The Lottery, By Shirley Jackson

Mr. Summers frequently asks the villagers about making a new box, but “no one liked to upset even as much tradition as was represented by the black box… Every year, after the lottery, Mr. Summers began talking again about a new box, but every year the subject was allowed to fade off without anything being done.” (Jackson). This quote shows just how reluctant the townspeople are to change anything. It almost seems as if they’re scared of what could happen. Another good example of their reluctance is, “"Pack of crazy fools," he said. "Listening to the young folks, nothing's good enough for them. Next thing you know, they'll be wanting to go back to living in caves, nobody work anymore, live that way for a while. Used to be a saying about 'Lottery in June, corn be heavy soon.' First thing you know, we'd all be eating stewed chickweed and acorns. There's always been a lottery."” (Jackson). Warner says this about a neighboring town in the north that wants to get rid of their lottery. His remark about ‘lottery in June, corn be heavy soon’ can be interpreted as the lottery is the reason why these people have

Then there is the actually lottery, were the drawings of a ticket by a villager. Just like a lottery this person is responsible to receive there “winnings”. After everyone, raffles out there sheet of paper, there is a ritual performed were families gather. Then the family members have to draw their numbers. Finally, Tess Hutchinson receives the winnings; a piece of paper with a black dot present. We soon realize that in fact, this is no winning at all; the black dot is a sign of death. To be stoned by the villagers of the town to keep ritual alive. End of story!

    "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

Andrew Lansley once said “Peer pressure and social norms are powerful influences on behavior, and they are classic excuses.” Most people tend to follow cultural customs because they have grown with them or it has been forced onto them with factors such as parents or their environment. However, is it always right to follow these customs even if they are in fact considered wrong? Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery” is a short story about the cultural norms of a small community and its annual lottery ritual; a stoning. Jackson overthrows the story by making the lottery a corrupt occurrence rather than a victory. The reader would probably think that the “winner” of the lottery would be benefited but in this case the victory was not so delightful. In her short story “The Lottery” Jackson seemingly uses ordinary details about the setting and the townspeople to characterize her theme that although society claims to be civilized, and may appear so, it is inherently barbaric.

“The Lottery” written by Shirley Jackson was written in 1948. Jackson declared her purpose for writing the story was “to shock the story’s readers with a graphic demonstration of the pointless violence and general inhumanity in their own lives” (pg. 250). The main characters in this story are Mr. Summers who draws the names out of the black box; Mr. Graves the post master that assist Mr. Summers; Bill Hutchinson, Tessie Hutchinson who were chosen in the lottery; and the townspeople. Jackson uses the bright and friendly atmosphere set the tone of the story. The story starts off on a clear and sunny morning on June 27th. It was a beautiful day with the flowers blooming and the grass green in a small little town of 300 people. In this town the townspeople felt strongly about upholding traditions. Tradition is important to small towns, a way to link families and generations. Following traditions blindly is what can turn into something terrible. The lottery was held each year where one person was

In some ways, “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson could be seen as controversial. Within the first paragraph, we are left with two main questions; “what is the lottery?” and “why does it happen?” A major theme that answers the first question is all about tradition. Yes, the lottery is a tradition in many towns. No one has ever questioned this tradition, even though it is quite inhumane. In all honesty, you could compare this story very well to The Hunger Games just because of what this tradition consists of. Imagine being in a town of around three hundred people and having your life put on the line. The lottery itself comes down to all of the townspeople meeting up, and each family name is read by Mr. Summers, and the head of the family

What is the difference between superstitions and traditions? «The lottery» by Shirley Jackson provides a good example how superstitions of people from a tiny town affect on those traditions. This story shows dark side of Humanity. Whole community entrusts their life with a small black box. The allegory can confuse you, because the main purpose of the «lottery» is kill one of the citizens for a strange false belief. To my mind, the author tried to explain why new generation sometimes shouldn’t continue the weird and cruel traditions.

In “The Lottery” Shirley Jackson writes about the game lottery, which makes the story very ironic. Unlike all of the other Lottery games, in this traditional version no one wants to be chosen, because that brings them the end of their life. Jackson explains how keeping up with some traditions that are part of people’s life, may not be the best choice to embrace a particular culture. Jackson uses the Lottery as an example to express her idea about the ethical issues such as; violent murder, harming people, forcefully following a tradition, and lying. All of these ethical issues are created by blindly following tradition in “The Lottery.”

“The Lottery” was written in 1948 by Shirley Jackson. Mrs. Jackson, born in 1916, was known for her tales of horror and supernatural novels. She and her literary critic husband, Stanley Edgar Hyman lived in a little town called Bennington, Vermont. Mrs. Jackson was not accepted by the town. Her novels, especially “The Lottery”, revealed the dark side of human nature. Stephen King honored Shirley Jackson by dedicating his book Firestarter to her.

In Shirley Jackson’s short story, “The Lottery,” a small village is preparing for an annual drawing, a tradition carried out for generations. During this ritual, the head of each household draws a blank piece of paper out of a black box. One piece of paper is marked with a single black dot and if chosen, the outcome is having the winner’s entire household draw out of the box. Whoever chooses the black dot out of the household is stoned to death by the entire village. In this instance, a husband wins to which his wife protests, and then she is the ultimate victim who is sacrificed. This story includes many literary elements like foreshadowing, warning of a future event, symbolism, symbols used in the story to represent ideas,and irony, when the contrary to what is expected to happen, occurs. Jackson uses foreshadowing, symbolism, and irony to prove the theme that it is foolish and barbaric to blindly follow tradition.

The lottery is a sacrifice to bring good luck in the harvest season. The text shows this on page 14 line 33-34 when the men are talking about farming before the lottery begins. This evidence supports the claim because the men may be worried about their crops and hoping they will improve

In the short story, “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson, a village has just entered the month of June, meaning that the lottery is to begin. When everyone was present, the heads of the households’ names were called one by one to pick up a slip of paper. It was then discovered that the

I believe that the people in the story continue this gruesome tradition every year because they believe the sacrificing of a human being for the crops to grow and they’ve become deceptive of the tradition. On page 26 it states, “Soon the men began to gather, surveying their own children, speaking of planting and rain, tractors and taxes.” Based on this sentence we can infer that the men’s speaking of planting, rain, and tractors that these villagers are probably farmers. In the story old man Warner also quotes, “Used to be a saying about 'Lottery in June, corn be heavy soon.' First thing you know, we'd all be eating stewed chickweed and acorns. There's always been a lottery.” It clearly states that they believed if the lottery happened in June

b. Background In the short story “The Lottery,” the inhabitants of a village participate in a lottery, which is essentially a tradition for them. However, the villagers are oblivious to the true consequences and destructiveness of their death ritual. One June day each year, the lottery is conducted and the “winner” is violently stoned to death. The very same day, the villagers return home and carry on with their normal day-to-day functions.

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,