Shirley Jackson The Lottery

In Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery”, human nature shows itself in its finest form. A small town comes together and gets ready to perform a lottery, which is tradition for them. At first, everything is fine. All the children are happy about summer and picking rocks. Then once the lottery begins, the atmosphere gets tense. Once Bill Hutchinson “wins” the lottery and his wife makes a fuss, his family redraws and Tessie, his wife, gets the paper with the black dot. It is shown that the “winner” is killed by rocks being thrown at them by the other townspeople.

Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery” is a terrify story about a small town and their traditions. The Ending of the lottery is the most shocking many of its readers have ever read. Why is it so shocking. Well Shirley jackson uses sybolism and simple narritive and her normal life to convey such a shock.

The Lottery by Shirley Jackson is a short story widely considered to be one of the greatest dystopian works ever published. In the text, Jackson explores many implied themes including the use of scapegoats by society, the dangers of mob mentality and the consequences of society strictly adhering to tradition. Jackson’s text was clearly influenced by the Second World War that had concluded a mere three years before the date of publication. The Second World War was the largest, bloodiest war in human history. It exposed a potential for evil within mankind that had never before been seen. The Lottery is a clear parallel of the events of the Second World War, the story serves as a warning to future generations to avoid committing the mistakes of the past and does so by making extensive use of parallelism and symbolism to convey its message.

In Shirley Jacksons, The Lottery, the reader is taken into an almost dreamlike village where the children are playing and the adults are conversing and laughing amongst each other. The story makes the reader believe that this village that they have been introduced to is the ideal spot to live in and has the happiest of people but the story begins to unravel itself as it progresses. The village follows a tradition to hold an annual lottery and this requires that all townspeople are required to meet up at the square. Once a victor is chosen, the story takes a turn for the worst as the said victor, Mrs.Hutchinson, is stoned to death. Upon reading this story and its ending, it is apparent that this result was being hinted at from the beginning and that the mentality of the village is unstable. Having children take part in picking up stones for the pending murder and parents mindlessly allowing these obviously immoral actions to continue.

When reading and analyzing literature, look closely at the details. Authors don't write anything randomly; names, time of year, and items are chosen deliberately. For instance, the fact that it's a small town could hint at a cult-like atmosphere. Postmaster's name was Mr. GRAVES. Mr. "Summers" would indicate something light and easy, as summers are, but he owned a coal company and coal is something we burn or destroy. That's a contradiction the author deliberately chose. Jackson says it was a "beautiful" day but something horrible was about to happen. Even the box was black. Social gatherings are usually good, but not this one. So look at detail like this and it will give you clues. Put these things into your analysis.

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.

“The Lottery”, by Shirley Jackson is a short story about a disturbing social practice in a village. Besides, there were about three hundred citizens in the small village where the setting took place. The introduction of “the lottery” is about an event that takes place every year on 27th in the month of June, where the community members of this tradition organize a lottery. Everyone in the village including small children to adults is expected to participate. Besides, when this story was introduced at the very first in 1948 by Shirley Jackson, many people were upset. This is because this story was so strange to undertake in modern enlightened times.

The main theme of the story expresses the notion of human scapegoat which has a devastating effect due to the crowd psychology that is presented in the story. The scenic setting stated in the beginning of the story highly opposes with the horrific violence that the story comes to. It mentions it being a beautiful summer day with flowers "blossoming profusely" and the grass "richly green” ,giving the reader to predict that the story is going to end just as well as the beginning.

In Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery,” the story conducts a “lottery” that involves the families of the town to go into a drawing. Once the drawing is done, the winner of the lottery is used as a sacrifice in the town and is pelted by stones thrown from the community, including children. Furthermore, the basis of “The Lottery” has to do with psychological problems and influence. Psychoanalysis is built upon Sigmund Freud’s theories of psychology, which asserts that the human mind is affected by their “unconscious that is driven by their desires and fears” (Brizee). Analyzing the concept of Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery” through a psychoanalytic lens convey how society reflects on the consciousness, how the denial of the mind can avoid the

“The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson, is a short story that goes on to tell about an annual lottery held by a small village in New England. “The Lottery” starts off happily with the talk of a “clear and sunny, with fresh warmth of a full summer day,” (Jackson 345) and then quickly unravels with a gruesome sequence of events. Each year villagers gather together to partake in the lottery, in which each person draws at random to determine who will be stoned to death by the village. Jackson uses symbols such as the “black box” (346) and the “three-legged stool” (346) to create a sense of suspense early on in the story, as well as an ironic setting in order to mask the true intentions of the lottery.

In 1948, Shirley Jackson published a very popular book,“The Lottery”. It remains to this day as the most affecting work in the literature world. “The Lottery” tells a story of a community who carries a tradition each year among its citizens. People from the village would all gather around the square to participate in the lottery. Each heads of the households chooses a slip to see who have been selected. The “winner” who was chosen would be stoned to death.

“The Lottery” a short story by Shirley Jackson, features a small town during the time of their lottery. The lottery is an annual event, organized by Mr. Summers. It is a highly important time, as the whole town comes to the town square on the day of the lottery. The guidelines are quite simple: everyone takes a slip of paper out of the symbolic black box, and the slip of paper with the black mark carved on it, is the “lucky winner”. But their definition of the lottery is different一usually, a lottery is a valuable thing to win. But when Tessie Hutchinson, the “lucky winner” gets her reward by getting stoned to death by the rest of the villagers, it is clear that winning this lottery can't be a good affair... So what is the purpose of this lottery? Rather than discontinuing the lottery, the town continues with it because they don't want to upset an old tradition.

The story opens up with an inviting feel and doesn’t hint that it will turn in the opposite direction. I like how the author sets up the story by just jumping right into story. The children gather excited grabbing rocks but when the adults come to the square, as a reader I felt the tension build. The author uses the people's expressions to create the tone of the story and it's clear this is not a ordinary lottery.

In the story “The Lottery” written by Shirley Jackson, there's a small town that does the Lottery. Every year on June 27th, everyone in the town gathers in the town square around ten o’clock. There is a black box with many pieces of blank white paper and one paper with a black dot on it. The oldest male from each family picks out a piece of paper. If you're the male who picks out the black dot, someone in your family is going to get stoned to death. Mr. Hutchinson was the one who picked out the piece of paper with the black dot. There are six people in his family so they put six pieces of paper in the box. All of the pieces of paper were blank except for the paper with the black dot. Each family member picked out a piece of paper. Tessie,

In the nineteenth century thing were different. The tradition was followed no matter what, even if it may cause your life. In Shirley Jackson fiction short story entitles “The lottery” through her utilization of setting and dialogue, she passes on the subject that when you are a part of a group, it's hard to conflict with the traditions of the group since they have been generally accepted for so long, even though some people from the group don’t want to follow the tradition.