Examples Of Social Issues In The Lottery By Shirley Jackson

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Essay- The Social Issues in Literature

In 1948 The New Yorker published a short story that has been called “one of the most famous short stories in the history of American literature”. Written by Shirley Jackson and called “The Lottery” it tells about a small community and an annual ritual that was originally performed to grant a good harvest. According to tradition, each member of the community gets a lottery ticket; one of these has a black dot meaning that the person who draws it is stoned to death by the others.
Shirley Jackson's controversial story has been regarded as a parable of our modern society with its tendency to conformity and inability to question authority. According to her this may eventually lead to the cruel actions like …show more content…

The author makes this point indirectly, she is only the objective narrator and leaves it to her reader to draw the conclusions. This makes the story even more powerful. “The Lottery” is very relevant to our society today, in the way that we tend to gather quickly towards other people’s misery, such as participating in gossip, watching a car accident scene or a fight. However, as long as it does not happen to us. It is without a doubt hypocritical, but it is something that humans do all the time. And it is something that is pointed out in Jackson’s “The Lottery”.
When one of the characters, Bill Hutchinson opens his wife's slip of paper which reveals the black mark, Mr. Summers, the man in charge, comments: “All right, folks... Let's finish quickly." Although the villagers had forgotten the ritual and its original meaning, they still remembered to use stones as part of the performance and Bill’s wife Tessie is eventually stoned to death. (Jackson, Shirley. The Lottery: And Other Stories. New York: Farrar, Straus, Giroux, 1982. …show more content…

As Tessie says, “You didn’t give him time enough to take any paper he wanted. I saw you. It wasn’t fair!” (. (Jackson, Shirley. The Lottery: And Other Stories. New York: Farrar, Straus, Giroux, 1982. Print.)Due to the fact that Tessie is not in a power position, causes the denial of her wish to draw again. The conclusion that can be made from that is, because Tessie lacks higher authority, she gets to be stoned to death without a say so. Without interference from anyone. As Shirley Jackson admonishes us in a very discrete way to become more watchful, both in our own interactions in everyday life and to the people we have elected as our representatives. It is an often repeated and sad fact that power

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