The Lottery By Shirley Jackson Analysis

There is a great deal of tension about the ritual that surrounds the Lottery traditions in Shirley Jackson’s short story, “The Lottery.” Out of fear and superstition, the lottery ceremony continues to exist. In short, the lottery is more of a tradition rather than a ritual at the point we witness in the story, but out of respect and fear for tradition, the towns folks are more than willing to commit an act of mass violence, simply for the sake of a tradition.

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.

    "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

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

Following other people may have a positive or negative effect, but when it reaches a certain point where you blindly follow others it may not have a positive outcome. “The Lottery” made by Shirley Jackson is about a small community of villagers that gather together every year to perform a tradition. All of the villagers gather together and draw small slips of paper from a black wooden box, whoever draws the first slip with the black dot on it, their family has to draw first. Now all of the members of that certain family draw again, and whoever gets the black dot in that certain family must get stoned to death. The next story is called “First They Came” made and about a man named Martin Niemoller. It talks about Martin Niemoller former

Traditions are widespread among many different people and cultures; It is an explanation for acting without thinking. Not all traditions are a good thing, though, and blindly following them can lead to harsh consequences. The villagers in a small town in “The Lottery” gather together annually to participate in this tradition, where one person in the town is randomly chosen in a drawing to be violently stoned to death by citizens. It has been around for seventy-seven years and everyone partakes in it. People always attend, showing the importance of tradition amongst the society. However, in the short story, “The Lottery,” Shirley Jackson uses many literary devices to show that traditions are not always meant to be followed.

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.

1. What are the first signs that something sinister lurks beneath the surface of this story? How does the end alter our perception of the events of the day?

Despite their differences in their approach to characterization, both Joyce Carol Oates and Shirley Jackson managed to craft haunting short stories, whose characters quickly bond to your brain before they are quickly ripped away.

Shirley Jackson’s short story The Lottery is set in a small village who relies deeply on their crops. This story is about a sacrifice that takes place every year in which the heads of households draw for their families in order to see who “wins” and saves the town. The readers grow close to a character named Tessie who decides to speak her mind when it’s too late. In the end, the townsfolk realise that what comes around goes around.

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

Sometimes following a crowd isn’t always a good. The theme of these two stories is about following a crowd. You shouldn’t follow a crowd, even if you think it is a good idea it could still end up very badly. Like if you were at a party, and someone brings drugs or drinks and you are underage that is not a good thing to be involved in, and not a group of people you should want to be around. “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson, is a short story about a town that gets together on June 27th on a sunny summer day for the lottery. They all gather around and each person takes a slip of paper out of the black box, and the person with the black dot on their paper “wins”. But you don’t actually win, you get stoned to death by all the people that you lived with in the town. “First They Came” by Martin Niemoller, is a story about the Socialists, the Trade Union, the Jews, and Martin Niemoller. The Nazis started coming for the Socialists, and Martin didn’t say anything. The they came for the Trade Union, and Martin didn’t say anything. Then they came for the Jews, and Martin didn’t say anything. And then they came for Martin, and no one was there to help him, and why would they because he didn’t try to help them. Both “The Lottery” and “First They Came” deal with following a crowd, but they do so in different ways.

In the story “first they came” by Martin Niemoller it explains how they came for the socialists, trade unionists, and then the Jews. So he did not speak out because he was not part of those groups. Then they came out for him and there was no one left to speak out for him. In the story “the lottery” by Shirley Jackson it explained how they play the lottery but rather than winning its actually a loss if you win. In the story they have a black box and slips of paper and if you have a black dot on your paper you get stoned to death. In their town it’s a tradition to play the lottery. So they come to the town square they all get called up to get their slip of paper and when everyone gets their paper they all open them at once and whoever has

“Every group feels strong, once it has found a scapegoat” (Mignon McLaughlin, 1913). A scapegoat is someone who is blamed for all the faults and corruptions that others have committed. In history, there are lots of scapegoat examples, the most popular being; Jesus Christ and the Jews in the Second World War. In the short story “The Lottery”, Shirley Jackson used persecution and tradition to demonstrate how scapegoating justified unfair killing. Both of these aspects relate to the World War that preceded only a couple years before the story was written. The persecution was blind and done once a year as a tradition that everyone expected to happen.

Shirley Jackson 's ‘The Lottery’ is a classic American short story known for its shocking twist ending and its insightful commentary on cultural traditions. It was originally printed in The New Yorker magazine in 1948.The tale begins with all the villagers gathering in the town square for the annual lottery as if it were just another day. Children are playing with stones while the adults swap stories of farming and gossip. It 's not until the lottery begins, over halfway through the story that we start to suspect that all is not as it seems. Literature continues to be a means to expose the darkness of that inequality (Gioia, 2013). Writers carry the burden of exposing the darkness that lies at the heels of ignorance as Jackson so