On the surface, Chanda’s Secret, by Allan Stratton, is a mind-altering story about the tough life of a girl who lives in a world of disease and death. However, under the surface, is a story about a power struggle within Chanda’s life. “The Lottery” is a story that appears innocent as the town holds its annual lottery to ensure successful agriculture. However, the book soon takes a deep turn as the reader slowly realizes that the “winner” of the lottery is stoned to death in the end. Chanda’s Secrets and “The Lottery” have similar examples of power because a governmental power starts a huge problem, social power keeps it going, and social power prevents it from being resolved.
To begin with, a governmental power, in both stories, starts a much bigger problem. For example, in Chanda’s Secrets the novel greets the reader with, “I’m alone in the office of Bateman’s Eternal Light Funeral Services.”(Stratton 1). The fact that the book opens up with this quote shows the immediate problem of death in the story. It also shows the problem of AIDs, as we later find out that Sara had died from AIDs. These two governmental powers were the two biggest (surface) issues through the story. A similar experience also happens in “The Lottery”. In “The Lottery”, the governmental power was the actual government and it was shown when the author states, “The original paraphernalia for the lottery has been lost long ago...much tradition was represented by the black box”(Jackson) and also when the author explains, ”…in some towns there were so many people that the lottery took two day and had to start on June 2nd. But this village, where there were only about three hundred people, the whole lottery took less than two hours”(Jackson). This quote s...
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...handa’s Secrets, “The Lottery” shows power by having death/disease start a problem, having social power continue the problem, and fear prevents the solution of the problem. They are similar because they emphasize death and its effect, and how societal actions determine how a governmental power will influence their life. They are also similar because in both stories, people are so afraid that they would rather ignore it and carry on suffering. People don’t always realize that someone will always have power in their life. Most people believe that they have the power but that isn’t always true. By reading these stories a reader can truly become aware of situations in their life that they never knew. Not only is a reader now informed, but they also know how to handle the problem.
Works Cited
Stratton, Allan. Chanda's Secrets. Toronto: Annick, 2004. Print.
The stories, “The Things they Carried” by Tim O’Brien and “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson, have some similar characteristics and others are different. Keeping a tradition, however, in “The Things they Carried” the main character actually wakes up and changes how he is and becomes more realistic. Unlike “The lottery” where everyone is participating in a murder but not noticing what they are actually doing; to them it is a tradition. The settings are quite the opposite in these stories and also how the characters act. The theme of these stories are the same, however there are other elements that are different in these stories, such as their settings and characters.
Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery” is a chilling tale of a harsh ritualistic gathering conducted by people of a small village. The word lottery would typically remind someone of a drawing to win a cash prize. A better comparison to the story would be the lottery used to select troops for the Vietnam War; a lottery of death. Another would be the human sacrifices the Aztecs willingly made long ago.
Written by Shirley Jackson, “The Lottery” is a short story about a town that hosts an annual lottery that decides which person is stoned by the rest of the town. Jackson slowly and subtly builds the suspense throughout the story, only resolving the mystery surrounding the lottery at the very last moment, as the townspeople surround Tessie with their stones. The symbolism utilized helps demonstrate the overall significance of the story, such as the lottery itself. The lottery shows the way people desperately cling to old traditions, regardless of how damaging they may be. In addition, it can show how callous many will act while staring at a gruesome situation, until they become the victims.
Though there are some noticeable differences between Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery” and Ursula Le Guin’s “The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas”, however the similarities in the two stories are clear. The themes of both short stories are centered on tradition and the sacrifice of one individual for the good all. In the “The Lottery” someone is stoned to death in order for the village to be prosper. While in the “The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas” the cities happiness solely depends on the suffering of a child whom has done nothing wrong. The point that both authors are trying to convey to the audience is; at what point do we as a society begin to question a way of doing things, question a tradition that has no real truth or reason behind
In “The Lottery” the author uses many different types of themes to inspire the reader to feel certain emotions. Themes such as the perils of blindly sticking to outdated traditions. Traditions such as sacrificial murder in which some ancient societies believed that “Life brings death, and death recycles life” (Griffin); this shows how some readers could accept the actions depicted in this story. Yet another way of looking at it and finding a way to accept it is that it’s been said that capital punishment today is a form of ritualistic killing. But other readers may just see it as cold blooded murder in which they may be appalled that some societies could still do this in 1948 when this story was written.
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.
In Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery”, the author is able to entertain and enlighten the readers. The interesting and profound topic of the story is partly the reason for drawing the readers in; however, the clever characterization of Tessie and the anonymous setting help to make the story more relatable as well as force the readers to feel sympathy for the characters. Although a story about a town devouring a member of its community is horrifying, there is a large meaning. Jackson effectively uses “The Lottery” to warn the readers of the dangers of the group. Shirley Jackson describes the characters in “The Lottery” in a way that readers can relate to each of them in some way, yet she makes one character stand out from the start of the story.
Suzanne Collin's The Hunger Games and Shirley Jackson's The Lottery both demonstrate tradition, scapegoating, and sacrifice as the theme in their story. In “The Lottery” a violent murder occurs each year in order to preserve tradition. The same occurs in The Hunger Games where a tribute is chosen, one male, and one female to represent their district in a deadly death match. However, both stories end with different outcomes. In The Hunger Games whoever is victorious will live a life of riches and freedom whereas in one family member is chosen to be stoned to death. These two stories have one major difference. While The Hunger Games are a punishment, The Lottery is a result of tradition. The stories contain scapegoating by the characters trying to escape their fate by anyway possible including selfishness. Both of these stories demonstrate the meaning of tradition, scapegoating, and sacrifice.
In Shirley Jackson's short story "The Lottery" symbols are used to enhance and stress the theme of the story. A symbol is a person, object, action, place, or event that in addition to its literal meaning, suggests a more complex meaning or range of meanings. (Kirszner & Mendell 330) The theme of the story is how coldness and lack of compassion can be exhibited in people in situations regarding tradition and values. That people will do incredibly evil and cruel things just for the sake of keeping a routine. Three of the main symbols that Shirley uses in the story is the setting, black box, and the actual characters names. They all tie together to form an intriguing story that clearly shows the terrible potential if society forgets the basis of tradition. The story also shows many similarities between the culture of the village, and the culture of Nazi Germany. How blind obedience to superiors can cause considerable damage to not only a community, but the entire world. Symbolism plays a large role in "The Lottery" to set the theme of the story and make the reader question traditions.
In the stories of “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson and “The Hunger Games” by Suzanne Collins, both authors deliver the dangers of blindly following tradition that can lead to death, fear and no advancement in society. In “The Lottery” their tradition is to kill a person that is randomly chosen by using a lottery. To compare, in “The Hunger Games” children are also picked out of a lottery from each district and if they are chosen, they need to fight against each other to death. Both stories share a tradition of cruel and murderous behavior but they have a slight difference in tradition.
Winning vast amounts of money can make anyone slaphappy, but unfortunately this type of wager won’t be discussed in Shirley Jacksons “The Lottery.” Jackson catches the reader’s attention by describing a typical day by using words such as “blossoming, clear and sunny skies” to attract the reader into believing a calm and hopeful setting which eventually turns dark. In this short story Jackson tells a tale of a sinister and malevolent town in America that conforms to the treacherous acts of murder in order to keep their annual harvest tradition alive. Jackson exposes the monstrosity of people within this society in this chilling tale. She allows the reader’s to ponder and lead them to believe that the lottery is actually a good thing; till she implements foreshadowing, to hint at the dreadfulness behind the lottery and its meaning. My goal in this paper is to discuss why Jackson’s “The Lottery” is a portrayed as a horror story, and the importance the townspeople used to glorify ritualistic killings, to appease to an unseeable force in return of good harvest for the upcoming year.
Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery" uses the third-person dramatic point of view to tell a story about an un-named village that celebrates a wicked, annual event. The narrator in the story gives many small details of the lottery taking place, but leaves the most crucial and chilling detail until the end: the winner of the lottery is stoned to death by the other villagers. The use of the third-person point of view, with just a few cases of third-person omniscient thrown in, is an effective way of telling this ironic tale, both because the narrator's reporter-like blandness parallels the villagers' apparent apathy to the lottery, and because it helps build to the surprise ending by giving away bits of information to the reader through the actions and discussions of the villagers without giving away the final twist.
“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 Shirley Jackson’s "The Lottery," what appears to be an ordinary day in a small town takes an evil turn when a woman is stoned to death after "winning" the town lottery. The lottery in this story reflects an old tradition of sacrificing a scapegoat in order to encourage the growth of crops. But this story is not about the past, for through the actions of the town, Jackson shows us many of the social ills that exist in our own lives.
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.