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Analysis of the lottery by Shirley Jackson
Shirley jackson the lottery conclusion
Analysis of the lottery by Shirley Jackson
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The author of “The Lottery” wrote this story “to shock the story’s readers with a graphic demonstration of the pointless violence and general inhumanity in their own lives” (Jackson 211). This story reflects human behavior in society to show how although rules, laws or traditions do not make sense, people follow them. Throughout the story the three main symbols of how people blindly follow senseless traditions were the lottery itself, the color black, and the hesitation that people had towards the prize. The lottery in the story was the game in which the prize was death. In reality this lottery symbolized the game of life, and how our behavior as human beings influences our choices in life and therefore our destiny. In this case the lottery signified winning eternal peace. This symbol helped the author develop the meaning of the story, because it is all based on the game of winning or losing. The way people from the village conducted the lottery was kind of scary, because they organized it as if it was another important event, such as the “square dances, the teenage club, the Halloween program” (Jackson 212). This shows how this tradition was taken as seriously as other occurrences that took place in the village. A person with some logic would not find this to be exactly a “game”, but the population followed the tradition and did not even think about the possibility to drop it, because then they would not know what to do, or what other event would they organize for June 27th. During the lottery Mr. Adams said “some places have already quit the lotteries” as of insinuating that if the neighbor towns forgot about the tradition, they should not have to keep following it (215). The bad thing is that no one paid attention to hi... ... middle of paper ... ...ited States,) we do have other rules, or laws, which instead of help people, it kills them little by little and some people decide to take justice in their hands. For example in some foreign countries the laws allow government to punish criminals by publically humiliating them and allowing other people to hurt them. In some foreign cultures the punishment for infidelity is to be publically humiliated by been beating up by some of the leaders of their community. If we go back to “The Lottery” it was the same thing as other countries keep on doing it today. The kind of humiliation and the whole game of the story represented in a way the reality that we have in our society. Works Cited Jackson, Shirley. “The Lottery”. Literature an Introduction to Fiction, Poetry and Drama. 4th Compact ed. Ed. X.J. Kennedy and Dana Gioia. New York: Longman, 2005. 211-218.
“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.
In “The Lottery”, written by Shirley Jackson in 1948, tone and symbolism are equally important elements in comprehending this eerie short story. This dark tale takes place in a small town of about 300 people during the summer. The writer begins by painting a picture of children playing, women gossiping, and men making small-talk of home and finances, putting the reader at ease with a tone of normality. The people of the town coalesce before the lottery conductor, named Mr. Summers, appears to begin the annual town ritual of drawing from a box which will result in the killing of one townsperson by stone throwing. It isn’t until the fateful conclusion when the reader comes to realize there is nothing normal about the
The story leads to a horrific ending, with people forgetting the concept of ritual. When people think of a lottery, they draw an image with a big amount of money in their head. However, in the story “The Lottery”, the price is death. It starts in the morning of a bright, peaceful day, people are gathering in the square, children picking stones and piles them; also the black box used for drawing, “the original paraphernalia for the lottery had been put into use even before Old Man Warner, the oldest man in town, was born.” (Jackson 205).
In conclusion, the use of symbolism, irony and setting in the Lottery is very evident, the author indirectly implicates the true darkness within the human heart. The Lottery remains relevant in society today because the overall vagueness of the city allows this story to be true to all people around the world. The short story shows us that humans are evil enough to follow traditions blindly, even if they cause pain and death in loved ones we know. Jackson also centers a lot of symbols and irony on religion and how they affect our culture and decisions. In this the reader can learn that sometimes it’s better for a person to follow his moral compass, and not just blindly follow his evil heart, and the evilness of others.
The Lottery was a ritual that happened on June 27th of each year. Everyone would gather in the middle of the town and from there each head of the household would draw a piece of paper from a black box. As the story proceeds you can see that people were getting impatient and making remarks like "I wish they'd hurry (The Lottery, pg. 4)." Other people were making comments like "Some places have already quit lotteries (The Lottery, pg. 4)."
The theme in “The Lottery” is violence and cruelty. Violence and cruelty is a major theme because there is a lot of violence and cruelty in the world. The Lottery has been read as addressing such issues as the public's fascination with salacious and scandalizing journalism, McCarthyism, and the complicity of the general public in the victimization of minority groups, epitomized by the Holocaust of World War II. The Holocaust was very cruel and violent cause other people didn’t like certain people so they just kill them and their children and still now we have violence and cruelty with wars and people that hate each other.
Jackson, Shirley. “The Lottery.” Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, Drama, and Writing. Ed. X. J. Kennedy and Dana Gioia. 12th ed. New York: Pearson, 2013. 262-268. Print.
Over 46.3 Million People in the United States (15.4 percent of the US population) did not have health insurance in 2008 (DeNavas-Walt, Proctor, & Smith, 2009). Consequently, many Americans receive little or no health care. Many, but not all of these people are women and children. Some are destitute, some are not. Many of these people are hard working Americans who cannot afford coverage, yet earn too much money to qualify for their state Medicaid plans, but should have access to health care. In 2008, health care expenditures surpassed $2.3 trillion, more than three times the $714 billion spent in 1990, and over eight times the $253 billion spent in 1980 (Kimbuende, Ranji, Lundy, & Salganicoff, 2010, para. 1). In 2007, 62.1 Percent of all US bankruptcies were related to medical expenses. Ironically, 78 percent of the medical bankruptcies were filed by people who had health insurance (Himmelstein, Thorne, Warren, & Woolhandler, 2009). Due to the rising costs of healthcare and increased numbers of the uninsured most Americans support the need for healthcare reform; however the reform that is proposed by the government is unfair, too expensive and inadequate to meet the needs of our population.
The U.S. expends far more on healthcare than any other country in the world, yet we get fewer benefits, less than ideal health outcomes, and a lot of dissatisfaction manifested by unequal access, the significant numbers of uninsured and underinsured Americans, uneven quality, and unconstrained wastes. The financing of healthcare is also complicated, as there is no single payer system and payment schemes vary across payors and providers.
The health care system in the United States encompasses so many individuals, businesses, and interest groups. Also, it can be difficult to pinpoint the most optimal approach to serve everyone’s unique needs and wants. This has led to a major health-care crisis in the society. As a matter of fact, the effect of the health-care crisis in the American society has been a longtime situation, and an effective policy response must focus on what is most enriching in the society: aiming to improve the overall quality of the system and positively impact the health status of all citizens, while subsequently minimizing costs.
Socrates also believes that the difference between being and becoming can have a moral aspect to it. Lets say one thinks that they have fallen in love with the girl or boy of their dreams. One believes that the love they share is true, which would be a being, but later becomes aware that the other boy or girl doesn’t like him or her, that is know considered a becoming. One believed that it was true love because it appeared real, that appearance would fall under the world of becoming. The main difference between what’s being and becoming is the aspect of actually knowing if that thing is real rather then sensing its legitimacy.
Jackson, Shirley. “The Lottery.” Literature: An Introduction to Reading and Writing. Ed. Edgar V. Roberts and Robert Zweig. 5th Compact ed. New York: Pearson Longman, 2012. 136-41. Print.
...our weeks ago it was down to 5%. It is now currently 5.24%, which is a big jump for only four weeks. Mortgages are through banks, so that is money they are losing since it is so low right now. Credit card interest rates need to drop so mortgages can get back to where they were. It is more expensive for the people, but it would compensate for credit cards.
McLeod, J. and McLeod, J. (2011) Counselling skills: A practical guide for counsellors and helping professionals, 2nd editions, New York: McGraw Hill
In "The Lottery" Shirley Jackson fills her story with many literary elements to mask the evil. The story demonstrates how it is in human nature to blindly follow traditions. Even if the people have no idea why they follow.