The Lottery Questions
1) A lottery is when people pay small amounts for an opportunity to make a much larger amount of money, which is generally a very fun, easy, casual thing to do. This can result in people winning millions of dollars, or just having fun. Everyone wants to win the lottery. However, in this story, the lottery is much different. The lottery is a tradition within this town with which they select an individual to stone to death, selected at random. This is essentially the opposite of the lottery we know and love today, considering that ours results in a new life, and the one in the story ends someone’s life. The title is very misleading considering our understanding of a lottery.
2) A scapegoat is traditionally a literary term
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Summers is among the least phased by this tradition, considering the fact that he used to handle, organize, and execute it in the past, and as a result became one of the most powerful in the town. Therefore he doesn’t seem to care, and views it as a custom, nothing more. Old Man Warner has been in the town the longest, and as a result views it as necessary and a part of his history. He greatly supports the lottery more than any others in the town. The Adams couple is representative of the rest of the village, for they simply accept it, with little outward questioning, just hushed concern. For example: Mr. Adams discussed the fact that another town may be giving the lottery up, which means that he is curious as to what “good” or “bad” really is, however he will never speak up in order to blend in and remain inconspicuous. Tessie Hutchinson views the lottery as unfair, and that is because she is chosen for it. The villagers as a whole treat the lottery and the culture surrounding it with profound respect, considering that all continue to take part, arrive on time, and obey it blindly. Mrs. Hutchinson represents the point, or moral, of the story, because she is the only one who speaks out against it, and as a result is …show more content…
However, in our society, we commonly remember the roots of these cultural traditions and anniversaries, yet in the lottery, the town cannot recall the foundation behind this gruesome punishment, and therefore all meaning or reasoning is lost. However, the lottery and our traditions in our society have something in common: they add a consistency and excitement to our lives. If there is something to look forward to (or dread) it makes life much more significant than just blindly walking waiting working day to
The short story ‘The Lottery’ reveals a village of 300 that assemble for a lottery on June 27th every year. The lottery has been held this day for years and years, and has become a classic tradition. The lottery itself is holy to much of its residents, like Mr. Watson, who states that the village in the north is a pack of young crazy fools for removing the lottery. “Listening to the young folks, nothing’s good enough for them. Next thing you know, they’ll be wanti...
In “The Lottery”, written by Shirley Jackson in 1948, tone and symbolism are equally important elements in comprehending this eerie short story. This dark tale takes place in a small town of about 300 people during the summer. The writer begins by painting a picture of children playing, women gossiping, and men making small-talk of home and finances, putting the reader at ease with a tone of normality. The people of the town coalesce before the lottery conductor, named Mr. Summers, appears to begin the annual town ritual of drawing from a box which will result in the killing of one townsperson by stone throwing. It isn’t until the fateful conclusion when the reader comes to realize there is nothing normal about the
Did you know that Merle and Patricia Butler from Red Bud, Illinois and three teachers from Baltimore Maryland won the biggest lottery in American history at $656 million dollars? That means every person acquired $218.6 million dollars each from the lottery (Carlyle). Unfortunately, the citizens of Shirley Jacksons’ fantasy short story “The Lottery” were not imbursed with money, but were stoned to death by their peers. “The Lottery” is a lottery of death in which the town uses to keep the population down (Voth). The story consist of many subjects to analyze which include: irony, imagery, and pathos.
With the lottery being an annual ceremony, people have become so immune to the idea of killing off one of their peers, that it does not phase them anymore. For example, Jackson describes the day as being “clear and sunny... with a fresh warmth... with the flowers blossoming profusely,” which are words that people do not typically associate with death (Jackson 304). The lottery is a tradition that is passed down from generation to generation so it is embedded into the characters minds that the lottery is just another part of their town. The lottery “reveals the fragility of the nuclear family… and effectively divides into competing individuals whose survival needs are at odds with one another” (Whittier 353). It makes family members turn on
The Lottery, by Shirley Jackson is a short story about a community that has a yearly lottery pull. The short story is set in a small town that is seemingly normal at first. Every year the town has a lottery pull, in which one person is chosen at random, to be stoned to death by all of their fellow townsmen. The lottery is a tradition that was started many years ago, and is kept alive by the current residents. By using symbolism, irony, and setting Jackson shows the true darkness within the entirety of the human race.
From what I understand from reading “The Lottery”, I feel that the writer is opposed to this tradition where they choose a person to get stoned by having a lottery draw. The writer’s attitude was made clear to us through Tessie Hutchinson’s character in the story. For example, by saying that it isn’t fair because her husband got the black dotted paper, shows that she is against this. Another way that the writer expressed her attitude towards this is by showing how people in the village are blinded by the tradition they do yearly, since they are teaching their next generation about this by having them throw stones at the “winner” of the event. Thus, this makes them think that it is alright to kill and hurt someone in this inhuman
Following tradition is considered by many to be one of the most important aspects of life. Many follow traditions and celebrate holidays without a second thought, but when you take a moment to think about what the purpose of certain traditions are, are they really for the best? This is a question that Tessie Hutchinson is confronted with in “The Lottery”, by Shirley Jackson. The lottery is an annual event in villages, and it has become a way of life. However, this is not an exciting lottery with a money prize; it is a disturbing event that results in the death of the innocent. Such a tradition must have some meaning: I believe that the lottery is used as a metaphor for death.
“The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson reveals the danger of blindly following tradition. “The Lottery” presents the story of an annual tradition practiced by the community of a small town. The tradition itself involves stoning the winner of the lottery to ensure a good harvest. This tradition appears to be extremely vital to the community, considering its apparent lack of history.
“The Lottery” was quite disturbing to read. It is an very unusual story that has an ending that will have you baffled. You will want to reread certain parts to see if there is anything thing that you could have missed. The title of the short story is also misleading. In most cases the lottery is a good thing. People don’t win punishment and lotteries don’t hurt them. But in this story it does just that. The author did a great job of telling how anyone and everyone can follow tradition blindly. It is dangerous not to have a mind of your own and to just follow the crowd even if you don’t understand on agree on why something is happening.
In the short story “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson There is a town where they have a lottery every year where the winner is stoned to death. Its a little off putting to think of that the winner of something gets to be killed. The story itself is very vague about the people in it. No place is given just that its in a small village with roughly three hundred people. The first time reading this they just seem like normal people who live in a village. Reading this story the second time you pick up on the comments of the crowd. The people in this village are not what they seem. They seem to have grudges or just jealousy. They are hoping for certain people to get picked. Maybe this is their own stress relief like the purge. Regardless of why it
"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.
How does a warm, clear summer day make you feel? What do blooming flowers and green grass make you think of?
Every year, the lottery is held, and every year a person is killed. Each villager neglects to acknowledge the unjustness of the lottery and continue to participate because of the tradition it represents in their society. The lottery was a cultural tradition passed down from the very first settlers of the village. It makes up a huge part of the village’s history and culture. The villagers pay recognition to their culture by continuing the tradition of the lottery even though the lottery is not morally right. On page 93 it states, “There was a proper swearing-in of Mr. Summers by the postmaster, as the official of the lottery; at one time, some people remembered, there had been a recital of some sort, performed by the official of the lottery, a perfunctory tuneless chant that had been rattled off duly each year… There had been, also, a ritual salute, which the official of the lottery had had to use in addressing each person who came to draw from the box…” This quote shows the tribal-like rituals and traditions associated with the lottery. Through the years, some of the rituals of the lottery were lost, but the main elements of the lottery remained the same. The idea behind the lottery was that the ancestors, of the villagers, believed that human sacrifice would bring in good harvest. This led to the development and continuation
The lottery in the story was the game in which the prize was death. In reality this lottery symbolized the game of life, and how our behavior as human beings influences our choices in life and therefore our destiny. In this case the lottery signified winning eternal peace. This symbol helped the author develop the meaning of the story, because it is all based on the game of winning or losing. The way people from the village conducted the lottery was kind of scary, because they organized it as if it was another important event, such as the “square dances, the teenage club, the Halloween program” (Jackson 212). This shows how this tradition was taken as seriously as other occurrences that took place in the village. A person with some logic would not find this to be exactly a “game”, but the population followed the tradition and did not even think about the possibility to drop it, because then they would not know what to do, or what other event would they organize for June 27th. During the lottery Mr. Adams said “some places have already quit the lotteries” as of insinuating that if the neighbor towns forgot about the tradition, they should not have to keep following it (215). The bad thing is that no one paid attention to hi...
It is funny how life works out sometimes. You never know what you are going to get. ‘The Lottery’ is a story about a small village that holds a lottery drawing in the middle of the town square. The “winner” of the lottery is then stoned by the town’s people. This piece of literature provides a clear example that things in life are not always what they seem.