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Analysis of Shirley Jackson's The Lottery
The lottery sociological theories
The lottery sociological theories
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Recommended: Analysis of Shirley Jackson's The Lottery
Tradition is a large part of life today, but decades ago it was almost a way of life and if it was not followed there were stiff consequences. The story is misleading by the title because of the normal thought of a lottery is something positive or a giveaway. The story is quite the opposite of the common thought. The main point that Jackson shows in “The Lottery” is that people can be involved with such a violent act and think nothing of it. In the story all the people are happy, “they stood together, away from the pile of stones in the corner, and their jokes were quiet and they smiled rather than laughed.”(Jackson 124). The tradition the village seams at first to be a happy scene, but later learn that it is a terrible event that is a tradition of the village. The author Shirley Jackson t...
“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 The story reveals how traditions can become outdated and ineffective.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.
“The Lottery” is a short story about an event that takes place every year in a small village of New England. When the author speaks of “the lottery” he is referencing the lottery of death; this is when the stoning of a village member must give up his or her life. The villagers gather at a designated area and perform a customary ritual which has been practiced for many years. The Lottery is a short story about a tradition that the villagers are fully loyal to and represents a behavior or idea that has been passed down from generation to generation, accepting and following a rule no matter how cruel or illogical it is. Friends and family become insignificant the moment it is time to stone the unlucky victim.
Shirley Jacksons short story “The Lottery” is bout traditions and sacrifice. The people of their village followed the tradition even though they had to sacrifice greatly for them. In the story the village people all gathered for a lottery but if you got it someone in your family would die for the tradition but it blessed the crops. Traditions can be good or bad.
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
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).
“The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson, is a short story about villagers that gather in the square to participate in a lottery. The lottery is run by Mr.Summers, the village patriarch who decides all the big events. Children go and start collecting stones until the children’s parents tell them to come back. Mrs.Hutchinson (Tessie) arrives late, and starts to chat with her friend Mrs.Delacroix. Tessie draws a slip of paper, with a black dot on it, the one that Mr.Summers had put on it the night before. Bill Hutchinson was selected, so his family immediately started to protest after it becomes crystal clear that the prize is actually a death by stoning; the village participates in the ritual annually. The Lottery is a tradition every year, so it wouldn't make very much sense to not continue it. For the villagers, it’s a normal thing, it’s a tradition. While it makes for an entertaining story, this was not really Jackson’s purpose in writing this tale. Jackson wanted to express her disdain for mindless traditions, so she crafts a clever fictional account that is broadly applicable to many locations. In doing this, she
In the short story The Lottery tells about tradition in a village that have a lottery where the lottery culminates in a violent murder each year. It’s a strange ritual that suggests how dangerous traditions can be with certain religions, ethnicities,
Tradition is huge in small towns and families and allows for unity through shared values, stories, and goals from one generation to the next. Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery” carries that theme of tradition. The story follows a small town that performs the tradition of holding an annual lottery in which the winner gets stoned to death. It (tradition) is valued amongst human societies around the world, but the refusal of the villagers in “The Lottery” to let go of a terrifying long-lasting tradition suggests the negative consequences of blindly following these traditions such as violence and hypocrisy.
Lotteries are the picture of money for most people. Lotteries are often viewed as a great thing, winning the lottery means winning cash, but in reality a lottery is just a raffle. It is a process ruled by chance. Winning the lottery could be from the best reward to the cruelest one ever. In 1948, Shirley Jackson wrote the short story “The Lottery” to show there is pointless violence and brutality in humans’ lives and how society accepts it. She used the story to show how people will join senseless traditions because their friends or family is doing it. Shirley Jackson, in her short story “The Lottery” uses seemingly ordinary details about the setting and the townspeople to emphasize her theme that although society claims to be civilized, and
“ The Lottery”, written by Shirley Jackson, shows the corruption in a village whose people treat life with insignificance. Through the use of literary devices, Jackson portrays how practices in traditions can be barbaric;ultimately, resulting in persecution.
Even through the times, traditions have remained a constant for the human race. They can be as gruesome as the Aztecs practicing human sacrifice to as simple as saying the pledge of allegiance every day. “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson is a chilling story about the reoccurrence of an abhorrent ritual that takes place on a sunny morning. The people of this village demonstrate fear over straying from conformity and thus have the ignorance that sprouts from never trying new things. Through this short story the author portrays this fear and ignorance the human race has through her casual narration, euphemistic dialogue and morbid events.
Shirley Jackson's “The Lottery” is a short story about the annual gathering of the villagers to conduct an ancient ritual. The ritual ends in the stoning of one of the residents of this small village. This murder functions under the guise of a sacrament that, at one time, served the purpose of ensuring a bountiful harvest. This original meaning, however, is lost over the years and generations of villagers. The loss of meaning has changed the nature and overall purpose of the lottery. This ritual is no longer a humble sacrifice that serves the purpose of securing the harvest but instead is a ceremony of violence and murder only existing for the pleasure found in this violence.
"The Lottery," a short story written by Shirley Jackson, is a tale about a disturbing social practice. The setting takes place in a small village consisting of about three hundred denizens. On June twenty-seventh of every year, the members of this traditional community hold a village-wide lottery in which everyone is expected to participate. Throughout the story, the reader gets an odd feeling regarding the residents and their annual practice. Not until the end does he or she gets to know what the lottery is about. Thus, from the beginning of the story until almost the end, there is an overwhelming sense that something terrible is about to happen due to the Jackson's effective use of foreshadowing through the depiction of characters and setting. Effective foreshadowing builds anticipation for the climax and ultimately the main theme of the story - the pointless nature of humanity regarding tradition and cruelty.
The specific details Jackson describes in the beginning of “The Lottery” set us up for the shocking conclusion. The setting in the beginning of the lottery, by Shirley Jackson, creates a mood of peacefulness and tranquility. The image portrayed by the author is that of a typical town on a normal summer day. Shirley Jackson uses this setting to foreshadow an ironic ending. The Lotteries has a theme of meaningless traditions can be harmful. The village lottery culminates in a violent murder each year, a bizarre ritual that suggests how dangerous traditions can be. Before we know what kind of lottery they’re conducting, the villagers and their preparations seem harmless. Tradition is endemic to small towns, a way to link families and generations.
The plot as a whole in “The Lottery” is filled with ironic twists. The whole idea of a lottery is to win something, and the reader is led to believe that the winner will receive some prize, when in actuality they will be stoned to death by the rest of the villagers. The villagers act very nonchalant upon arriving at the lottery; which makes it seem as if it is just another uneventful day in a small town. Considering the seriousness of the consequences of the lottery, the villagers do not make a big deal about it. Under the same note it is ironic that many of the original traditions of the lottery, such as the recital and the salute, had long been forgotten. All that the villagers seemed to remember was the ruthless killing of a random person. It also seems strange that they let the equipment for the lottery, the black box, get into such a poor condition.