The Dangers Of Mass Shootings In The Lottery By Shirley Jackson

In a society where conformity transcends individuality, he refuses to give Tessie a chance to voice her perspective and forces her to relinquish the black-dotted lottery slip from the black box, a symbol of blindness, evil, and death. Furthermore, immediately following the selection of Tessie as the sacrifice, the eagerness to murder her prevails: “They still remembered to use stones. The pile of stones the boys had made earlier was ready; there were stones on the ground with the blowing scraps of paper that had come out of the box” (4). At such a young age, the children assume the responsibility and take the initiative to thoroughly prepare the archaic “pile of stones,” suggesting that the chaos extends beyond the scope of adults where even youth are involved in the entire brainwashing process. The excessive hyperactivity compels the barbaric and violent environment, motivating the villagers to stone Tessie to death like animals. All in all, Jackson’s “The Lottery” strategically illuminates the darkness of tradition, where the problem does not only lie in the pure pandemonium that results from blindly following firmly established practices,

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.

As the plot of the stories unfolds, the greater influence of violent tensions become evident. In The Lottery, people follow the tradition despite its cruelty and absurdity. Although the ritual of the lottery is brutal, the dwellers of the village do not seem to see how barbaric it is because “there’s always been a lottery” (Jackson, 1982, p. 118). Nevertheless, the tensions grow when the lottery begin and every citizen is awaiting for its end. The climatic moment of the story grows when the reader discovers that Tess

The short story “The Lottery” written by Shirley Jackson begins with villagers gathering in the square, between the post office and the bank, to participate in the lottery which is not what it seems like because the story’s surprising ending reveals that Tessie Hutchinson, who draws the slip of paper with the black spot on it is stoned to death when the lottery ends. Shirley Jackson reveals through the use of irony, foreshadow, and symbolism in the story how much people can get caught up in maintaining a tradition that they wouldn’t question their wrongful actions, such as the murder of an innocent human being.

The Lottery is a story based on a village's tradition. The lottery is defined as a very collective act of murder. The tradition of the lottery is the coming together of the whole town, on one specific day, for certain hours to draw one person’s name to see who will get to get killed by getting stoned. With this act of killing someone is making it a collective act of murder because they could disobey the tradition and not chose someone but they chose to kill one person to make themselves live longer. “It is not fair, it is not right” is coming from Mrs. Hutchinson who at the end of the story was the person who wins the lottery and gets stones thrown at her after she said these words thus making it a collective act of murder. Another reason because it’s not like they are killing that person on accident they are killing another human being on purpose to save their life.

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

This is where the line between what is good and what is required lies: in following the traditions and the ritual of the village, and doing so with reverence and dignity. The locals can take the life of their neighbor because they understand that it is part of who they are. They also know that it fulfills some need, some greater good, though they may not all remember exactly what that greater good is. This story may seem cold, barbaric, and cruel, but it is in painting this bleak picture of society that Shirley Jackson succeeds in turning the lens back around onto the reader. Jackson makes us reflect on our own lives, on our own society, and on the barbarism that exists there. In reading “The Lottery” we are, on some inherent level, forced to consider the “blood sacrifices” of our own culture, which we ourselves may gloss over every day or every year. It is only by confronting the dark rituals in our lives that we are able to distinguish where the line between what we feel is good and what we feel is required falls for us. But once we have done this, maybe we can start to change things, and end the bloodshed.

The literal level of "The Lottery" illustrates a town's chilling tradition of a random selection of death by stoning of a certain person. Figuratively, however, one aspect of Jackson's short story bravely reveals the reality of society's control over women by placing on them expectations and limitations.

People think winning the lottery is a good thing. However, in Shirley Jackson’s story, “The Lottery” the winner gets something very crucial, getting stoned to death. Shirley Jackson uses, foreshadowing, the attitude of the villagers, and the subtleness of the black box, to provide the gruesome ending of the story for the reader. Making the story, eerie, serious, and horrifying, the story takes an unexpected twist; the reader will soon realize that the lottery is not what they thought it would be.

It was a warm day that would end with a kind of tragedy even though the town’s people see it as something that has to happen. The lottery was something that took place as a tradition as a sacrifice for crops. One person would be stoned at the end of the lottery and in this case it was Tessie Hutchinson, a mother and a wife. In the story the main conflict is the lottery because it ends with the death of one of the towns people. There are many emotional triggers in the story, one being that someone asks Tessie’s own child pick up a rock and help stone her to death. Another one in this story is the helplessness that Tessie faced once she knew that she was the so called “winner” of the lottery, she helpless yells “It isn't fair, it isn't right.” In the story, the lottery is a metaphor for traditions that are used to inflict harm. It can be comparable to many traditions of today’s society that could be harmful to

In a dystopian village, “A stone hit her in the side of the head. It isn’t fair, it isn’t right, Mrs. Hutchinson screamed and then they were upon her” (7). Keeping the tradition of the lottery alive means that the members of Tessie’s family, her friends, and the villagers will stone her to death. Tessie Hutchinson is the unluckiest person this year, having won the lottery. The theme of “The Lottery” is that there are some traditions that should not be kept alive.

In Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery”, things do not appear as they sound. In the short story “The Lottery”, Tessie Hutchinson has a positive attitude until her family is receives the black dot. No one in this village wants to receive the black dot because someone in that family will be stoned to death. The short story “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson centers around the concept of irony and reveals the village seems more corruption and evil than happy and sweet.

Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery” is notoriously known for its highly controversial tale, abstract values, and fiction. In “The Lottery,” Tessie Hutchinson, a free-spirited character, becomes a victim of a ritual execution. Shirley Jackson uses symbolism to explain three objects used in the story: the black box, three-legged stool, and the stones. Also, Jackson uses the villagers to describe the characters’ personalities and values which in hindsight bring together the story’s setting and plot.

“ The Lottery” is a short story in which Shirley Jackson,the author, presents a conflict induced by the actions of other villagers. Tessie Hutchinson, the main character, is under the influence of tradition, so consequently feels like there is nothing wrong with the lottery as does everyone else. The narrator uses the actions of other villagers to influence the undermining of the traditional lottery that is stemmed from Tessie. When her husband gets the black dot, Tessie is quick to intercede but when the tables turn no one comes to Tessie’s rescue. The author uses characterization of other villagers to foreshadow the character vs society conflict that leaves Tessie Hutchinson in an outrage, causing her to make a decision.

Throughout the centuries people have come a long, now we have a more structured society. But there's something that lives in all of us and will never go away, that is the crave for violence. In Shirley Jackson's “The Lottery”, a small town has an annual “lottery” where a person of the town is chosen to be stoned to death. In The Lottery, Jackson shows humans natural thirst for blood through the symbolism of the name Delacroix, and the children collecting stones and the forgotten ideas of the lottery.