Critical Analysis of The Lottery

“The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson was written in 1948. The story takes place in a village square of a town on June 27th. The author does not use much emotion in the writing to show how the barbaric act that is going on is look at as normal. This story is about a town that has a lottery once a year to choose who should be sacrificed, so that the town will have a plentiful year for growing crops. Jackson has many messages about human nature in this short story. The most important message she conveys is how cruel and violent people can be to one another. Another very significant message she conveys is how custom and tradition can hold great power over people. Jackson also conveys the message of

The Lottery, written by Shirley Jackson, is about a small town that dedicates a day to killing one person from the town by stones. The head of the household each draw a paper from the box and whoever receives the one with the black dot, their family has to draw again. Whichever family member has the black dot, essentially wins the lottery. One character in the story, Old Man Warner, has survived each lottery that has happened. Warner has a lack of guilt and claims the lottery should be an occurrence each year. The mention of discontinuing the lottery irritates Warner. “‘Pack of crazy fools,’ he said… ‘There’s always been a lottery…’” (Jackson). He also expresses his dislike for the lack of seriousness when he comments on Mr. Summers, a man “who had the time and energy to devote to civic activities” (Jackson), joking around with the crowd. Perhaps the reason Old Man Warner is accepting towards this event is because this is the “Seventy-seventh year [he][has] been in the lottery” (Jackson). He also comments on how the people have changed. Exclaiming “‘It’s not the way it used to be… People ain’t the way they used to be’” (Jackson). Warner feels no remorse towards the lottery and believes it should continue as a tradition.

Dystopian stories works depict a negative view of "the way the world is supposedly going in order to provide urgent propaganda for a change in direction”. Often these stories have many themes that can relate to the real world. In the dystopian story “The Lottery” written by Shirley Jackson, many themes such as false hopes,hypocrisy, ritual, and mob mentality are expressed throughout the story. In the story everyone in a small village gather in the town square for the lottery, whoever gets chosen gets stoned to death by everyone in the town including friends and loved ones. The use of different themes throughout the story relate to the literary devices and universal storytelling elements setting, verbal irony, symbolism, and social cohesion.

In the short story, “The Lottery”, it was revealed that Tessie Hutchinson died in the end by being stoned to death from winning the so-called “Lottery”. This was not about winning something special, or getting something to be proud of; getting the dot on the slip means death by getting stoned, and for the reason it exists, is unique. It has to do with harvesting better crops. Either if they do this as a “tradition” for the village, it is so cruel and inhumane to kill someone just for getting more crops to feed people. In fact, this needs to be ended, because of how the result is horrifying and other villages seem to quit this tradition; which did not happen because of how Old Man Warner thinks, between the old vs. new ways of life.

Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery” is a story littered with warnings and subtext about the dangers a submissive society can pose. While the opening is deceptively cheery and light Jackson uses an array of symbols and ominous syntax to help create the apprehensive and grim tone the story ends with. Her portrayal of the town folk as blindly following tradition represents the world during World War II when people’s failure to not mindlessly accept and heed authority lead to disastrous consequences. . Shirley Jackson uses a large array of techniques to help convey the idea that recklessly following and accepting traditions and orders can lead to disastrous consequences.

    "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

How do our relationships with others define who we are? Others affect us greatly. The people who surround us everyday have a great impact on our own life. Friends and family are the people who create you, and are part of the reason of who you are today. For example, when there’s a new trend, or when someone says a mean comment, you might change something about you at one point or another. Who affects your life?

The Lottery, by Shirley Jackson spins a shocking tale of the horrors that tradition brings. The allegory centers on an annual town lottery, one where the “winner” is stoned to death. The townspeople are to draw a slip of paper from the black box, and the marked paper signifies who was chosen. This lottery has been going on for generations, and the only spoils of the old lottery is the black box. This shabby, splintered, and stained black box has been passed through generations for the lottery. It is the sole reminder of the tradition that people once had, and a solid reason of why the people of the town continue

Nebeker, Helen E. “The Lottery’: Symbolic Touch De Force” Short Story Criticism, edited by Jenny Cromie, vol. 39, Gale Group, 2000, 75 vols, pp. 187-90. Originally published in American Literature, vol. 46, no. 1, March, 1974, pp. 100-07.

Progress is only possible with a change in attitude. In A Teacher’s Rewards, a previous student, Raybe believes he ended up in jail because he is mistreated by his former teacher Miss Scofield. Then, he returns to visit Miss Scofield in order to settle the score. In The Lottery, the town prepares for its annual lottery. However, the winner of the lottery is stoned to death as a sacrifice. In A Teacher’s Rewards by Robert Phillips and The Lottery by Shirley Jackson, the authors illustrate that one's flawed perception causes individuals to blindly follow outdated views that cause harm to themselves and to society as a whole.

The narration and point of view in Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery” are essential components of what has made the story controversial and cause it to stay relevant since its release in 1948. The passage where the Hutchinson family is drawing papers to see which member will be stoned, on pages 234 and 235, exemplifies the power of this kind of narration perfectly. In this section, almost all of the aspects of narration and point of view are demonstrated, including the grammatical person of the narrator and their characteristics: whether they are part of the story world, their reliability, level of knowledge, and the ethical issues that arise from how the story is told.

In our life we are always in first point of view of our view, sometimes experience a third point of view about other but our view are mostly to always limited, not knowing everything. In a story called “Charles” by Shirley Jackson, the author creates a limited first point of view of Laurel's mother where the reader reads and understand only what Laurie’s mother understand and see. In the other story also written by Shirley Jackson called “The Lottery”, the story proceed at a limited third point of view where the reader understands more ideas. Although each storied have a different form of point of view, both stories creates a limited view where it creates suspense.

In her short story, “The Lottery”, Sheila Jackson invites us into the square of a small village on a warm summer day (247). It is not just any day. It is the 27th of June; an annually anticipated day for this community (Jackson, 247). The scene is described to depict a pre-technology era, most likely resembling an early American town. They have postal service, a school, and a bank, but no mention of devices, such as telephones, or modern transportation is made. (Jackson, 247). It is possible that the author wanted to represent the very basic elements in our humanity when choosing the setting.

According to Helen E. Nebeker, most acknowledge the power of The Lottery, admitting that the psychological stun of the ritual murder in an atmosphere of modern, small-town normality cannot be easily overlooked. Virgil Scott, for instance, says that the story leaves one uneasy because of the author's use of incidental symbolism: the black box, the forgotten tuneless chant, the ritual salute to assure the entire recreation of the mechanics of the lottery neglect to serve the story as they might have. At that point, they indicate structural weakness by acknowledging that Jackson has preferred to give no key to her story but to leave its meaning to our imagination, allowing a good deal of flexibility in our interpretation, while yet demanding that everything in the story has been obtained to let us know how we are to 'take' the ending events in the story. Maybe the critical conflict illustrated above stems from failure to see that The Lottery really intertwines two stories and subjects into one fictional vehicle. The obvious, easily discovered story shows up in the facts, wherein members of a small rural town meet to decide who will be the victim of the annual savagery. The symbolic hints which develop in a second, sub rosa story becomes apparent as early as the fourth word of the story when the date of June 27th alerts us to the season of the summer solstice with all its connotation of ancient ritual. From the symbolic development of the box, the story moves quickly to climax.

In the short story "The Lottery," author Shirley Jackson creates a very shocking and horrifying situation through the use of characterization, setting, and the theme of the individual versus society, which is portrayed in the story as scapegoating. She writes as if the events taking place are common to any town (Mazzeno 2). The story was very unpopular when first published, mostly because of the fact that people did not understand it. The story of the all-to-familiar town, ordinary in every way except for the ritualistic murder taking place has since grown great popularity, even being adapted for television, ballet, and radio (Lethem 1-2).