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Analysis of shirley jackson's the lottery
Analysis essay on shirley jacksons the lottery
Symbolism within the lottery by Shirley Jackson
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The Lottery, by Shirley Jackson was written in 1948. The Lottery is about a village that has their annual Lottery every year. The purpose of The Lottery is to ensure enough rain to have a good corn crop the following June. They believe that if they do not do this, then they will begin to have hard times. The towns Old Man Warner sums this up "Pack of crazy fools, listening to young folks, northing's good enough for them. Next thing you know, they'll want to go back to living in caves, nobody work anymore, live that way for awhile. Used to be a saying about 'Lottery in June, corn be heavy soon.' First thing you know, we'd all be eating stewed chickweed and acorns. There's always been a lottery." This is made for use to believe that they are not for change in their town. …show more content…
The lottery is basically a game of chance. The slips of paper that use to be wood chips are now in a box that are mixed randomly and one of the slips has a black dot. Whoever gets the black dot will then have to die. Mr. Summers has a black box with everyone’s family on pieces of paper. He calls up the men of each family to draw a piece of paper. After everyone draws it turns out that the Hutchinson family picked the marked piece of paper. So they put more pieces of paper in the box and then everyone in the Hutchinson family picks a piece of paper out of the box. This time Tess Hutchinson picked the paper with the black dot. She began complaining about it talking about “It’s not fair you did not give him enough time to pick the one he wanted” and over and over she kept yelling “it’s not fair” Until they began stoning her to death to bring good fortune to the
The lottery is a ritual that has been around for years and years and it has developed into a way of life for the people of the town. When June comes rolling along everyone is anticipating the lottery. Kids fill their pockets full of rocks and plans are discussed about making a new box. They can not wait to attend and finally get it over with. This drawing seems to transform the people. Tension builds before the lottery occurs, but the townspeople are still able to joke with one another. Tension increases in the story when the author, Shirley Jackson, implies to the reader that Mr. Hutchinson has drawn the marked paper. We assume he does because he walks up on to the stage with his family and they are then made to draw again from the worn out black box. Mr. Hutchinson reaches his hand in and grabs out a piece with his children and his wife following in succession. The one that holds the winning ticket is Mrs. Hutchinson.
Bill Hutchinson received the winning ticket and Tessie protest against the lottery. Then everyone in her family redraws and it is Tessie who drew the paper with the black dot on it. Then villagers grab stones, and point them at Tessie. Finally, Tessie says it’s not fair and is hit in the head with a stone. 2.
As soon as all the families had drawn, no one moved. Everyone just stood still waiting to see who got picked to be in the final drawing. "Then the voices began to say, `It's Hutchinson. It's Bill,' `Bill Hutchinson got it (The Lottery, pg. 5)." From a readers point of view this would be the greatest thing that could have ever happened to them, but not in this case. Moving forward in the story, Mrs. Hutchinson is found yelling, "It wasn't fair!" and "You didn't give him time to choose any paper he wanted (The Lottery, pg. 5)." People in the crowd were telling her to "be a good sport. All of us took the same chance (The Lottery, pg. 5)." Mrs. Hutchinson did not like the responses at all. She even demanded that her married daughter draw in the final round with them. This was only to lessen her chances of getting picked in the end.
“The Lottery” was written by Shirley Jackson in the year 1948. The story takes place in a village on June 27th, and it is a beautiful, sunny summer day. Around ten o’clock in the morning, the villagers start to go and meet near the town square. All of the boys start to gather stones and fill up their pockets completely, while the girls keep to themselves. The men speak to each other about things like farming, and the weather. Mr. Summers is the man who is in charge of all of the events in the village. He arrives at the town square, carrying a black wooden box. The same black box has been used every single year, and although it is very old and somewhat shabby, no one in the village wants it to be replaced because it represents their annual tradition. Just as the lottery is about to begin, Mrs. Hutchinson, a woman in the village, runs into the town square, noting that she was late because she forgot about the lottery until she realized her children were not at home. The lottery then begins. The head of each household is called up and draws a single slip of paper from the black box until everyone has one. When all of the slips of paper are opened, it is learned that Mr. Hutchinson has “it”, and Mrs. Hutchinson immediately begins to protest. Because the Hutchinson family has five members, five new slips of paper and put into the black box. Each member of the family is to draw a slip for themselves. They all open their slips of paper and realize that Mrs. Hutchinson’s has a black dot on it. When the people in the village find out, they all immediately surround her. They pick up the stones that they have been collecting throughout the day and they attack Mrs. Hutchinson until she has been stoned to death. Although many elements of ficti...
Thesis: Shirley Jackson’s usage of irony, characters, and plot portray the stories theme of the dangers of unconsciously following tradition.
By further description of the author, the items involved in the ritual and the villagers’ specific reactions to changing them further downplay the conventional nature of the lottery. Even though the “original paraphernalia for the lottery has been lost long ago” (Jackson 134), the townspeople still use the worn down, old black box for drawing out the slips of paper. The box is older than the oldest man in town, Old Man Warner, but no one dares to discuss the replacement of the black box. Conjuring up a brand new box is discouraged as “no one liked to upset even as much tradition as was represented by the black box” (Jackson 134). Brief lighting is shown on what the box represents which is motivated by the suggestion that the current box contains pieces of the original box used by the founders of the village. The black box is almost a symbol of tradition in a way that “it is based on a story, is passed down from generation to generation, changes very slowly over time, but nevertheless is believed to serve an important function within the community” (Michelson).
While this process is going on, Mr. Adams mentions to Old Man Warner that a close village is thinking about adorning the lottery. Old Man Warner strongly disagrees with that village's idea stating that those townspeople a “pack of young fools”. When all of the heads of households have their piece of paper, they check them. Bill has chosen the special slip, and his family is disadvantaged Tess expresses her displeasure and claims Mrs. Summers did not provide her husband with enough time to select the piece of paper.
In Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery,” the theme of the story is dramatically illustrated by Jackson’s unique tone. Once a year the villagers gather together in the central square for the lottery. The villagers await the arrival of Mr. Summers and the black box. Within the black box are folded slips of paper, one piece having a black dot on it. All the villagers then draw a piece of paper out of the box. Whoever gets the paper with the black dot wins. Tessie Hutchinson wins the lottery! Everyone then closes in on her and stones her to death. Tessie Hutchinson believes it is not fair because she was picked. The villagers do not know why the lottery continues to exist. All they know is that it is a tradition they are not willing to abandon. In “The Lottery,” Jackson portrays three main themes including tradition, treason, and violence.
The Lottery by Shirley Jackson, is a short story about an annual lottery draw in a small town. The story sets place in a small town in New England. Every year a lottery is held, in which one person is to be randomly chosen to be stoned to death by the people in the village. The lottery has been practiced for over seventy years by the townspeople. By using symbolism, Jackson uses names, objects, and the setting to conceal the true meaning and intention of the lottery.
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” by public stoning—has led to its widespread popularity, public outcry and discussion, and continued examination in modern times (Jackson). One potential critical theory that can be applied to Jackson’s “The Lottery” is the reader-response approach. This analytical lens is a “theory ... that bases the critical perspective of a text on ‘the reader’ and his or her personal interpretation” of that text (Parker 314). Reader-response criticism was coined by literary critic Louise Rosenblatt in the mid-20th century. It soon served as a cornerstone of literary movement in the 1960s and 1970s that later became intrinsic to the study of other schools of literary thought today. In using reader-response theory to examine “The Lottery” in a contemporary context, one might perform reading surveys and metacognitive questionnaires to determine whether the short story still proves resonant and thought-provoking. Therefore, just as “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson evoked an explicit and even fierce reaction in the past, so too does the use of reader-response criticism today help reveal that the short story may still hold the ability to sustain both its rising tension and surprising turn at the end.
The characters in a short story are vital to understanding everything that the author has put into her work. Most of Shirley Jackson’s characters in “The Lottery” adapt as the story goes on, revealing their true opinions and behaviors. Her characters are also true to life, which establishes realism in her stories. Tess, Old Man Warner, and the women of this story all provide outlooks and opinions that shape “The Lottery” into the constructive story it is.
At the beginning of the story it starts out seeming like an ordinary civilized community where everyone gets along. In the first sentence of the story “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). Even though the towns people knew what day it was and what happens on July 27th they had no problem with gathering in the town center to get the lottery under way. The kids would start gathering first, then the men, and then the women and they all would present themselves wearing nice cloths as if attending a special event. This became such a tradition that people even forgot about it and this is made evident when Mrs. Hutchinson said “and then I looked out the window and the kids was gone, and then I remembered it was the twenty-seventh and came a-running" (Jackson). Mrs. Hutchinson had put a target on her back from then on because she was seen as an outsider or not normal because she had joined the group late. “The villagers’ blind acceptance of the lottery has allowed ritual murder to become part of their town fabric.” (Sparknote
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.
“The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson was written in 1948. The story takes place in a village square of a town on June 27th. The author does not use much emotion in the writing to show how the barbaric act that is going on is look at as normal. This story is about a town that has a lottery once a year to choose who should be sacrificed, so that the town will have a plentiful year for growing crops. Jackson has many messages about human nature in this short story. The most important message she conveys is how cruel and violent people can be to one another. Another very significant message she conveys is how custom and tradition can hold great power over people. Jackson also conveys the message of how men treat women as objects.
The village has its own unique lottery. The winner of the game will receive a card with a black dot. This means the surrounding villager will stone them to death! Shirley Jackson develops her theme of the danger of blindly following tradition in her short story, "The Lottery" through the use of symbolism, mood, and irony. The black dot represents the winner of the lottery.