The Lottery by Shirley Jackson
I was watching an episode of “The Simpsons” on TV the other day, and there was a craze around town because the Springfield Lottery was up to 130 million dollars. Bookstores were selling out of Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery”. Homer quickly threw the book into the fireplace when he realized that the book could not tell him how to win the lottery, that it was a book about time old traditions, barbaric, but still practiced nonetheless. If Homer had read the book, he would have discovered that Jackson was projecting a subtle message through the minor character of Old Man Warner that the human race can be quite feeble-minded when it comes to following others and outright ignorant when it comes to thinking for one’s self. She uses Old Man Warner because he clings to your memory above all the other minor characters. He is seen as the antagonist, and therefore commands attention, even to his limited role. You then think about him more than any other minor character, and the more you think about him, the more the message comes through. He symbolizes the sense of invincibility, distrust, fear, and eternal youth.
Being in his seventy-seventh lottery, Old Man Warner is separated from the rest of the town. He has beaten the Lottery seventy-seven times, and therefore holds a certain sense of invincibility, and that leads to his devotion to it. Maybe that’s how everyone feels. Since they’ve survived the Lottery, they have a respect for it, and see nothing wrong with keeping it. In fact, they find the notion of not having the lottery preposterous, just because everyone has always thought that, and they just go along with what everyone thinks. Maybe it’s not so much the aspect of survival that is a...
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...ottery” as a minor character, as to where he isn’t given much thought, when he actually plays an important metaphorical role. And the best part of her writing of this character is that there is no definite direction Old Man Warner is going, and that leaves a lot to interpretation. So she doesn’t want to tell us how to read this character. She wants our minds to be stimulated by the enigma of Old Man Warner, and for each individual reader to take away something different from the reading. Jackson just wants everyone to put their mind to some good, and challenge the direction of the rest of the world, or follow it if that is what your brain says. Whatever you do, just be able to think about something and reason it out without any outside interference. An example is how much I’ve written and thought about a crochety old man, with a tiny part in a twisted story.
This story made me frustrated at the way people get forced into a rut that they can’t escape. Jackson Jackson isn’t completely innocent, no one is, but most of his problems were a result from the wrong that others had inflicted upon him. The frustrating part was that He was incapable of getting himself out. He did things like spend money on alcohol and cheese burgers, only to end up throwing it all up and even less money. To me, this story is about redemption. Jackson received grace from people like the good cop, and the pawnbroker. None of his own efforts changed his situation, only the kindness of others changed him. These kind deeds helped reconcile the reality of Jackson’ life and his situation. In a story like this, I always hope for a
In The Lottery, year after year, even since Old Man Warner, the oldest man in town, was a child, the same ritual has gone on. It is as if the community never learns from its previous mistakes. As long as no one in the town speaks up about such a twisted yearly event, nothing is ever going to change. If Martin Luther King or Malcolm X wouldn’t have raised their voices against the prejudice that they had experienced their entire lives, we might still be living in a segregated world, which was once thought to be “okay.” This is similar to The Lottery, in which the townspeople are brainwashed into believing that this ritual is normal. For example, Old Man Warner is outraged when he hears that the north village might give up the lottery, calling...
Shirley Jackson takes great care in creating a setting for the story, The Lottery. She gives the reader a sense of comfort and stability from the very beginning. It begins, "clear and sunny, with the fresh warmth of a full-summer day; the flowers were blossoming profusely and the grass was richly green." The setting throughout The Lottery creates a sense of peacefulness and tranquility, while portraying a typical town on a normal summer day.
Shirley Jackson’s “Lottery” satirically creates a society that puts the importance of tradition above even the life of the members of the community, as indicated by Old Man Warner’s response to Mr. Adams stating, “‘[O]ver in the north village they’re talking of giving up the lottery.’ Old Man Warner snorted. ‘Pack of crazy fools … Listening to the young folks, nothing’s good enough for them … There’s always been a lottery,’ he added petulantly” (413). Here Old Man Warner defends the tradition of their society, though notably without justifying the tradition. Rather, he focuses on the people of other villages and the tradition as self-evident, both logical fallacies. The first argument he makes in favor of continuing to have a lottery is an ad
Can one individual change a large group of people? Can the effort of one person be enough to break up a faulty tradition practicing by a society? In most cases the answer would be ‘yes’ and in some ‘no’. Many individuals try and succeed but many fail just like the main character Tessie Hutchinson in Shirley Jackson’s short story “The Lottery”. When someone hears the word “lottery”, he or she may think that someone will be rewarded with prize. But “The Lottery” By Shirley Jackson is different than what one thinks. In the story, a lottery is going to be conducted not like Mega Million or Powerball one play here. In the story, the person who wins the lottery is stoned to death instead of being rewarded with the prize. Tessie Hutchinson, the major character in the story, is wife of Mr. Bill Hutchinson and also a mother of three siblings and a married daughter. Jackson presents Mrs. Hutchinson as a strong rebellious character. Mrs. Hutchinson plays two different roles in this story. She is excitedly participating in the lottery ceremony at the beginning but her character shifts when her husband picks the winning lottery of death for their family. Mrs. Hutchinson is presented as a blind follower of old tradition, a strong rebellious character and a selfish and careless person in the society.
Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery" is an excellent example of an allegorical short story. In this story, the reader learns of a town's "lottery" that takes place once a year, every year. It has been a tradition in this small rural town for many years and the villagers never question these activities, they just blindly go along with it. But what the reader doesn't know is just what kind of prize the winner is going to obtain. Jackson's use of symbolism is shown through the description of the characters, significant objects, and the actions in the story. These elements are used to represent the death that is associated with the lottery.
Screaming, yelling, and screeching emerge from Tessi Hutchinson, but the town remains hushed as they continue to cast their stones. Reasonably Tessi appears as the victim, but the definite victim is the town. This town, populated by rational people, stones an innocent woman because of a lottery. To make matters worse, no one in the town fathoms why they exterminate a guiltless citizen every June. The town’s inexplicable behavior derives from following an ancient, ludicrous tradition. With the omission of one man, no one in the community comprehends the tradition. In the case of “The Lottery,” the town slays an irreproachable victim each year because of a ritual. Shirley Jackson exposes the dangers of aimlessly following a tradition in “The Lottery.” Jackson not only questions the problem, but through thorough evaluation she an deciphers the problem as well.
In literature there are many different critical views, in which all of them have very distinctive ideas and beliefs. The value of these critical views is decided by the reader and may be different to each one. When a reader approaches a work of literature they bring their own views and experiences with them, so each reader will read each story differently. And even the same reader will never read the same story the same way twice due to things that may have changed in his or her life. In Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery” (509-15) and Eudora Welty’s “A Worn Path” (568-74) one reader my feel sympathy while another does not fill anything. So what is the “correct” response to these stories?
In “The Lottery”, Jackson wrote about a special tradition of a small village. June 27th was warm and sunny, and it gave the impression like nothing could possibly go wrong. Everyone knows the lottery as an exciting thing, and everybody wants to win, but this lottery is unlike any other. This lottery was actually the tradition of stoning of an innocent villager; that year it was Tessie Hutchinson. Though the horrific ending was not expected, throughout the story Jackson gave subtle hints that this was not an average lottery. Jackson foreshadowed the death of Tessie Hutchinson with stones, the black box, and the three legged stool; she showed that unquestioning support of tradition can be fatal.
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.
The orderly plot structure allows readers to experience the story as if they were witnessing actual events. The unsettling familiarity of these events suggests to readers that their community, too, may be clinging thoughtlessly to outdated traditions in spite of negative consequences. Because it does not evaluate or explain the savage events of the story, the objective, detached point of view used in "The Lottery" forces readers to ask the question, "why do people often get stuck on outdated traditions in spite of not only negative, but tragic consequences?" Shirley Jackson sets the savage ritual events of her story in a bland, unremarkable setting, suggesting that this disturbing scenario can occur anywhere, and no one in society is excluded.
The story of “The Lottery” is a dark tale that gives the reader a window into a community blighted by an tradition propagated by ignorance; sending a message that reverberates with many events, ideas, and observations throughout the annals of time. Written by the great Shirley Jackson, this fable exemplifies how delusion and illogical thinking led to the terrifying and morose ending of Tessie Hutchinson's existence. Shirley Jackson was well known in her lifetime, but not necessarily as the literary master she is hailed as today. Jackson had great interest in the culture of witchcraft, and deeply incorporated this knowledge into one of her first short stories: “The Lottery.” While this influence greatly improved the haunted tone of the story, it also spawned various rumors regarding Shirley Jackson herself, being a reclusive bookish woman interested in the dark arts. However, just as the “witches” of Salem were mercilessly murdered for ambiguous reasons, so too was Tessie Hutchinson. Shirley Jackson saw the reflection of these poor souls within our very lives, and channeled their sorrowful essence into a meticulous story that is as moving as it is disturbing.
The story by Shirley Jackson “The Lottery” was written in 1948; it describes a village getting ready for their annual lottery. The lottery is not what it seems to be and the writer does not give any additional information on the topic until the end of the narrative. The main achievement of this short piece is the suspense leading to the main idea and how the author incorporates the details.
The short story The Lottery by Shirley Jackson, in a seemingly normal town, everyone gathers together to conduct the annual traditional lottery. What is the lottery exactly? Well, you don’t truly discover the magnitude of its horror until the final passage. A lottery in the real world is typically a good thing but in this small town it’s anything but. Being the reader, I assumed people got money at the end. I feel that is something everyone was expecting. Throughout the entire book, things were happening that still did not give evidence as to what The Lottery was about. Certain thing throughout the story hint that something bad is going to happen, the people becoming nervous, the implication that the lottery is actually a purpose for regarding the future of the crops, and the piles of stones that the kids begin to gather. People in this village stone a person to death every year because were believed that sacrificing a life will produce better corn.
For example, when told that some areas are getting rid of the lottery tradition, Old Man Warner denounces them as a “Pack of crazy fools...Next thing you know, they’ll be wanting to go back to living in caves, nobody work any more, live that way for a while” (Jackson 3). Old Man Warner, the oldest man in town, symbolizes the old ways and traditions. His condescending diction of calling them “fools” attests to his belief that the young generation will only bring about change and change will only bring about trouble exemplifying the whole village’s fear of change. But as Jennifer Hicks deduces in her criticism, “...barbaric rituals once used to sustain the community in a harsh environment were often continued to enact a sense of unity and history within the community, even if they were no longer necessary” (146). The people are bound together by fear, and as a result, continue the unnecessary murdering of victims, which ironically makes them feel safer. In reality, however, the lottery is more harmful than beneficial. Another symbolic example is the citizens’ refusal to give up the black box, even though it “...grew shabbier each year: by now it was no longer completely black but splintered badly along one side to show the original wood color, and in some places faded or stained” (Jackson 1). The imagery of the “faded” and “stained” box highlights its deteriorating