The Lottery Rhetorical Analysis

Shirley Jackson is often regarded as one of the most brilliant authors of the twentieth century. Born in San Francisco in 1916, she spent the majority of her adolescence writing short stories and poetry (Allen). While she is known best for her supernatural stories, one of her most popular works is a short story called “The Lottery”. The lottery takes place in a small village in which once a year on June 24th, the town population is gathered. After the gathering, there is a drawing to see which family is chosen, after the family is chosen, another drawing takes place to see who is stoned to death. In the New Yorker's magazine book review hailed “The Lottery” as “one of the most haunting and shocking short stories of modern America and is one of the most frequently anthologized” (Jackson). This review stems heavily from Jackson’s brilliant use of irony, symbolism, and foreshadowing. However, perhaps what truly stands out is how Jackson is able to wrap all of those elements together as a way to show an overarching theme of the corruption that exists in human nature. While the real source of “The Lottery’s” inspiration is unclear, there has been heavy speculation that the roots lie heavily in the actions of the holocaust and the actions that took place during World War II. Regardless of the source material, a general consensus can be made that the plot of the lottery is a dark reflection of human actions.

“The Lottery” is a short story written by Shirley Jackson . The story is about Mr. Summers places five slips of paper into the box and each member of the family draws. Tess (Mrs. Hutchinson) draws a slip of paper with a big black dot in the center. Not good. The villagers advance on her, and it becomes crystal clear what the prize for the lottery really is: a stoning. In The Lottery, Jackson uses tone, theme, and conflict to unwrap the story.

Once an individual has been molded by society, it is very hard to change their behavior. Despite being in a society that undermines women, Tessie speaks against the lottery and as a result is stoned to death.

Hutchinson is complaining how her being chosen to be sacrificed is unfair and is a tradition that shouldn’t be carried on. She believes that the box system is unfair because she was chosen from her family to be stoned to death by the village. Because of this, Ms. Hutchinson believes that the lottery is unfair that she is chosen to die. During the beginning of the Lottery, Mrs. Hutchinson is neutral and doesn’t show any expression of the choosing. Her attitude change when she finds out that her family is chosen and is later narrowed down to her. This is shown to be a hypocritical reaction because when others are chosen she doesn't care but, when her family is chosen, she becomes angered. When she was chosen, she is expected by the village to

In Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery”, things do not appear as they sound. In the short story “The Lottery”, Tessie Hutchinson has a positive attitude until her family is receives the black dot. No one in this village wants to receive the black dot because someone in that family will be stoned to death. The short story “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson centers around the concept of irony and reveals the village seems more corruption and evil than happy and sweet.

The lottery a short story by Shirley Jackson reflects human's deepest nature on tradition. Jackson uses routineness as a way of illustrating the festival like qualities of the annual lottery. The setting of vibrant colors in the short story conveys peaceful tone.The characters are portrayed as loving and caring. The ideas of a festival like lottery, a homey setting and, the peoples actions all help develop the bigger thesis. Shirley Jackson in her short story the “The Lottery,” uses quite ordinary language and details about the people, the lottery, and the setting to create a “normal” tone that initially disguises her theme that mankind behave primitively.

Mrs. Hutchinson is different from the village. She stands out to the villagers by arriving late at the annual lottery event. This event is so traditional that everyone knows when it’s held. “Thought my old man was back stacking wood,” she claims and then realized that her children were gone. That’s when she became aware of what day it was and went running to the square to meet her family. Her late arrival wasn’t taken lightly. Some villagers disdain her lateness though a few of them made remarks loud enough so the crowd could hear.

Jackson uses the protagonist, Mrs. Hutchinson, to show an individual consumed by hypocrisy and weakness. Though it is hinted that she attempted to rebel and not show up to the event, Mrs. Hutchinson arrives late, with a nervous excuse of "forgetting what day it was". It is ironic that she, who almost stood up for her beliefs, is the one who wins the lottery, and is fated to be stoned. What is perhaps the most disturbing about Mrs. Hutchinson, however, is her sudden unleashing of her true self. Before the drawing she is friendly with the other women, pretending to be pleased to be present. The very moment that she sees is her family that draws

Tessie Hutchinson, we are shown a playful person who also shows no fear of the lottery before it begins. She arrives late and makes a statement that shows that even though someone will die soon she was able to get lost in her chores. Her playful attitude changes when the head of her family, her husband, draws the paper with the black dot showing that the Hutchinson’s have won the lottery. Tessie immediately begins making accusations that they the lottery was done wrong. After the count of their family is done to see how many will need to draw next, Tessie again protested. She never argues that the lottery shouldn’t be held in the first place. She is only concerned that there is a chance that she may be the one to be sacrificed. At one point Tessie even tries to include her married daughters into her family’s drawing so that she has more of a chance for survival. Tessie also never pleas for the life of her younger children which causes a wonder of how close the families in the town really are. At one point Mrs. Graves says “All of us took the same chance,” Darryl Hattenhauer believes that Mrs. Graves ignores the fact that individuals from larger families have a smaller chance of being victimized. (Hattenhauer, 2003) It not only was in a family’s best interest to have more children to help with the crops, it also helped their chance of survival. As soon as everyone sees that Tessie drew the black dot there is no protest from any of her family. Everyone quickly picks up stones and moves toward her ready to strike. Even her youngest son is encouraged to join in the brutality. This shows how indeed this “lottery” is a way of life and something that the whole town not only needs to do, but has no problem carrying out no matter the

I was chatting with Mrs, Dunbar, and we were wondering why Tessie wasn’t here yet. Eventually, Tessie hurriedly came through the town square. “Clean forgot what day it was,” Tessie explained to us. “You're still in time,” I said. “They’re still talking away up there.” Tessie then tapped me on the shoulder, then made her way up to the stage, because the Hutchinson’s were up to draw. Bill was the first one to draw, and then he got the one with the black dot. And then his wife, Tessie, got heated. She said,

“The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson is an iconic short story which that was published in 1948. The plot revolves around a small town during the lottery drawing day, which is one of the town’s holidays. Due to a controversial event that took place in the story, Shirley Jackson received a lot of negative responses to her story and even obtained hate mail from various people, including her parents. This story is well- known for it’s unanticipated plot twist that leaves the readers baffled.

In Shirley Jackson's short story "The Lottery", Tessie Hutchinson presents herself to stand out more than the other characters. The people of the village seem to have their own opinions of her. Her attitude quickly changed towards the end of the story. Tess's actions show her carelessness in the beginning but quickly changes to a more alert direction and she begins to pay more attention once the lottery is about her.

However, towards the end of the story Tessie transforms into a different woman once her family is chosen. The next passage indicates Tessie’s transformation when all of the sudden, Tessie Hutchinson shouts to Mr. Summers, “You didn't give him time enough to take any paper he wanted. I saw you. It wasn't fair!”(298). Her husband did not receive an honest treatment according to Tessie, which will eventually lead to her downfall. Now that she is the victim, there is a significant change in attitude towards the town and its tradition. She is no longer a good-natured woman who finds the lottery on great joke, instead, she stands up to this old tradition and is more nervous and aggressive than ever before in the story. This is the complete opposite of what we first saw of Tessie, a simple woman concerned more with her dishes than the lottery. The character of Tessie, in the end of the story, is fully aware of the consequences of this same lottery and she protests against the tradition which is so deeply rooted in her society. Because of the first impression of Tessie the reader would have expected her to just shrug her shoulders, instead Tessie does completely the opposite and stands up for her own rights.

The last of these elements is irony. It is extremely ironic that the story’s protagonist, Tessie Hutchinson, is late to the lottery that will be the event of her demise, as she “clean forgot what day it was” and had been doing the dishes. When she arrives at the village square, she stands in the back of the crowd with the other wives, so far back she ‘“craned her neck to see through the crowd”(Jackson), though she would soon be called up to the front when her family ‘wins’ the Lottery. It is also ironic that she was lighthearted, even chatting and joking with the other wives until her family was selected. She complains to Mr. Summers that he didn’t give her husband enough time to pick his slip of paper, even though his selection was the same time as everyone else’s. And no matter how much her husband and

“The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson is a creepy short story. In this story, people draw the lottery once a year. The Lottery which held at a square in the morning of June 27th, who picked up the paper with a black spot was Mrs. Hutchinson. She claimed that the lottery of the year is unfair, but the villagers take her life without considering opinions. The central idea of “The Lottery” is that the blind tradition and custom cannot justify persecution.