The Lottery, By Shirley Jackson

Shirley Jackson’s short story “The Lottery” written in 1948 came literally as a bomb for a wide readership by bringing a revelatory realization on the real society. The author reflects upon people, their behavior and attitudes to such life realities such as traditions and rituals. She was able to show the background of the routine rural life led by ordinary people to show the darkest side of human nature when people are blindly following traditions. Jackson contrasted beliefs and traditions against the common sense and soundness of the society by the plot of the story to the point of absurdity. When being attacked by the readers’ numerous queries she shared her conceptions saying: “Explaining just what I had hoped the story to say is very difficult.

“The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson was written in 1948. The story takes place in a village square of a town on June 27th. The author does not use much emotion in the writing to show how the barbaric act that is going on is look at as normal. This story is about a town that has a lottery once a year to choose who should be sacrificed, so that the town will have a plentiful year for growing crops. Jackson has many messages about human nature in this short story. The most important message she conveys is how cruel and violent people can be to one another. Another very significant message she conveys is how custom and tradition can hold great power over people. Jackson also conveys the message of

Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery” is a story littered with warnings and subtext about the dangers a submissive society can pose. While the opening is deceptively cheery and light Jackson uses an array of symbols and ominous syntax to help create the apprehensive and grim tone the story ends with. Her portrayal of the town folk as blindly following tradition represents the world during World War II when people’s failure to not mindlessly accept and heed authority lead to disastrous consequences. . Shirley Jackson uses a large array of techniques to help convey the idea that recklessly following and accepting traditions and orders can lead to disastrous consequences.

    "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

The Black Box in the short story “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson signifies the physical connection between the villagers and their unwillingness to give up their tradition. “The Lottery” is very unpredictable and quite misleading. The black box has no functionality, except every June 27th. Shirley Jackson depicts the black box as an important and traditional tool.

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,

One of the most shocking literary devices in Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery” is the setting. “The Lottery” being set in any town of the United States of America points to how important the reoccurring theme is. By not placing the story in any specific place, Jackson leaves the readers to wonder and evaluate the general inhumanity that surrounds them. When it comes to saving oneself a person seems to easily harm someone else. Along with the setting Jackson uses a great deal of irony, motifs, and symbolism to illustrate how easily society conforms in order to save oneself in “The Lottery.”

It was a sunny summer day when all the villagers gathered in the village on June 27th for the annual Lottery. The actual event did not start until later on in the day, so there were little activities that the community members could do to keep them occupied. People would also go around looking for stones and collected them so they will have enough for the event. Mr. Summers is the person who conducted the Lottery. He has no kids so running the Lottery gave him something to do since he had a lot of time on his hands. Therefor he created the Lottery event and that was what he did to keep himself busy. The Lottery is the main reason of the villagers gathering together; at the event all the families from the village gather together to pick a slip of paper from a black box to determine who will get stoned by all the other villagers. In short story "The Lottery," Shirley Jackson demonstrates the dangers of a culture that requires people to participate in traditions that may lead to death.

“The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson is an extremely captivating and terrifying story. The author of “Jackson’s The Lottery” describes Shirley Jackson’s short story perfectly, “It is a grim, even nihilistic, parable of the evil inherent in human nature” (Coulthard 226). “The Lottery” creates an immensely eerie story by using the setting of a small town, the nonchalant attitude of the community, and the tone of the author.

Shirley Jackson’s, “The Lottery,” is a story about the need to find a sin offering to appease the community’s superstition while everyone else plays the scapegoat.

The “Lottery” is a horrible example of the influence of an ancient civic ritual of a society, which is so great that it eradicates all forms of cognitive senses of society’s members. The townspeople have accepted human sacrifice as a part of their lives. It has been a tradition for a very long time and the town keeps it

General inhumanity and violence typically manifests itself in an extensive, controversial manner such as the Holocaust, World War II, and the enslavement of African Americans. However, atrocities and brutality invade the life of an everyday individual in a more inconspicuous manner that may be overlooked or not considered unjust behavior against their fellow man. Shirley Jackson, author of literary classic The Lottery, begins by describing what appears to be a pleasant, summer day in a quaint English village. The villagers gather for their yearly humdrum lottery in which tradition entails each of them to participate. After each head of the household has drawn for their respective family from a shabby black box and the winner is announced, the villagers proceed to stone their likable neighbor, Tessie Hutchinson, to death and partake in ritualistic murder. Since published in 1948, the sinister short story has continued to stir up eerie feelings amongst readers. Although Jackson holds off until the conclusion to unravel the true purpose behind the uncanny lottery, the story sends a blatant message, blind adherence towards tradition or social order reveal the darker side of human nature. Shirley Jackson tactfully combined style, tone, and symbolism to create a chilling dramatization of conformity unhinged.

Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery” is the story of a town where they hold an annual lottery within the town, where the winner is stoned and killed. In the time span of the story, a woman named Tessie is the winner of the lottery, but earlier in the day was following this tradition blindly. She only protests when her family is picked. The overall message in the story is that tradition is not always good, and you should stop what is not right.

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

“The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson, is a short story expressed through the theme of apathy, when the community feels no emotion for anyone, a ritual is more important than a human being, mob mentality, and hypocrisy which is prevalent within the townspeople. “This short story was published in 1948 by The New Yorker which is one of Jackson’s iconic stories, which generated the largest volume of mail ever received by the magazine---before or since---almost all of it hateful. ‘The Lottery’ has since been published in dozens of languages, and is still required reading in U.S. high schools.  It is possibly the most well-known short story of the 20th Century” (Linda Allen).