Inhumanity In The Lottery By Shirley Jackson

In short stories the author composes a compelling plot, with an ending that in someway either teaches the main character a lesson, or the reader themselves. Jackson acts as a master of literary devices, as she navigates the reader through intense scenes that evoke an emotional response to the experiences of the main character. In the short stories, “The Possibility of Evil” and “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson, she used the same three literary devices to grasp the reader’s attention from beginning to end. In “The Possibility of Evil” Miss Adela Strangeworth caused a stir by sending anonymous letters to townspeople, filled with things she suspected other people in her town of doing; she claimed that every letter was sent with the intent of

“The Lottery” is more ambiguous with its setting, as the exact location and year where the story takes place are omitted. The rather simple character names, and the lack of any overt accents when the characters speak make it easy to imagine the story happening almost any time and place in America. In a small nondescript village, the inhabitants practice a lottery ritual where the “winner” is stoned to death in the end. No one in town questions the absurdity of murdering one of their own. They even go as far as to include children in the stoning, showing just how far their adherence

The idea of winning a lottery is associated with luck, happiness and anticipation of good things. In Shirley Jackson's story, " The Lottery", this is not the case. The irony of the story is that the winner of the lottery gets stoned to death by everyone else in the town. The story is very effective because it examines certain aspects of human nature.

Shirley Jackson is to be considered one of the best authors of the 1900’s. Her style of writing reeled in readers from all different ages. She can be creepy, hilarious, and inspiring to the eyes that see her words. In Shirley Jackson’s short story, The Lottery, she keeps the reader on the edge of their seat wanting to continue reading beyond the final word. She uses literary devices to shape her story to grab her readers attention all throughout the story. By using these literary devices, Shirley Jackson shows off her dark and twisted side as well as her fantastic writing style to emphasize why she is one of the writers of her generation.

Winning isn’t always what it seems. Hearing the word “lottery” usually develops a positive connotation in the mind of the reader, associating it with pleasure, good fortune and happiness; however, in “The Lottery,” the winner is rewarded by being brutally stoned by her neighbors and believed friends. “The Lottery,” written by Shirley Jackson in 1948, highlights how complacently our society reacts to the pointless brutality and inhumanity towards others. To demonstrate this, Jackson examines social constructs, women’s place and how instead focusing too strongly on strict traditions, we need to reexamine these rituals to determine their necessity and if they are still beneficial to society. Jackson uses seemingly ordinary details about

The short story, The Lottery, by Shirley Jackson, managed to capture various human tendencies stemming from the very heart of the unalterable human condition. The willingness to follow tradition blindly, the inherent cruelty of humans, and the unwillingness to change were the primary negative behaviors depicted in the story.

The Lottery by Shirley Jackson is a short story based on a fictional village that holds a macabre ritual. Although the regularity was not stated within the tale, the story speaks of a regular gathering of the village folk to conduct some form of lottery. In a disturbing twist of the tale, the winner of the lottery doesn’t get to receive a prize, but instead, suffer the indignity of being killed by getting stoned to death by friends, family, and neighbors. Mrs. Hutchinson is the unfortunate soul, who, despite her pleas and protests has no option but accept her fate. In a similarly titled story, The Lottery by Chris Abani talks about an incident he witnessed when he went to the market with his aunt. In the story, Abani explains how he

Ted Bailey of the University of Miskolc, interpreted Shirley Jackson’s, “The Lottery” in his work "Sacred Violence in Shirley Jackson's ‘The Lottery’". In this work, Bailey reasons that “The Lottery” is a story which encompasses violence through tradition, an agricultural fertility ritual, and scapegoating. In the first instance, Bailey places emphasis on tradition in “The Lottery”. For example, one of the main characters, Old Man Warner stands for the voice of an older generation who does not believe in new and innovative traditions. The placing of stones in Little Davy’s hand so that he also has to play a part in the lottery can be seen as a component of prolonging the lottery for future generations. Not only are the young taught the rules

Shirley Jackson’s short story “The Lottery” illustrates that cruelty and violence are primitive and inherent characteristics of all humans through its depiction of a seemingly ordinary town that engages in surprisingly dystopian traditions. The villagers are introduce as regular individuals that are living in idealistic society as illustrated through the idyllic image of “a sunny, summer day with blooming flowers and green grass”. In stark contrast, these very people are shown to be capable of heartless violence with “a flying stone” hitting the side of Tessie Hutchison’s head as she screams for mercy. This juxtaposition illustrates the complexity of human nature, which can be both kind and cruel, while highlighting murder and violence is not

In the short story “the Lottery” by Shirley Jackson has a very unique twist and different traditions. This story is about how the whole community is coming together for a gathering every once a year. It is not any happy gathering that people might think it would be. The lottery is a tradition that the community has picked up after years back and still follows this tradition. They forgot most of the whole rituals but they don’t forget the important part which is the part of stoning the person to death. The lottery is a cruel thing they do every year and they don’t plan of stopping. This involves the whole community to join in a circle in the middle of town.

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,

Most people strive for individuality, the character of a particular person that distinguishes the person from the rest because we all want to be unique and stand out; however we have all been a victim of peer pressure, conforming or feeling obligated to follow what everyone else is doing just so we don’t feel left out or different whether the behavior was right or wrong. In The Lottery it asks the readers to think about the traditions and social norms that we usually don’t think about nor question. Shirley Jackson emphasizes the theme of “Individual versus Society” through the story’s setting, point of view, and symbolism. The story takes place in a small civilized village on June 27th

Traditions and customs still exist in different parts of the globe. Some of these traditions are constructive while others are deemed as destructive. Civilization is associated with a change of times and has thus led to the change in the traditions. However, some of these traditions have remained intact clearly exhibiting how civilization has failed to affect them. Some people may have opted for a change to scrap certain tradition depicted as destructive, but the fact they fear to go against their traditions or ancestors had made it difficult for such elements to be scrapped from the society. In the theoretical realm some of the said traditions have been depicted as illogical, but the stakeholders found no reason if scraping such thereby leading to continued injustice treatment rituals in the

The first example of the town’s obsession with tradition is Old Man Warner, the oldest man in the town, who has been in the lottery for seventy-seven years complains about how some members of the town want to get rid of the yearly event. He doesn't want to change the tradition that has been going on for more than seventy years. He was upset about the people in the north changing tradition and said, “Next thing you know, they’ll be wanting to go back to living in caves….” . He doesn’t want to change so he prefers that the tradition stay the same for every year. So, he participated in the lottery seventy seven times but nothing happened and he never got the black dot.

A story that could capture anyone’s attention is the story called The Lottery by Shirley Jackson. The story starts off right away with the setting. “On a warm day in late June the 27th.” The villages in there town all gather together to participate in the lottery. The game was ruled by Mr. Summers. The head of the household would forward to a black wooden box, where each selects a slip of paper. The paper is then put into a box and drawn to see who will win the money. The small town is basically devouring a member of its own community. One of the charters Tess whose name was on the piece of paper and she proses in vain as the villages attack her.