Analysis Of The Lottery By Shirley Jackson

The major difference between the two pieces is the narrative through which it is told. In "The Lottery", the narrator is omniscient, portraying events in an almost fairy-tale like way – comprehendible, but lacking verisimilitude. The viewpoint in "The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas" involves the reader, questioning the stories believability and challenges the reader to become aware of their own susceptibilities and doubts. After doing so, the narrator presents a blatant, jarring view of the city that is contrary to the prior description, which was surreal and bubbly. The reader becomes involved in the story and is immediately encouraged to draw conclusions and make judgments based on the events of the town. Le Guin's description of the town is vague enough to allow the reader to personalize it, to live it and, inevitably, become moved by it, whereas "The Lottery" is

Do you think that “standing up for what’s right may not always the easiest path” could be a theme for both “The Lottery” and “First They Came”? Well, if you want to find out stick around and you’ll see how they’re different and how they’re alike. “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson is about a small town about 300 people that every year they do this tradition. There’s a black box and slips of paper. If you get the paper with the dot on it, then you win the lottery. If you “win” the lottery then your get your win death by getting stoned to death. “First They Came” by Martin Niemoller is about when Hitler and the Nazis came for the Jews and the Socialists and the other people, and Martin didn’t stand up for them and then when he got taken nobody

Shirley Jackson is often regarded as one of the most brilliant authors of the twentieth century. Born in San Francisco in 1916, she spent the majority of her adolescence writing short stories and poetry (Allen). While she is known best for her supernatural stories, one of her most popular works is a short story called “The Lottery”. The lottery takes place in a small village in which once a year on June 24th, the town population is gathered. After the gathering, there is a drawing to see which family is chosen, after the family is chosen, another drawing takes place to see who is stoned to death. In the New Yorker's magazine book review hailed “The Lottery” as “one of the most haunting and shocking short stories of modern America and is one of the most frequently anthologized” (Jackson). This review stems heavily from Jackson’s brilliant use of irony, symbolism, and foreshadowing. However, perhaps what truly stands out is how Jackson is able to wrap all of those elements together as a way to show an overarching theme of the corruption that exists in human nature. While the real source of “The Lottery’s” inspiration is unclear, there has been heavy speculation that the roots lie heavily in the actions of the holocaust and the actions that took place during World War II. Regardless of the source material, a general consensus can be made that the plot of the lottery is a dark reflection of human actions.

The two stories, “The Lottery,” by Shirley Jackson, and “First They Came,” by Martin Niemoller, are very different. But both address the theme, standing up for what’s right may not always be the easiest path. The story, “The Lottery,” is a short story about a village with about 300 people in it. Every year, the village holds a lottery. This lottery ends in someone’s life being ended by family, friends, and the rest of the villagers. Their death is because of a simple black dot on a slip of paper. The story, “First They Came,” is a nonfiction poem about someone watching as groups of people get taken away, until finally, they came for him. These groups include Socialists, Trade Unionists, and Jews, and then there is the main character. In his own group, all on his own. Even though these are very different stories, they still do have some of the same themes.

“Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy, its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery” (Winston Churchill). These infamous words were stated after a tiring and dreadful World War II, in which the U.S., Great Britain, and other powerful countries feared of the spread of Marxism within countries who formed the Warsaw Pact. As the world tried to effect social change and denounce Marxism, one author echoed sentiment, through her literary work: Shirley Jackson. One of Shirley Jackson’s most popular stories was published the same year (1948), in which Winston Churchill spoke about Marxism “The Lottery”, is about an apparent Marxist society, where every year three men, Mr. Summers, Mr. Graves, and Mr. Martin, run a lottery. The lottery involves a black box in which all the villagers have a slip of paper with their household and family names on each slip. Mr. Summers then draws a slip, which contains one of the household names. Next, the villager’s family members all have to draw and the family member who picks the paper with the black dot is stoned to death by the townspeople, which is a traditional sacrifice that occurs within the community. In “The Lottery”, the wife of Bill Hutchinson, whose family name was drawn, Miss Hutchinson gets the black dot and has “won” the lottery. Miss Hutchinson scrutinizes the lottery and claims it is unfair because her husband did not have enough time to draw. Miss Hutchinson is eventually stoned to death. Although the society in “The Lottery” is supposed to be Marxist, there is evident misuse of power every year the same men Mr. Summers, Mr. Graves, and Mr. Martin control the lottery, suggesting that these men still have authority in a society where everyone claims to be equal. Therefore, an analysis of Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery” through the Marxist lens suggests that the story is really about the difficulty to challenge those in power in an apparent hypocritical Marxist society.

Harrison Bergeron is a story where the government tries to make everyone equal by handicapping them. You wear a mask if you are pretty, you lug around a heavy back if you are tall and strong, and you have timed beats to distract your brain if you are smart. One person named Harrison tried to rebel, but he got killed. The Lottery is about how every people draw from a black box and if they get a certain ticket they get stoned. Although the two stories have many similarities in conflict they have very different conflict as well. They are generally similar because they both have someone attempting to deny or rebel against society or government and they both get are unsuccessful and killed in the end. They are generally different because one actually does something that most of society wants while one just doesn’t want accept it and society doesn’t care.

The first of the two stories I chose to compare and contrast is titled “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson and the second story is titled “The Rocking-Horse Winner” by D.H. Lawrence. I will compare each of their themes, characters, and plot developments in which they are both similar and different. One of the strongest comparison would be that both stories deal with the subject of luck in one sense or another. The Lottery being considered a game of chance in which luck plays an important factor in being the chosen winner but Luck in the Lottery has a different twist of fate because the winner of the Lottery is actually the

Both “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson and “First They Came” by Martin Niemoller have a theme of following the crowd can have disastrous consequences, but they do it in different ways. The short story “The Lottery” is a story about a small village on a nice and sunny day. Once every year they hold a lottery by drawing names out of a black box. Whoever “wins” the lottery is then stoned to death. In the poem “First They Came” the author speaks about his own experiences in concentration camps. He says how they came for certain groups of people then for him. Both of the text deal with disastrous consequences by following the crowd, however they are done is different ways.

In this semester, we’ve read “The Lottery” and “Harrison Bergeron” from the textbook. They are two short stories; “The Lottery” was written by Shirley Jackson, and “Harrison Bergeron” was written by Kurt Vonnegut. This essay is to compare the similarities and differences between them.

The two stories are both centered on a particular person in the story. “The Lottery” was centered round Tessie Hutchinsen who happened to be the unlucky one to have picked the

Every society always classified each family from the wealthiest to the poorest. The towns people differentiated them through social standing. In this community there were three men that had the highest authority in the community and in the lottery. Mr. Graves, Mr. Martin and Mr. Summer; they had highly ranked jobs in the community which made them wealthier from others. These men were in control of conducting the lottery, making slips and keeping track of the black box. This shows that since men had better jobs and were settled in a good positon, they were known to be more wealthy and had more power in the community. This is why these three men had no worries for holding this lottery because it wouldn’t harm them or their family because they were in charge of this as well as had more competence than others. In addition, men were only considered wealthy and not women. As you can see men had the recognition of being more powerful in this lottery stand and women had no chance. This helped me understand the story because it showed the different social classes and how they benefited from this lottery. The wealthy people had less to worry because they were not the target and people who were classified poor lost their life due to a tradition they follow. Therefore, the society based them by their status and men were always powerful in the

Taking into consideration when and where these two stories took place, one can come to the conclusion that they are very different in setting, as the one playoff in a town square and the other in a house. In “The Lottery” we can determine the exact time of the setting, whereas in “The Rocking-Horse Winner” we are not determine the exact time of the setting.

In the story "The Lottery" by Shirley Jackson towns people in a small village gather to select a sacrafice. The main idea of this story is change something in society if you dont like it. This is shown by people naglecting the black box, other towns giving up the lottery, and people protesting when they are chosen.

They are alike in the ways of they both have senseless killing. In the lottery only one person dies a year. In first they came millions of people die in a couple of years. They are also the same in the sense that

What if you lived in a village that every year has a lottery where someone “wins” by getting stoned to death. Or what if you were alive during the same time as Hitler and The Nazis and someone would not stand up for anything and then when it’s their turn you don’t stand up for them. These two stories “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson and “First they came” By Martin Niemoller, Can be similar in the theme but they are presented differently. Like how they are the same by showing that following, the crowd can lead to disastrous consequences, but show how they are also very different. For example, “The Lottery” is everyone in the village join together on June 27th to have the lottery. Where they find out who “wins” the game. Everyone is Chatting to everyone and when it begins you could hear a pen drop people were so silent. Then this man named Bill Huchinson gets picked for the lottery and his wife Tessie keeps saying how it is unfair and that he did not have enough time to pick the one he wanted. So then since he picked a paper with a black dot on it Tessie Huchinson has to pick one now, and she has a black dot on her paper which means that she “Won” the lottery and now she gets stoned to death. And her best friends that she was talking to before had all turned on her and picked up a stone all because it’s a tradition. Now that was the story of “The Lottery” and it is a short story, let’s talk about the story “First They Came”. So before we get into the story let’s talk