Personal Narrative: The Multi-State Lottery

When you think of the lottery, what do you imagine? Gold, A new house, maybe a car? This short story is nothing like you’re thinking. “The Lottery”, by Shirley Jackson, conveys its message through the use of diction, dialogue, irony, and theme. "The Lottery" first appeared in the New Yorker in 1948.

    "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

The lottery in this country is a big past time for Americans. It gives hope to the hopeless and disappointment to a multitude of participants. A quick view of statistical information regarding the lottery shows that out of all people who take part in this country wide phenomenon, each individual person has a 1 in 175,223,510 chance of hitting the jackpot (AmericanStatisticalAssociation.org). The author of “Against The Odds and Against the Common Good”, argues that the state lotteries are “urging people to gamble”. Gloria Jimenez, of whom is the author of “Against The Odds and Against the Common Good”, creates assumptions that support her stance on her argument. Jimenez also uses the viewpoint from people who disagree with her logic, by stating various counter statements that contradict her stance. To fully understand Jimenez, we have to view the different factors of her stance on why states should not be urging people to gamble, assumptions that she makes to support her stance and countering views of people who don’t necessarily agree with her argument.

The Game of Lottery As mentioned before, the most popular form of lottery is the methed of random number selection. In the American lottery, a player first picks five different whole numbers between 1 and 59. Upon calculation, there are 5,006,386 combinations that could be made from the availability of these numeral combinations. After the player has chosen their five numbers, they pick another, final number that is between 1 and 35 - the powerball. A list of the combinations would look like (1, 2, 3, 4, 5), (1, 2, 3, 4, 6) and so on all the way up to (55, 56, 57, 58, 59). Thus, in calculating a player's chance

The allure of the lottery is for a small charge, usually $1 or $2, there is the possibility of winning millions. While the large majority of those who buy

     Two of the biggest holidays in the United States are Christmas and Easter. Both of which are derived from Christian beliefs. Even though 'The Lottery' is apparently a pagan ritual, violent and horrific, it is appropriate, only by the fact that the participants no longer remember, or seem to care, what the original intent of the ritual or the significance of its traditions.

All you have to do to win the Jackpot is to check if your ticket matches the exact numbers drawn in your favorite lottery. “Jackpot” is the prize winning in Row/Level 1 of a particular draw.

As an illustration, the author believes that the chance of winning the lottery is extremely slim, by stating, “Powerball lottery, for example, have a 1 in 292,201,338 chance of winning the jackpot. That’s like putting into a hat the names of nearly everyone in the U.S. and hoping your name is pulled out”. (1) For this reason,

In Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery”, the small village, at first, seems to be lovely, full of tradition, with the townspeople fulfilling their civic duties, but instead this story is bursting with contrast. The expectations that the reader has are increasingly altered. The title of this short story raises hope, for in our society the term “lottery” typically is associated with winning money or other perceived “good” things. Most people associate winning a lottery with luck, yet Jackson twists this notion around and the luck in this village is with each of the losers.

In order to win the lottery, you have to be serious about it. I remember seeing Cynthia Stafford on a news channel explaining her visualization exercises that help her to win, and the news anchor was making jokes about it. I was thinking to myself this is why the Law of Attraction doesn't work for some people. You can't make jokes about the Law of Attraction, you have to take this concept very seriously in order for it to work. Joking around or being skeptical about it will dismiss everything. People are very believable when it comes to spiritual concepts such as angels and demons. So why is manifesting the lottery so far fetched? Just because it hasn't worked for you doesn't mean it won't happen. You have to believe in your heart and soul that you're going to win, and you will. When that happens, nothing can stop

When I think of the lottery, I think of a game basically where they choose one number and something or something gets chosen.

After faced with new responsibilities, a person is subject to become overwhelmed and at times insecure. When being a lottery winner, privacy becomes nonexistent because they are now considered to be a local celebrity. Being obligated to uphold the duties of a celebrity places a large burden on the life of a lottery winner. A lottery winner will begin to over analysis events taking place and question the intentions of people around them. They begin to constantly ask themselves, “Are people around for the best interest of them or their winnings.” Much insecurity faced by a lottery can result in the lost of their true character. The lottery winner begins to abandoned their previous hobbies, job, and interests left to be known as the person who won the lottery. Their need to feel empowered is now effected resulting in their drive to regain their empowerment by any means

The jackpot is the most profitable game in gambling since gambling began. Over hundreds of people give every day in different locations hoping to win the many millions they hear about on television. But out of those hundreds from all around only a select few win, and this is why many people continue to be broke. The lottery comes in many forms of gambling such as slot machines, scratch tickets, and power balls, but the most common one in today's society that seems to be the most talked about is the power ball. Even though this form of gambling is played almost everywhere so few little places offer it but they have the scratch offs in their place that are the best for gambling in the southern state convenience stores. Furthermore, the toll it takes on the person lives them with self-hatred for themselves, disgust and neglect towards their family. Everyone of legal age should not play the lottery because it is a bad idea, and the reason being is it does not benefit the economy, it builds addiction, and it risks people’s safety.

And then there is the state lottery. The New Yorker magazine estimated that the chances of winning an average lottery is about 12 million to 1. Some things are

The history of lottery started long time ago in the early history of America. The online gov. info library states that “Lotteries were frequently used in colonial-era America to finance public works projects such as paving streets, constructing wharves, even building churches. In the 18th century, lotteries were used to finance construction of buildings at Harvard and Yale.” This shows that lottery has been around for a long time. Today, most states have adopted lottery system especially the computerized ones like mega millions and Powerball due to the world advancing technologically. This is so because these states have seen the growth of income that come from lotto. Each state has rules and time frames in which a prize can be claimed. Some states allows people to be anonymous like Ohio while others don’t have that option. For example, in Indiana winners have 90 days before they claim their prize and their identity is revealed. In cases where the winning ticket isn’t claimed, the state will get back all the money that it contributed to the unclaimed jackpot. The money is distributed according to state rules.