Analysis Of Shirley Jackson And Ralph Ellison's The Lottery And Battle Royal

There is a great deal of tension about the ritual that surrounds the Lottery traditions in Shirley Jackson’s short story, “The Lottery.” Out of fear and superstition, the lottery ceremony continues to exist. In short, the lottery is more of a tradition rather than a ritual at the point we witness in the story, but out of respect and fear for tradition, the towns folks are more than willing to commit an act of mass violence, simply for the sake of a tradition.

“The Lottery” is a short story by Shirley Jackson, first published on June 26, 1948. The story was initially met with negative critical reception due to its violent nature and portrayal of the potentially dangerous nature of human society. It was even banned in some countries. However, “The Lottery” is now widely accepted as a classic American short story and is used in classrooms throughout the country.

Society today sees the lottery as an easy way to win a ginormous amount of cash just by buying a little slip of paper with a combination of numbers. The irony that Shirley Jackson uses in her short story, The Lottery, is used to the extreme by not only the title being ironic, but also within the story. The lottery is seen as a way to gain cash, but the ironic part of the title is that the reader sees it and thinks that the story will be about someone winning a big prize, yet the winner is sentenced to being stoned to death. Within the story, Shirley Jackson writes about how one member of the community ultimately chooses who wins the lottery. Another ironic thing about someone chooses the winner is that one of the communities sons picked his own father to win the lottery. Linda Wagner-Martin analyzes The Lottery and its irony by writing, “Bringing in the small children as she does, from early in the story (they are gathering stones, piling them up where they will be handy, and participating in the ritual as if it were a kind of play), creates a poignance not only for the death of Tessie the mother, but for the sympathy the crowd gives to the youngest Hutchinson, little Dave. Having the child draw his own slip of paper from the box reinforces the normality of the occasion, and thereby adds to Jackson's irony. It is family members, women and children, and fellow residents who are being killed through this orderly, ritualized process. As Jackson herself once wrote, "I hoped, by setting a particularly brutal ancient rite in the present and in my own village, to shock the story's

"Everything that makes the world like it is now will be gone."(Jackson 1) An important quote from "The Lottery" by Shirley Jackson saying that the traditional way is no more valid and there is a new way of doing things. The lottery, the black box, and stones are Jackson symbols of death and a reality where people obeyed an unjust, cruel tradition blindly.

Shirley Jackson’s short story The Lottery is set in a small village who relies deeply on their crops. This story is about a sacrifice that takes place every year in which the heads of households draw for their families in order to see who “wins” and saves the town. The readers grow close to a character named Tessie who decides to speak her mind when it’s too late. In the end, the townsfolk realise that what comes around goes around.

In Jackson’s short story, “The Lottery”, multiple different aspects of gothic literature are shown. In a small town, where many families met annually, the “lottery” takes place, conducted by Mr. Summers. Families gather around together, and the men of the household draw out slips of paper from a black box once their name is called. One piece of paper has a black symbol on it, which no one wants to get. It is clear in this story that there is a bleak setting, tortured characters, and dark events.

Throughout both stories Jackson uses specific details to draw attention in certain points of the story. In the beginning of The Lottery Jackson provides us with specific details about the day on which the lottery takes place. She tells us the date “The morning of June 27th was clear and sunny, with the fresh warmth of a full-summer day” (Jackson 242), the time, “around ten o 'clock; in some towns there were so many people that the lottery took two days.” (Jackson 242) and the temperature, warm. Jackson applies the same attention to detail in “Life Among The Savages” “I look around sometimes at the paraphernalia of our living – sandwich bags, typewriters, little wheels off things – and marvel at the complexities of civilization with which we surround ourselves; would we be pleased, I wonder, at a wholesale elimination of these things, so that we were reduced to necessities (coffeepot, typewriters, the essential little wheels off things) (Jackson 2) Jackson also makes it a great point to provide great specifics about the towns each of the stories takes places in, she describes the how many people live in the village and how long the lottery takes and some other villages must start the lottery earlier. Jackson talks about the move from the city to the move Vermont ( is it worth mentioning the details of the city apartment vs. Fielding house and how “it just needed work” PP 20) it seems as if jackson pays more attention to detail in life among savages than that of the

Shirley Jackson, a novelist known for her distinctive short stories in the 20th century, was born on December 14, 1916, in San Francisco, California (Shirley Jackson Bio). Jackson enrolled in Syracuse University in 1937, where she started her career of writing many influential and widely-known short stories, yet one in particular stood out for its gruesome irony of life in the United States. In “The Lottery,” Jackson depicted a small town gathering for the annual lottery, where citizens participated in a raffle, resulting in the random execution of a member of the community. As a result, they would reap the benefits of the execution through their crops in the summer; however, throughout the story, the names of her characters and the objects she portray conveyed a meaning beyond the story itself. Jackson’s use of symbolism allegorically details the narrative’s significance to humanity.

The Lottery by Shirley Jackson was published in “The New Yorker” on June 26, 1948. It is considered as one of the most disturbing short stories of modern America. The plot in “The Lottery” is not clear for the reader until the end of the story, and this setting gives a big jump when the story reveals the real truth. In “The Lottery,” one of the main characters, Tessie Hutchison, gets stoned to death by her family and friends as the result of the annual event of the lottery. The tradition, characters struggle and the inevitable death of a person each year gives an insight of the tradition that the town has performed for so many years.

While America classical writing is often known for being dark and abstract, it often illustrates a deep message of truth that relates to the existing world. Through the mid to late 1900s Shirley Jackson and Kurt Vonnegut published a number of fictional pieces in the United States. During this time, each addressed the existing struggle between the individual and society. Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery” and Kurt Vonnegut’s “Harrison Bergeron” are two stories that depict the oppression an individual faces when pitted to society. Jackson’s piece in particular points to the danger of blind following, while Vonnegut’s work addresses the danger in total equality. Through a number of means, both authors illustrate the danger in submissively

Robert E. Howard once said “Barbarism is the natural state of mankind.” Illustrating that the evil cruel brutish state is but the traditional ancient way of humans. For centuries societies have fought to withhold powerful positions over opposing enemies, no matter the cost or actions needed. This is because a supreme civilization is a perfect civilization. Excellent examples that prove this is famous historic societies such as the Mongols, the Spartans, the Aztecs, the Celts. Each of these nations are known for being powerful as well as equally terrifying, this being due to their barbaric traditions. Proving Howard right, man has always had evil tendencies. Shirley Jackson, author of the short story “The Lottery,” agrees with the belief that

called to draw a slip of paper from the lotterybox, she “hesitated for a minute, looking around defiantly. And then set her lips and went up to the the box” (Jackson 6). It is obvious that she does not want to participate but feels forced to do so. When she does draw the slip, she snatches a paper out and holds it behind her. Her action is an appropriate display of her desire not to participate in the lottery (eNotes 1).

How would you feel if you lived in a country where you could not speak your mind? Imagine your friend speaking out saying whatever the government is doing is wrong. And the next day your friend is killed because of his or her actions. In some countries like North Korea this will actually happen to someone. The government has too much power. There should be something that can mediate what the government can and cannot do. In Shirley Jackson, “The Lottery”, the author is trying to explain to the reader about society and more importantly government, and how much power they have on everyone’s life. To be more specific the author is trying to explain the government oppression

If everyone else was doing something, would you? Or maybe if someone needed to be stood up for, would you have their back? In The Lottery, people do follow other people blindly. And the consequences are devastating. But in First They Came, not having someone’s back might get you in the same position…

Deliberate authorial choices become crucial in getting the readers attention in a said literary work. Authors spend their whole career developing these techniques to create a style that is their own. Shirley Jackson displays her talent to the reader in her writing of a pessimistic short story that she is most famous for. Her famous short story “The Lottery” is one to keep the reader interested not only in the content but in the way she presents it and the emotional toll that it has on the readers. The story follows a town which partakes in a ritualistic lottery. Each household draws from a black box and whomever draws the black circle wins. The family who wins draws again and the winner of the family gets stoned. Jackson presents an pessimistic story which reveals all the story’s meaning at the end. It is through her deceiving style, her deliberate technical choices, Shirley Jackson first lulls her reader then shocks them as she reveals a story that takes a look at following blindly and the danger of misinterpreting religion and traditions, that is a result of evil hiding in the ordinary elements of life.