how much they’re attitudes transition due to that. Tess Hutchinson’s attitude at the beginning of the story is very nonchalant. You can tell that she doesn’t care about the lottery because, she shows up late and tells Mrs. Delacroix, “Clean forgot what day it was.” Then, she goes on explaining to Mrs. Delacroix how her children and husband had left already and then she finally realized what day it was. So you can tell from Tess’s attitude that she really doesn’t want to be there because she’s so calm and careless about the whole event. Mrs. Delacroix is Tess’s friend at the beginning
This story made me frustrated at the way people get forced into a rut that they can’t escape. Jackson Jackson isn’t completely innocent, no one is, but most of his problems were a result from the wrong that others had inflicted upon him. The frustrating part was that He was incapable of getting himself out. He did things like spend money on alcohol and cheese burgers, only to end up throwing it all up and even less money. To me, this story is about redemption. Jackson received grace from people like the good cop, and the pawnbroker. None of his own efforts changed his situation, only the kindness of others changed him. These kind deeds helped reconcile the reality of Jackson’ life and his situation. In a story like this, I always hope for a
We can transform our life by altering our thinking process, and the stories by Shirley Jackson and Chris Abani emphasize on changing the thought. Shirley Jackson’s story, “The Lottery”, conveys a great ironic tradition of a certain American community at some time in history, probably not that old. Similarly, “The Lottery” by Chris Abani also explores a similar tragic story about a loss of a life, and presents the life and survival as a lottery, which is never certain. In these regards, both these stories express a common theme of a traditional belief and a tragic end of a life but in a very contrasting fashion and settings.
The town's citizens are eager, gathering in the town square in order to take part in the yearly lottery. With the story focused around one particular family, the Hutchinsons, who are so anxious to get it all over with until they find that one of their members is to participate in the lottery's closing festivities, Tessie. Of course, unlike your typical lotteries, this is not one that you would want to win. The one chosen from the lottery is to undertake a cruel and unusual death by stoning at the hands of their fellow townsmen for the sake that it may bring a fruitful crop for the coming harvest season. Ironically, many of the towns people have suggested that the lottery be put to an end, but most find the idea unheard of being that they have lived in it's practice for most of their lives.
Every evening this old lady used to come to the lottery joint holding a white paper-bag. She bought only one ticket of seven p.m., the last draw of the day; always the same number. I learned from the other girl that she had been coming every day for years. One day I had a peep on her bag and it was full of papers – white paper with black printed numbers – collection of years. As the months passed by we became close to each other.
Human sacrifice is a practice that has been going on since the beginning of time. Different cultures have done it for various reasons, such as worship or the desire for fortune, and whether morality was considered in these practices is something we may never know. In the story The Lottery, written in 1948 by Shirley Jackson, people in a village sacrifice one person at random each year because they believe that it helps them with their crops. One does not know that the lottery is held for such sinister purposes until the very end because Jackson makes the lottery appear normal and happy. Shirley Jackson uses tone and foreshadowing to argue that all people, regardless of how civilized they seem, are capable of great evil.
In the controversial short story ‘The Lottery’, author Shirley Jackson’s central theme suggests that evil is inherent within human nature. The townspeople, who initially are depicted as pleasant and ordinary citizens, gather together annually to participate in an outdated fertility ritual, by choosing someone at random to be sacrificed. However, the real horror of the story is not simply in the murder of an innocent citizen —but within the cold and atavistic nature of the townspeople, who adhere to violent social conditioning without reason. Literary critic, A.R Coulthard supports this idea by writing, “It is not the ancient custom of human sacrifice
While everyone else seems to be anxious about the day, Tessie seems rather enthusiastic. Tessie even exclaims that she “remembered it was the twenty-seventh and came a-running '” (Jackson 373). She seems to see the lottery as “one great lark” and urges her husband to go pick a paper when his name is called (Yarmove 1). For a moment, one can assume that the nervousness in the story is just because everyone wants to win due to Tessie’s excitement, as she seems to be a main character, and is so enthusiastic about the day while to others, you can see that this is not something that they really wanted to take place in in the first place. There are a few members of the town who seem to want nothing to do with the lottery; one of those being Janey, whose husband is unable to participate due to a broken leg (Jackson 373). Once the event is over, though, one can come to the conclusion that she has recently lost a son to the lottery. As Nebeker notes, Mr. Summer’s asked if she had a grown son to draw for her, even though everyone knew that she didn’t, which could imply that she did at one time have a son who would have been able to draw for her, but he was last year’s victim (4); Nebeker notes that this also explains the “unusual encouragement” Janey receives (4). This theory could lead one to believe that Mr. Dunbar’s broken leg may have been an intentional way of avoiding the
Shirley Jackson describes the characters in “The Lottery” in a way that readers can relate to each of them in some way, yet she makes one character stand out from the start of the story. Mrs. Tessie Hutchinson arrives late, having “clean forgot what day it was” (411). While the town does not make a fuss over Tessie’s tardiness, several people make remarks, “in voices loud enough to be heard across the crowd” (411). Jackson makes the choice to have Tessie stand out from the crowd initially. This choice first shows Tessie’s motivation. Tessie was so
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.
Change. The first step of evolution in a society. Without change, history is bound to repeat itself. But (however?) with it we can grow to view things with a new perspective. One might wonder why humans are not more accepting of change. The answer is the fear of the unknown. In literature there are many symbols that represent how fear of change negatively impacts a society and its people. Shirley Jackson’s short story The Lottery introduces us to such a society. Every year on June 27th the lottery is held. The villagers come together, in the town square, to select one individual as the winner of the lottery. Unbeknownst to the reader, until the end of the short story, the prize the winner receives is death by stoning. The time has come again
Winning vast amounts of money can make anyone slaphappy, but unfortunately this type of wager won’t be discussed in Shirley Jacksons “The Lottery.” Jackson catches the reader’s attention by describing a typical day by using words such as “blossoming, clear and sunny skies” to attract the reader into believing a calm and hopeful setting which eventually turns dark. In this short story Jackson tells a tale of a sinister and malevolent town in America that conforms to the treacherous acts of murder in order to keep their annual harvest tradition alive. Jackson exposes the monstrosity of people within this society in this chilling tale. She allows the reader’s to ponder and lead them to believe that the lottery is actually a good thing; till she implements foreshadowing, to hint at the dreadfulness behind the lottery and its meaning. My goal in this paper is to discuss why Jackson’s “The Lottery” is a portrayed as a horror story, and the importance the townspeople used to glorify ritualistic killings, to appease to an unseeable force in return of good harvest for the upcoming year.
"The Lottery" by Shirley Jackson, is far from boring. It starts off at what seems to be a nice, sunny, summer day and families are in the time square. First we see that children are playing picking up stones and collecting them, putting them in piles. Then we see the men looking about and talking among themselves and women coming along to stand with husbands. By this time, one would think that the lottery is a great thing, it was being conducted by Mr. Summers who was in charge of many activities in the village. With Mr. Summers has a black box and Mr. Graves who has a three-legged stool. Soon all head of households had selected a piece of paper and all of the villagers seemed anxious, waiting to see who had won. The Hutchinson had drawn that
In "The Lottery," by Shirley Jackson, there are a series of traditions the story revolves around. The characters in the story don't seem to follow their traditions anymore. The story begins by explaining how the lottery works. The lottery takes place in many other towns. In this town it takes place on June 27 of every year. Everyone within town would gather at the town square, no matter what age. The black box is brought out and each head of the household pulls a small paper out of it. Only one of the papers will not be blank, it will have a black-penciled spot that is put on by the owner of the coal company. The black spot will send someone, from the family who chose it, to death. This is decided by a draw. The family member who pulls out the spotted paper will be stoned to death. After a long period of time, people forget the traditions by slowly disregarding as the years pass.
There are some people who will never believe anything from what they think to be true. In the short story, “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson, the small town of villagers have a day each year where they sacrifice one human amongst them, just because they have never imagined a time in their culture when they did not do such a thing. This impairs each characters’ judgment so that concepts that would normally be taken for wrong are somehow taken for right. It affects the town’s ability to grow because they cannot accept new ideas within their community. Therefore, “The Lottery” is an example of what happens when society can only distinguish two classes, specifically the working class and the wealthy leader class, which in this case would be an example
In Shirley Jackson's, "The Lottery", human morals and values are thrown away all for the pride of winning something. What is it that they really win? When you win the lottery in this story, you actually win death by stoning. Isn't that ironic, people actually being competitive and getting excited about death in public. What morals or values do these people really have, and how are they different from what common society is thought today?