The Lottery By Shirley Jackson

“The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson artfully uses foreshadowing in order to build suspense and create a shocking ending. Jackson’s success in “The Lottery” comes from her ability to keep the reader in the dark about the evils, until the very end. She has masterfully set up what the reader believes as a pleasant event. But, it is not until the ending, can the reader see the foreshadowing of the evils to come. Through the use of foreshadowing, Jackson is able to contribute to the story 's overall effect of suspense and a shocking ending.

The short story “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson covers many eerie points in life and how people follow their lives in shadow. People follow their lives like pathways and some do not see these paths with many turns, one example is school everyone thinks that school is necessary in order to further your career in life. Now “The Lottery” has many questionable idealisms of how on the twenty seventh of every month the town’s people gather at the square and have a sacrificial drawing. Upon finishing the drawing everyone looks to see who the unlucky person is. No one flinches or even tries to prevent this event they all follow the rules down to its gruesome finish. The actions of the community were not really Tessie's fault because the choice of

The idea of winning a lottery is associated with luck, happiness and anticipation of good things. In Shirley Jackson's story, " The Lottery", this is not the case. The irony of the story is that the winner of the lottery gets stoned to death by everyone else in the town. The story is very effective because it examines certain aspects of human nature.

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.

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

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 by Shirley Jackson is a short story based on a fictional village that holds a macabre ritual. Although the regularity was not stated within the tale, the story speaks of a regular gathering of the village folk to conduct some form of lottery. In a disturbing twist of the tale, the winner of the lottery doesn’t get to receive a prize, but instead, suffer the indignity of being killed by getting stoned to death by friends, family, and neighbors. Mrs. Hutchinson is the unfortunate soul, who, despite her pleas and protests has no option but accept her fate. In a similarly titled story, The Lottery by Chris Abani talks about an incident he witnessed when he went to the market with his aunt. In the story, Abani explains how he

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

In the beginning of Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery,” June 27th is as normal as any other summer day in the small village. The morning was described as “clear and sunny” with “flowers blossoming profusely and the grass richly green” (Jackson, 1). The attitudes of the children are rather happy and normal as they begin to gather playing “boisterous[ly]” (Jackson, 1). By the end of the story, the beautiful, normal summer day as described in the beginning is a day that every member, including the children, of the town partakes in a public stoning of a member of their village. In this dark and unpredictable short story, Shirley Jackson uses tone and objects to convey a message of tradition and murder.

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,

Could you imagine having your name pulled out of the lottery? It is everyone’s dream to hit that jackpot, and obtain any prize that is in store for them. What if the prize wasn’t cash or your dream boat? What if it entailed a city wide gathering in your name with the intentions of you getting stoned? That doesn’t seem like a dream come true. That is exactly what happens in the short story “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson. This horrific tale is about a mass city wide gathering where everyone participates in the ritualistic stoning of one of their citizens. This short story is the perfect example for learning about group violence, and is ideal for teaching children and teens a lesson in following the crowd. However, during the time period it was created, “The Lottery” was not accepted well by its readers. Because of its geographical reference and time period, “The Lottery” has become one of the most controversial and influential short stories The New Yorker has ever published.

Tessie Hutchinson is a woman who arrives late for the lottery in town square to maintain an ancient practice of that small town. The story takes place in the town square of a small village in America on summer season. In the short story “The Lottery,” by Shirley Jackson is one of the most shocking and terrifying stories in the fiction. Jackson uses multiple signs, symbols and gestures throughout the story to indicate feelings and suffering that village. Jackson also explores the ritual sacrifice of the villages and about the unfairness of the drawing.

The Lottery, a short story by author Shirley Jackson, is a representation of our somewhat conformist society as a whole, within communities, not only in America, but around the world. Jackson, utilizes small town settings and symbolism through her creative writing style. The Lottery, was written in 1948, approximately three years after the liberation of the World War II concentration camp Auschwitz. Not surprisingly, some people still deny that the Holocaust ever happened. Jackson illustrates that even a small towns, tight knit population, can discount evil, and evil is still prevailing in our current society (for example: the terrorist attacks on September 11; the massacres in France.).

Shirley Jackson was a master of modern gothic fiction and wrote of the essentially evil nature of human beings. The major focus of her work is to emphasize the psychological dimension of experience and the absolute isolation of a human. Shirley Jackson also believes and suggests that humanity must continue to try to define its own reality, and strive to survive with nobility. Her most famous piece of work “The Lottery,” depicts the cruelty and brutality of humanity in the mass and insensitivity of individuals to the suffering of society’s victim. Although “The Lottery” was widely criticized and was quite “disturbing” at the time it was released, it helped Shirley Jackson path her success in the horror fiction world. No matter how different and violent Shirley Jackson’s writing style was at her time, she is one of the most critically acclaimed authors of horror fiction because of her ability to successfully use different literary elements in her stories.

Tradition is defined as the passing down of an act or belief from generation to generation. Different traditions are found in every society, culture, location, and family. Usually, when one hears the word ‘tradition’ they think of family gatherings, unique cuisine or other pleasant festivities. However, the townspeople in the story “The Lottery” may have a different connotation for the word. In “The Lottery”, the town in which the story takes place has a random drawing on the twenty-seventh of June every year to see who will be stoned by the rest of the villagers. Though this sounds cruel and unusual, the practice was a tradition of the village and of other surrounding villages as well. In this short story "The Lottery," Shirley Jackson, the author, uses symbolism to emphasize the absurdity in upholding some traditions.