Essay on Shirley Jackson's The Lottery - Evils of Society Exposed

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 less there is to justify a traditional custom, the harder it is to get rid of it” (Twain). The Lottery begins during the summer. A small, seemingly normal, town is gathering to throw the annual “Lottery”. In the end, the townspeople—children included—gather around and stone the winner to death, simply because it was tradition. The story reveals how traditions can become outdated and ineffective. “I suppose, I hoped, by setting a particularly brutal ancient rite in the present and in my own village to shock the story's readers with a graphic dramatization of the pointless violence and general inhumanity in their own lives” (Jackson). As humans develop as a race, their practices should develop with them. Shirley Jackson develops the

The people of the town were so unbendable when it came to their humble tradition that they did not even bother to question the reasoning behind the tradition. All they needed--perhaps all they wanted--was the comforting assurance that it had been around for a long time and would continue to be as long as they lived. People are far less willing to break traditions that have established themselves than traditions that have just begun. It is as if longevity is placed upon a golden pedestal, unable to be touched by the hands of human beings. It is a mandatory fact of human existence that the status quo must be questioned, for the majority of eminent men in centuries past have said or done things which no one will now justify. The villagers should have questioned the beliefs of their town in order to rectify the wrongs of years past.

Within the first few lines of Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery" we are faced with such adjectives as clear, sunny, fresh and warmth. She goes on to paint a picture of small children just out of school for the summer, as the townspeople gather for the annual Lottery. This leads us to believe that the rest of the story is as cheery as the summer day initially described. We as the readers are virtually unaware of the horrible senseless events that lie ahead. Through the use of symbolism Shirley Jackson reveals the underlying decay of ethics that results from an empty ritual followed by narrow-minded people.

Jackson’s story takes a critical look at what can result when the customs and laws that govern society go unchallenged. She sets up the story by showing that the townspeople are quite normal. They attend the lottery while having everyday discussions about the mundane topics of life, such as taxes, food, and housework. Nevertheless, they

Shirley Jackson’s famous short story, “The Lottery,” was published in 1948 and remains to this day one of the most enduring and affecting American works in the literary canon. “The Lottery” tells the story of a farming community that holds a ritualistic lottery among its citizens each year. Although the text initially presents audiences with a close-knit community participating in a social event together on a special day, the shocking twist at the work’s end—with the death of the lottery’s “winner” by public stoning—has led to its widespread popularity, public outcry and discussion, and continued examination in modern times (Jackson). One potential critical theory that can be applied to Jackson’s “The Lottery” is the reader-response

Once upon a time there was a little village. In this village three hundred people happily farmed and played and went about their business. The children went to school while the men cut wood or farmed, and the women cooked and cleaned. Every summer in June each of villagers took part in the traditional lottery drawing and one villager was picked for the prize – a stoning. In 1948, Shirley Jackson published this short story known as “The Lottery,” in The New York Times. The story’s plot shocked readers all over America as they learned of the horror happening in such a quaint town. Jackson purposely set this tragic event in this innocent setting to emphasize humanity’s cruelty. Using her appalling short story, The Lottery,

In “The Lottery”, Jackson portrayed death as a fun family oriented game. Jackson included children, family, friends and most importantly the tradition of playing “the lottery” to portray to the audience the commonality of the “game”. This game, known as “The Lottery” was an event that each family member of a small village participated in every year during the summer time. The families gathered together in the square around mid-morning getting prepared for the game by the gathering of stones,

The setting is described as a “clear and sunny… full-summer day” and is described with positive connotations which create the impression that the story will be pleasant and ordinary. However, the story goes on to be far from it. As the story progresses the mood shifts from light-hearted and easy-going to tense and apprehensive. The villagers chuckle nervously amongst themselves and gather together quietly as the lottery commences. Once the names are picked the mood instantly becomes appalling and barbarous. The villagers move on towards Tessie and stone her to death without a second’s hesitation. The quote previously presented represents how ironic the story is overall. “The Lottery” starts off with a beautiful, warm day and ends in the brutal murder of an innocent woman. In the text, we see that “The lottery was conducted--as were the square dances, the teen club, the Halloween program--by Mr. Summers. who had time and energy to devote to civic activities. He was a round-faced, jovial man” (26). Another form of irony in “The Lottery” is Mr. Summers. He is described as a “round-faced, jovial man” and his last name “Summers” makes him seem warm and amiable. Jackson describing him as such adds on to the beginning

    Often, we paint a fairytale view of life for ourselves and our children. Sometimes, an author paints a frightfully realistic picture of life and forces us to reconsider the fairytale. In Shirley Jackson’s story, "The Lottery," a town each year conducts a lottery in which the winner or looser, in this case, is stoned to death by his or her own neighbors. The tradition is supposed to uphold social structure within the town, but in order to comprehend the true meaning of the story you must be able to read between the lines. "The Lottery" is a story about a town that has let its traditions go too far. Also, it is clear that the story contains eye-opening facts that lead me to

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.

Through use of having community events, celebrating traditions, and repeating the traditions, Shirley Jackson is able to prove that the townspeople are not as cruel as the audience may think. They have many community gatherings that are happy, unlike the lottery. “Jovial man” Mr. Summers conducts the lottery, “the square dances, the teenage club, and Halloween program.” It is very obvious that Mr. Summers, is not a bad man, so he cannot, and should not be blamed for the lottery. Shirley Jackson is trying to prove that although the lottery itself is bad, the people who participate in it are not. Even though the lottery appears to be horrid, Jackson attempts to make the town look civil and human. All the town does the lottery so that they can have good crops that season. The saying goes “lottery in June, corn be heavy soon.” People are considered “crazy fools” if they do not continue with the lottery. Jackson tries to show that the people who second guess the lottery are not popular with some people in town. Also if the town has a bad crop year townspeople will probably blame the doubters. The townspeople have always had a lottery, so it is unknown what would happen if they decided to skip it. Old Man Warner is the town’s oldest townsperson, and he is most experienced with the lottery. No one‒Old Man Warner included‒ ever remembers a time where there was not a lottery. “There’s always been a lottery”

Another message that Jackson illustrates is the blind following of tradition and how that can be a terrible thing. All the members of the community participate in this horrible act because it is a tradition. The people believe that if it is a tradition it then the lottery must not be a bad thing. When Old Man Warner heard that some communities had stopped the lottery he called them a “pack of crazy fools.” He said, “There’s always been a lottery.”(247) Jackson shows how a tradition can be so brutal yet everyone will go with it because it’s in fact tradition. To go against tradition would be to go against the community, so no one is willing to do that. Jackson shows the long running tradition when the black box that is used to hold the slips of paper never changes. It shows the inability for change in the community.

One aspect of human nature that is examined, and that adds to the effectiveness of the story, is man's tendency to resist change. This is shown in more than one way. The first way is the way some villagers tolerate the lottery even though they know it is wrong, and it serves no purpose. They talk about how other towns have already stopped having

She was fascinated with the paranormal and even voodoo and witchcraft. Jackson had a strange fascination of the psychology of human beings as well. She noticed the "disturbed, disposed, misunderstood, or thwarting" characteristics of people and of people to each other. Jackson was incredibly good at picking out the impurities of the human psyche and exploiting them to a great extent (Lethem 1). The village portrayed in "The Lottery" is said to be the same village where Jackson resided. She was a mother of four, married to Stanley Edgar Hyman. She was somewhat of a social outcast in her town. Eventually, her psyche was reshaped by the hostility and persecution of the villagers of the town (Lethem 4). Even before she moved to the town, Jackson had an obvious split in her personality. One side of her was a fearful, shy one which she brought to life in many of her stories. The other side of her was almost a direct contrast, being expulsive and bitter. This side of Jackson drank and smoked, rejected society, and this is the side of her that was fascinated by magic and voodoo. This is the side of her that is represented by Tessie Huchinson in "The Lottery" (Lethem 3). This story in particular best depicts Jackson's view on people. A reader can see that she views life as irony and notices the evils and darkness that lurks within every individual (Hilton 250). "To put it most simply, Shirley Jackson wrote about the mundane evils