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.

Throughout the work of Langston Hughes, and the documentary film, “The Lottery”, you find many similarities, and differences from today’s society and acceptance of black Americans. In today’s society these works and many others of the Harlem Renaissance era still hold true, but the most important is the African Americans reliance on God.

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.

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.

Jackson starts the story with introducing the town and people to the readers. At the beginning of the story, it doesn’t seem like anyone is going to be killed. All the villagers are calm and relaxed. Kids just got out of school; boys are gathering stones, while girls are stalking them with their eyes and talking about them. Men are talking about their jobs and smiling at each other’s jokes, and Women are gossiping. As the readers get closer and closer to the end of the story, they realize that this Lottery is very different from a normal lottery game. As much as these people look calm and relaxed on a beautiful sunny day, they are cruel, violent, harmful, and socially ill. These villagers are blindly following a tradition, which makes them to kill each other in one of the most violent ways. They are aware of their

In “The Lottery”, author Shirley Jackson portrays the importance of violence and inhumanity that is being shown throughout the community and how the townspeople play a major roll in it. Shirley Jackson believes that violence is huge within this community and she also believes that the community isn’t aware of their actions. Every year on June 27th, the community gathers at the town's square to attend the lottery. The folks who run this lottery are Mr. Summers and Mr. Graves (The Postmaster). Mr. Summers and Mr. Graves will randomly announce names from the lottery box. If the name announced was on the paper the family member selected, then the audience would throw stones at them until they were dead.

The author of “The Lottery” Shirley Jackson decided it was important to write this short story in order to inform the readers about another dimension, where a certain common tradition gets prized with something obscure. Some readers can be shocked when reading this story, because they might be surprised and even shocked with the themes that play along in the storyline. This short story “The Lottery” was so controversial at the time, because in the date it was published in June 24, 1948 there were so many themes from the stories that could relate to past events or even event that were taking place at the time.

“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.

Tradition is a large part of life today, but decades ago it was almost a way of life and if it was not followed there were stiff consequences. The story is misleading by the title because of the normal thought of a lottery is something positive or a giveaway. The story is quite the opposite of the common thought. The main point that Jackson shows in “The Lottery” is that people can be involved with such a violent act and think nothing of it. In the story all the people are happy, “they stood together, away from the pile of stones in the corner, and their jokes were quiet and they smiled rather than laughed.”(Jackson 124). The tradition the village seams at first to be a happy scene, but later learn that it is a terrible event that is a

The recent lottery had an unfair drawing.When Tessie’s husband, Bill’s name was called, he went up to a stage, and had to pick a piece

We just read the short story, “The Lottery,” by Shirley Jackson and I can honestly say I’m flabbergasted. The story revolved around traditions of many cities of a surrounding area. These traditions eventually lead to a ritualistic violence in the end and it’s actually quite stunning. First, It all started in a small town on a bright sunny day. The kids were all outside playing and collecting stones. The mood of the story was pleasant, almost foreshadowing nothing could go wrong. Ironically, things took a turn for the worst when a man named Mr. Summers arrived. Summers was in charge of the lottery and he made sure everything ran smoothly. Nobody knows who but him in charge, and nobody had the intention to ask, most likely out of fear. During

When the lottery happens, Tessie who is Hutchinson’s wife gets chosen and she says that it was not a fair draw, they allow a redraw to include the kids, and she still ends up being the chosen one. The point of the lottery is to stone someone to death as a sort of sacrifice for the crops for the upcoming crop season. In the end Tessie is stoned to death and her last words are pleading and screams of saying that it wasn’t fair.

“The Lottery” is a short story written by Shirley Jackson about a town that participates in a “lottery”, in which there are two parts-- where in the first half a family is drawn, and the second a specific member of the family is drawn, and whoever is chosen is stoned. The lottery is a tradition in the town, something that is expected of them. Characters in the story talk of other towns getting rid of the drawing and act as though those towns are crazy. The older residents of the community assume that the other towns doing away with their lotteries was an act of young rebellion to the generations

The Lottery, by Shirley Jackson, is about a religious town that would stone their own citizens to praise their god. The plot of the story is to sacrifice a person so their society can benefit in the long run. After surrounding the city square many people argued about keeping the lottery. The author writes, “Some places have already quit the lotteries…nothing but trouble in that… pack of young fools” (Jackson

In the short story "The Lottery," author Shirley Jackson creates a very shocking and horrifying situation through the use of characterization, setting, and the theme of the individual versus society, which is portrayed in the story as scapegoating. She writes as if the events taking place are common to any town (Mazzeno 2). The story was very unpopular when first published, mostly because of the fact that people did not understand it. The story of the all-to-familiar town, ordinary in every way except for the ritualistic murder taking place has since grown great popularity, even being adapted for television, ballet, and radio (Lethem 1-2).