Inhumanity Exposed in The Lottery
The story entitled "The Lottery," written by Shirley Jackson is an intriguing and shocking parable. "The Lottery" is set in a small village on a clear summer day. Written in objective third person point of view, "The Lottery" keeps the reader in suspense as the story progresses.
The story begins June 27th on a "clear and sunnyfull-summer day." From the very beginning, irony occurs in the story. The author describes the day as "clear and sunny, with the fresh warmth of a full-summer day; the flowers were blossoming profusely and the grass was richly green." To describe such a beautiful day when the ending is so ill fated, is very ironic. The villagers, all three hundred of them, gather in the square. There is a feeling of excitement and relative normalcy as the people talk of their everyday happenings. The lottery is conducted by Mr. Summers, as he is the one that directs the "civic activities" of the town. The night before the lottery, all of the families have their names placed in a black box. The day of the lottery, Mr. Summers has each head of family draw a slip of paper from the box. When each family has selected a slip, they all open the papers together. The Hutchinson's are the "winners." The process then repeats but this time, ...
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...lso to show the dark side of American society and what it is capable of. This is similar to other points in history, such as: slavery, the Salem witch trials, and the extermination of the American Indians. All three of those examples involve inhumanity without the usual American apathy. Though inhumanity does exist, it is usually without active support. However in the examples mentioned before, people acted on their ordinarily latent barbarity. The Holocaust is another parallel to "The Lottery." The senseless genocide of the Jewish populace is very much similar to the ridiculousness of the lottery. In essence, "The Lottery," is a mirror of the human subconscious.
Degas uses dull colors, mostly brown beige and melancholy blue for her tutu, instead of the light pink he uses in his other portraits of the ballerinas. Her body is very much gravitated, depicted almost like a tree trunk. We can see his use of earthly colors in this painting, as it is dominated by different hues of blues and earthly browns. His use of light and shadow is prevalent in here, as the canvas seems like it is divided in two, through his use of shadow. We can see that this particular ballerina is the heroine in his painting, as she solely stands alone, exhibiting her grandeur presence. Her figure seems heavy and not ethereal, as Degas presents his other ballerinas. There is something unique about her. We can’t make out her face, or understand her facial expression; we are left only with her body language to predict what she might be conveying. I can’t tell whether her faceless face suggests a generic idea of all ballerinas or he chose not to paint her face due to his failing eyesight. The fact that she doesn’t have a facial expression leaves her without an identity.
Samasca, G., Bruchental, M., Butnariu, A., Pirvan, A., Andreica, M., Cristea, V., & Dejica, D. (2011). Difficulties in celiac disease diagnosis in children. A Journal of Clinical Medicine, 6(1), 32-35.
Green, Peter H.R. and Rory Jones. Celiac Disease A Hidden Epidemic. New York: HarperCollins Publisher, 2010.
Why would a civilized and peaceful town would ever suggest the horrifying acts of violence can take place anywhere at anytime and the most ordinary people can commit them. Jackson's fiction is noted for exploring incongruities in everyday life, and “The Lottery”, perhaps her most exemplary work in this respect, examines humanity's capacity for evil within a contemporary, familiar, American setting. Noting that the story’s characters, physical environment, and even its climactic action lacks significant individuating detail, most critics view “The Lottery.” As a modern-day parable or fable, which obliquely addresses a variety of themes, including the dark side of human nature, the danger of ritualized behavior, and the potential for cruelty when the individual submits to the mass will. Shirley Jackson also addresses cruelty by the citizen’s refusal to stand up and oppose “The Lottery.” Violence and cruelty is a major theme in “The Lottery.”
The title of the story, “The Lottery” illustrates irony when knowing the true essence of the title.
In past literary discussions our class has studied for our novels we came over the topic of Nature of Reality. After this studied I was able to understand how Meursault’s perception of reality was different from every other characters’ in the book. This had caused Meursault to act like he does in the story. Meursault is quite unresponsive to everything that happens in his life because he finds no reason for them. Since Meursault believed he shouldn’t care about anything, for example relationships, society, or events in his life.
The chilling and eerie novel known as The Turn of the Screw, by Henry James; bring about questionable doubts with its main character. The Governess, plays “The Protector” for Miles and Flora, but often seems to need a little protection when it comes to her own self. The Governess claims ghosts have infiltrated the children throughout the story, yet can never seem to fully prove it. Giving leadway to the harsh reality that the Governess is an unreliable narrator throughout her tail through instances that she fully admits to not remembering time past, her wild over emotion that she lets control her, and through her growing obsession to be a “Hero” for the children.
... Google Co-Founder Sergey Bring’s funding, marked the beginning of the cultured hamburger project. Finally in August of 2013 the first cultured Hamburger was tasted in London, In Vitro’s meat advocates greatest accomplishment so far.
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 symptoms of celiac disease in children usually occur when the child is taken off milk and started on solid food (familydoctor.org editorial staff, 2010). Celiac, in children, most readily affects their growth. Such as delayed puberty, poor weight gain, slowed growth and shorter than normal height for t...
Fracking has become a highly controversial and publicized topic due to rising concerns and growing analysis into the mutual benefits of hydraulic fracturing to retrieve natural gas and oil reserves. With concerns of water pollution, mismanagement of toxic waste and irreversible
In Japanese culture, it was a common ideal to view women as incompetent of being the head of a household (Yoshimi 200). Asian Women were subjected to discriminatory attitudes towards them by men, which left them with almost no opportunity to avoid a life in low social classes. In 19th century Japanese society, an unmarried woman was no doubly associated with low-end occupations that had significantly low wages (Yoshimi 70). The disadvantages associated with being a woman of a low social stature created an unfortunate history of prostitution among Japa...
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.
"The Lottery" is "symbolic of any number of social ills that mankind blindly perpetrates" (Friedman 108). The story is very shocking, but the reality of mankind is even more shocking. Isn’t it funny that Jackson gives us a description of our nature, and not only do we not recognize it for what it is , but it shocks us.
In "The Lottery" Shirley Jackson fills her story with many literary elements to mask the evil. The story demonstrates how it is in human nature to blindly follow traditions. Even if the people have no idea why they follow.