Shirley Jackson's The Lottery Essays

Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery" Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery" is an excellent example of an allegorical short story. In this story, the reader learns of a town's "lottery" that takes place once a year, every year. It has been a tradition in this small rural town for many years and the villagers never question these activities, they just blindly go along with it. But what the reader doesn't know is just what kind of prize the winner is going to obtain. Jackson's use of symbolism is shown through

“The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson has been criticized, but its longevity and durability prove it stands the test of time. In the article, “Jackson’s The Lottery,” the author A.R. Coulthard finds a deeper meaning in the story which other critics have not. Coulthard believes the story is a “parable of the evil inherent in human nature” rather than “an assault on mindless cultural conformity,” as other critics have suggested (Coulthard 226). Coulthard shows how something that most likely began as a primitive

Lotteries are the picture of money for most people. Lotteries are often viewed as a great thing, winning the lottery means winning cash, but in reality a lottery is just a raffle. It is a process ruled by chance. Winning the lottery could be from the best reward to the cruelest one ever. In 1948, Shirley Jackson wrote the short story “The Lottery” to show there is pointless violence and brutality in humans’ lives and how society accepts it. She used the story to show how people will join senseless

blindly follow a tradition it is bad. In Shirley Jackson’s The Lottery, the townspeople follow the tradition of having the lottery, without really knowing why. The Lottery conveys the theme that, following traditions can be beneficial, but when people follow traditions because they are afraid of change it can be harmful, through imagery, dialogue, symbolism, and irony. Jackson uses imagery a lot to convey her theme in The Lottery. While conducting the lottery Mr. Summers uses a black box to put all

Title: Unraveling the Dark Threads: The Destructive Power of Tradition in Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery" Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery" is a chilling exploration of the dark underbelly of tradition and the human propensity for blind adherence to societal norms. Published in 1948, the story shocked readers with its depiction of a small town's annual ritual of stoning one of its own to death. Through meticulous examination of the text, supported by both textual evidence and secondary sources, this

Shirley Jackson is said to be one of the most “brilliant and influential authors of the twentieth century.” “Her fiction writing is some of the most important to come out of the American literary canon.” (http://shirleyjackson.org/Reviews.html) Jackson wrote many short stories and even some books. They are more on the dark, witchlike side, however. Kelleher explains that Jackson stated in some interviews that she practiced magic. No one really knows if she was serious while practicing witchcraft

"The Lottery" is a short story written by Shirley Jackson, first published in 1948. It revolves around a small village that holds an annual ritualistic lottery. The story starts innocently enough, with villagers gathering in the town square on a sunny summer day. However, as the lottery proceeds, the true nature of the event is revealed: the "winner" of the lottery is stoned to death by the other villagers. The seemingly ordinary setting and characters gradually reveal a chilling and disturbing reality

The Lottery, a short story written by Shirley Jackson, presents the idea that traditions develop a powerful culture and that a rational mind cannot bring others to reason. Tradition plays a major role throughout the text where a village comes together for an annual event whereby a citizen is sacrificed, thus emphasizing the power of tradition within their society. The notion that some traditions can have flaws is presented throughout the narrative, including the fact that fear of removing a tradition

Shirley Jackson’s The Lottery is an effective and unsuspecting horror story told through her elaborate set up with the environment and characters that build up to create a shocking ending. The setting of a small village and its people on a regular summer day leads me to believe that there is nothing to be weary of. This impression follows throughout the story, which makes the ending come much more of a surprise and it isn’t at all what I had anticipated it to be. Jackson creates an unexpected

Shirley Jackson's 'The Lottery' The setting in a story helps to form the story and it makes the characters become more interesting. There are three main types of setting. The first is nature and the outdoors, second is objects of human manufacture and construction and the third is cultural conditions and assumptions. These three things help the reader to understand the characters better in Shirley Jackson's 'The Lottery';. 'The Lottery'; is started out by being described as 'The morning of

at anytime and the most ordinary people can commit them. Jackson's fiction is noted for exploring incongruities in everyday life, and “The Lottery”, perhaps her most exemplary work in this respect, examines humanity's capacity for evil within a contemporary, familiar, American setting. Noting that the story’s characters, physical environment, and even its climactic action lacks significant individuating detail, most critics view “The Lottery.” As a modern-day parable or fable, which obliquely addresses

it seems in Shirley Jackson’s short story “The Lottery”. Within the story there are many reoccurring themes, ranging from the townspeople inability to establish bonds to the Jackson’s displaying how easily humans will engage in behavior that is otherwise frowned upon once given an excuse. The most prominent of these themes is the loyalty the townspeople hold towards various items and rituals in their lives. The townspeople hold the utmost loyalty towards their tradition of the lottery. The second

“The Lottery” is not about the role of women in a postwar society, but Shirley Jackson’s anxiety and paranoia of a hivemind mindset. “The Lottery” is about a mandatory and outdated tradition that a small village celebrates, a tradition known as the lottery. The villagers pull out one piece of paper from a black box every June 2nd. If the paper is blank the villager is safe, but if a villager pulls out a paper with a black spot, they will be stoned to death. At the end, a female character named Tessie

common for people to do things that seem not normal, or just very different to us if we have never experienced it hands on. In Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery,” she writes about a small town and a certain tradition that goes on once a year, and it is very unusual. In the story, the townspeople, which consists of around 300 people, get together for the tradition called the lottery. This includes drawings of names of family members from a box for a ritual of throwing rocks at the people who have been selected

“The Lottery” depicts an eternal tradition, practiced by villagers, of selecting one member of a family to be murdered. In Shirley Jackson’s riveting short story “The Lottery”, Jackson creates a community that’s rich in tradition, yet lacks historical evidence, making the village’s annual lottery an event to attend. Over the course of the short story, the narrator hints at the apparent discourse of camaraderie for the lottery and as a result the tradition became purposeless. In “The Lottery” by Shirley

Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery", is a story that is very colorful with symbolism and underlying themes. Centrally, there is a heavy emphasis on following blind traditions no matter what the consequences are, and Utopia and perfect society seem to be the goal of the community where the story is set. Harold Bloom argues that Jackson Hit a universal nerve and suggests that the shock effect achieved by Jason "depends upon tapping into the universal fear of arbitrary condemnation and of sanctioned violence

Kynel D. Collier Professor Harrington English 110 23 April 2024 “The Lottery” Final Assignment “The Lottery” is a short story written by Shirley Jackson in 1948 and was later adapted into film in 1996 directed by Daniel Sackheim. Jackson was born in San Francisco on December 14, 1916, and grew to spend her time writing poetry and short stories as a young teenager. At the age of 17, Jackson and her family moved east, where she would attend the University of Rochester (Allen). Jackson would go on to

When lotteries come around, people think of good things that happen to them. People believe that winning a lottery can mean hitting the big bucks, winning a car, or even just living a happy life as long as they live. According to Merriam-Webster’s online dictionary, the true definition of a lottery is, “a system used to decide who will get or be given something by choosing names or numbers by chance.” In the case of literary icon, Shirley Jackson’s this system was anything but lucky. “The Lottery”

Foreshadowing in Shirley Jackson's The Lottery "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

Shirley Jackson’s famous short story, “The Lottery,” was published in 1948 and remains to this day one of the most enduring and affecting American works in the literary canon. “The Lottery” tells the story of a farming community that holds a ritualistic lottery among its citizens each year. Although the text initially presents audiences with a close-knit community participating in a social event together on a special day, the shocking twist at the work’s end—with the death of the lottery’s “winner”