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+literary essay outline on the theme/conflict of "the lottery
Symbolism in the lottery story
The lottery by shirley jackson theme analysis essay
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"The Lottery" (Jackson, pg 163-170) and "The Hunger Games" (Collins, 2008) are both popular pieces of seemingly like, popular literature. Rituals and rules come into play strongly in both stories. In comparing "The Lottery" (Jackson, pg 163-170) and "The Hunger Games" (Collins, 2008) I find that both stories focus strongly on their annual rituals of sacrifice with a scapegoat. "The Lottery" (Jackson, pg 163-170) and "The Hunger Games" (Collins, 2008) have a ceremony, a formal event that brings the town or district together while having no real significance. Both stories also include similar rules, such as the rule that all people living in the town or district must attend the day that the person is chosen.
A ritual is "always done in a particular situation and in the same way each time." (Merriam-Webster, definition 2). Each year in "The Hunger Games"(Collins, 2008) and "The Lottery"(Jackson, pg 163-170) have an annual ritual in which, through a random draw a person is chosen to be the sacrifice. Although both stories have a similar theme in which there is an annual ritual, both rituals are carried out in very different ways. Comparing how the sacrifice is chosen differs slightly from "The Hunger Games" (Collins, 2008) and "The Lottery" (Jackson, pg 163-170). In "The Hunger Games" (Collins, 2008) the sacrifice, which they call the tribute, is picked from a glass bowl that contains the names of every person between the ages of 12 and 18 that live in the district. An individuals name may also be added extra times in order to gain food for their family. Also with "The Hunger Games" (Collins, 2008) there are two people chosen, one male tribute and one female tribute, rather than just one. In "The Lottery" (Jackson, pg 163-170) the hu...
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...n, chosen at random, will be faced with death. The ceremony is a formal, social event that has no significant meaning in the future time. Rules are very important in in order for the rituals in both stories to be carried out correctly. Similarly, both stories are extremely strict in the rules that are put in place. Every person must attend and acknowledge their fate if they are picked. Both events have a purpose. The purpose being to show power and tradition.
Works Cited
Collins, Suzanne. "“The Rules of the Hunger Games"" Goodreads. N.p., n.d. Web. 01 Dec. 2013.
Collins, Suzanne. The Hunger Games. New York: Scholastic, 2008. Print.
Jackson, Shirley. "The Lottery" Intoduction to Literature. Boston. 2013. Pages 163-170. Print.
"Ritual." Merriam-Webster. Merriam-Webster, n.d. Web. 30 Nov. 2013.
"Scapegoat." Merriam-Webster. Merriam-Webster, n.d. Web. 30 Nov. 2013.
Attention Getter: Shirley Jacksons, The Lottery, without a doubt expresses her thoughts regarding traditional rituals throughout her story. It opens the eyes of us readers to suitably organize and question some of the today's traditions as malicious and it allows foretelling the conclusion of these odd traditions. The Lottery is a short story that records the annual sacrifice ceremony of an unreal small town. It is a comprehensive story of the selection of the person to be sacrificed, a procedure known to the villagers as the lottery. This selection is enormously rich in symbolism.
“The less there is to justify a traditional custom, the harder it is to get rid of it” (Twain). The Lottery begins during the summer. A small, seemingly normal, town is gathering to throw the annual “Lottery”. In the end, the townspeople—children included—gather around and stone the winner to death, simply because it was tradition. The story reveals how traditions can become outdated and ineffective. “I suppose, I hoped, by setting a particularly brutal ancient rite in the present and in my own village to shock the story's readers with a graphic dramatization of the pointless violence and general inhumanity in their own lives” (Jackson). As humans develop as a race, their practices should develop with them. Shirley Jackson develops the theme that blindly following traditions is dangerous in her short story “The Lottery” through the use of symbolism, foreshadowing, and irony.
“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.
In The Lottery, by Shirley Jackson, the people of the village are consumed by a tradition. Every year in the month of June, they conduct a lottery to determine who will be stoned. The unjustified killing of a human being is widely viewed as an iniquitous act. Although surrounding communities have ceased the tradition of the lottery, this society continues the tradition. The idea of not practicing the tradition has been brought up numerous times within the community but “the subject was allowed to fade off ” (351). The community was conscience of the tradition being unethical but because it was a part of their heritage and believed to determine the success of their harvest, no one would do anything about the lottery. Once she is picked from the lottery, Tessie Hutchinson notices that the people are not conducting the lottery fairly and decides to stand up against the tradition. It can be inferred that women were not considered equal to the males of the village. Tessie—a woman— had the courage to stand against the tradition. Tessie understood that not all traditions are good. A tradition can be so engraved into an individual that they forget its purpose. In the story...
Shirley Jacksons short story “The Lottery” is bout traditions and sacrifice. The people of their village followed the tradition even though they had to sacrifice greatly for them. In the story the village people all gathered for a lottery but if you got it someone in your family would die for the tradition but it blessed the crops. Traditions can be good or bad.
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.
When involved with a near death experience humans will use any and all survival instincts, they know in order to prevent their death with all their might. The closer to death someone may come would mean the more they 'll strive to stay alive because ultimately no one wants to die, even if that means killing another person in order to do so. Although many people would deny this claim, I find this to be very true in my opinion because if you 're put into a situation where it’s either you have to die versus someone else dying; you obviously wouldn 't want to be the person who dies. Death is a very scary thing that can happen to a person and although everyone will ultimately meet their demise, it 's even harder to have someone
Everyone has their own way of solving problems; however, ritual is a form of people doing one thing in the same way. It defines as “the prescribed form of conducting a formal secular ceremony.” However if the meaning of ritual is mistaken, the consequence could be unpredictable." The Lottery" by Shirley Jackson gives us a lecture about a tortuous ritual. The story takes place in a small village with 300 citizens, they gather for a yearly lottery which everyone should participate.
Tradition is a central theme in Shirley Jackon's short story The Lottery. Images such as the black box and characters such as Old Man Warner, Mrs. Adams, and Mrs. Hutchinson display to the reader not only the tenacity with which the townspeople cling to the tradition of the lottery, but also the wavering support of it by others. In just a few pages, Jackson manages to examine the sometimes long forgotten purpose of rituals, as well as the inevitable questioning of the necessity for such customs.
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.
Shirley Jackson's “The Lottery” is a short story about the annual gathering of the villagers to conduct an ancient ritual. The ritual ends in the stoning of one of the residents of this small village. This murder functions under the guise of a sacrament that, at one time, served the purpose of ensuring a bountiful harvest. This original meaning, however, is lost over the years and generations of villagers. The loss of meaning has changed the nature and overall purpose of the lottery. This ritual is no longer a humble sacrifice that serves the purpose of securing the harvest but instead is a ceremony of violence and murder only existing for the pleasure found in this violence.
In the stories of “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson and “The Hunger Games” by Suzanne Collins, both authors deliver the dangers of blindly following tradition that can lead to death, fear and no advancement in society. In “The Lottery” their tradition is to kill a person that is randomly chosen by using a lottery. To compare, in “The Hunger Games” children are also picked out of a lottery from each district and if they are chosen, they need to fight against each other to death. Both stories share a tradition of cruel and murderous behavior but they have a slight difference in tradition.
In the story there is always a sacrifice at the end of the ritual. They are all susceptible to the hypothetical crass theory that if they murder the masses will flourish. May discusses how the heart of the story is based on this old concept: “the notion of the scapegoat”(2451). It is not a new theory as it is presented with grandiose to unsuspecting citizens. Jackson also hints at a comparison to the “holocaust” as “the townspeople are unable to fully question or prevent the brutal lottery process”(Moss, Joyce, and Wilson, 236-237). Making this theme hard to swallow and all too soon for some readers. Jackson repeatedly proves her bravery in her writing by touching such untouchable
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
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.