A lottery is defined by the US Code (U.S. Code, Title 12, Chapter 2, Subchapter I, § 25a) as “any arrangements” between at least three agents, who, decide to aggregate money to distribute it later one of the winners of the lottery. The US code listed various mean to designate winners. For this post, solely lottery based on random selection are analyzed. This should normally exclude inequality based on physical or intellectual capabilities. Based on Lindsay lottery delimitation, the lottery could, therefore, be translated as a legal and institutionalized gambling owned by sovereign states. Before demonstrating that lottery is an example of the utilitarian monster, this term should be defined. Utilitarian monster is defined by Brusseau (2012, p.118) as a person able to experience extremely excessive sensations of enjoyment. Therefore, the joy of this individual weight heavier than the whole’s. The lottery is designed in a way that plenty of individuals bet trivial amounts of money. However, the winner of this gambling gathers an astronomical monetary reward. …show more content…
Indeed, earning millions of dollars is highly expected to immediately increase the winners’ bliss. On a longer term, whatever the winners plan to do with this money (donations, saving, spending or investing it) will increase his utility. The counterpart for the society has been a few dollars lost by individuals. However, society could argue about the reason for the existence of lotteries. Brusseau (2012, p.113) explained that monetarized utilitarianism consists in translating positive or negative feelings into monetary assessments. This should be done within the framework of utilitarian ethics, which favors “the greatest good to the greatest number” in a society (Brusseau, 2012,
In the story, The Lottery, there are many signs of duality of human nature. Many of the characters appear to be affected by the lottery at first, but towards the end their feelings start to change. Tessie, Mr.Summers, and Mrs.Delacroix all show two sides of humanity and they all generally appear to be good natured people, but are they really?
“Lottery in June, corn be heavy soon” (142), the well-known quote by Old Man Warner that is familiar to Shirley Jackson’s readers is an expression that has a lot of value in the short story, “The Lottery.” This story’s title does not exactly mean what first comes to ones mind when thinking of the word “lottery”, but as the story slowly unfolds it becomes more clear of what once seemed good natured turns out to be inhumane. We learn that winning the lottery in this story means to actually win death by stoning. A tradition that only makes the protagonist Tessie Hutchinson a loser that is given as a sacrifice for the unnamed and unearthly spirit. This awful wickedness of the ordinary towns people is visible; however, Tessie Hutchinson is the
In her first publication, “Against the Odds, and Against the Common Good”, Gloria Jiménez tries to convince the readers that the lottery business is urging people to gamble. The thesis is apparent in the first paragraph: “Still, when all is said and done about lotteries bringing a bit of excitement into the lives of many people and bringing a vast amount of money into the lives of a few, the states should not be in the business of urging people to gamble” (118). The author successfully presents valid arguments to support her opposition to state-run lotteries throughout the essay; whether the evidence will properly convince most readers the way she wants them to, is questionable. Although the valid arguments and evidence Jiménez provides is adequate for the essay, I believe only one argument really stands out to convince her readers the purpose of the essay.
The following two paragraphs are a summary of Gloria Jimenez's essay Against the Odds and Against the Common Good. States should neither allow nor encourage state-run lotteries. There are five major arguments that people use to defend lotteries. One is that most lotteries are run honestly, but if gambling is harmful to society it is irrelevant to argue if they are honest or not. The second is that lotteries create jobs, but there are only a small handful of jobs that would be eliminated if lotteries were put out of business. Another argument that would support keeping lotteries is that, other than gambling addicts, people freely choose to buy lottery tickets. This is true, however, there are misleading advertisements that may cause people to buy tickets under false pretenses.
Typically, when someone thinks of a lottery they think of something positive and exciting but contrary to this idea in Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery”, the connotation has an entirely different meaning. As the story begins, readers lean towards the belief that the town in which Jackson depicts is filled with happiness and joy. “The morning of June 27th was clear and sunny, with the fresh warmth of a full summer day; the flowers were blossoming profusely and the grass was richly green” (Jackson 247) We soon realize that this notion is far from the truth. As the townspeople gather in the square for the annual lottery, which sole purpose is to stone someone to death by randomly pulling a paper out of a black box with a black dot on it, it is learned
Did you know that Merle and Patricia Butler from Red Bud, Illinois and three teachers from Baltimore Maryland won the biggest lottery in American history at $656 million dollars? That means every person acquired $218.6 million dollars each from the lottery (Carlyle). Unfortunately, the citizens of Shirley Jacksons’ fantasy short story “The Lottery” were not imbursed with money, but were stoned to death by their peers. “The Lottery” is a lottery of death in which the town uses to keep the population down (Voth). The story consist of many subjects to analyze which include: irony, imagery, and pathos.
U T I L I T A R I A N I S M. (n.d.). Retrieved May 19, 2014, from http://www.csus.edu/indiv/g/gaskilld/ethics/Utilitarianism: http://www.csus.edu/indiv/g/gaskilld/ethics/Utilitarianism%20notes.htm
In the year 2012- 2013, though several 3.1 public high school students or 81 percent, graduated on time (Public High School Graduation Rates), how many students in that number truly gain the full education. Nowadays, education is necessary, which becomes a controversial issue between parents and the school. Either Charter or Public school encourages the development or improvement of the educational system to our young, beloved children. There are further charters out there which children can stay home, however, still learn enormous things. “Lottery” documentary film is about the controversy between public and charter schools, which tells the stories of four families who tried to find a better educational
Utilitarianism provides a method for calculating the moral worth of specific actions in terms of their consequences. Utilitarianism teaches that happiness comprises the fundamental purpose and pursuit of human life. Therefore, the value and worth of any given action should be evaluated in terms of its ability to produce happiness. The utilitarian defines happiness as pleasure and the absence of pain, and teaches that in all cases individuals should act in such a way as to achieve the greatest amount of happiness for the greatest amount of people. Utilitarianism...
Shirley Jackson wrote many books in her life, but she was well known by people for her story “The Lottery” (Hicks). “The Lottery” was published on June 28, 1948, in the New Yorker magazine (Schilb). The story sets in the morning of June 27th in a small town. The townspeople gather in the square to conduct their annual tradition, the Lottery. The winner of the lottery will stoned to death by the society. Although there is no main character in the story, the story develops within other important elements. There are some important elements of the story that develop the theme of the story: narrator and its point of view, symbolism, and main conflict. The story “The Lottery,” by Shirley Jackson, argues practicing a tradition without understanding the meaning of the practice is meaningless and dangerous.
We see a very disturbing ending in the Shirley Jackson’s, The Lottery where the reader believes that the lottery in mention is solely a monetary game of chance, like in our lives presently. However,
The 'Standard' of the 'Stand Justice and the Lottery. Political Studies, 32(2), 190-202. Kurlander, E. (2012).
“The Lottery” is a story which shows the complexity and capability of human behavior. Something immoral, like stoning a person to death once a year, is a normal occurrence. The main character, Tessie Hutchinson, is the victim of the lottery. Tessie is a character with a number of seemingly good characteristics, yet her surrounding culture rejects these characteristics. The majority of the people in the village has opposite attitudes and beliefs in comparison to Tessie’s. These attitudes and beliefs reflect her personal desires which quickly struggle against the culture’s expectations. Tessie is unlike the other villagers; she is initially indifferent to the lottery indicating her desires are unrelated to the lottery. Upon winning the lottery, Tessie changes and her personal desires to survive and reject the lottery emerge in her selfishness and outspoken personality. These struggles against the village’s expectations are shown through the culture’s emphasis on tradition and small town ties.
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.
It couldn't be all about the money, unless the general public was extremely stupid. The odds of winning the lottery are lesser than the odds of someone being struck by lightning (1 in 649,739) or than someone being killed by a terrorist attack abroad (1 in 650,000). (7). It has been said, "If you bought 100 tickets a week your entire adult life, from the age of 18 to 75, you'd have a 1 percent chance of winning the lottery". (7) Now, a number of psychological studies have been done which indicate that the desire to play the lottery has more to do with the inability or unconcern of a person to calculate the total sum of their own money over time spent of th...