The Lottery Short Story

It was the morning of June 27th, ten years after Tessie Hutchinson was stoned to death. So much had happened during this decade after her death. Horace Dunbar was stoned last year, and Mrs. Graves the year before. The village now consisted of about 500 citizens, and with the village growing every year the lottery became more and more necessary for the town to prosper. But still people doubted the value of the lottery and tried to preclude it. Back when the year Tessie was stoned, the Adams were talking about how other towns were giving up the lottery. Every year there were a larger amount of people opposing the lottery.

In the fictional short story “The Lottery,” by Shirley Jackson, on June 27th a small village gathered together to participate in the annual lottery, an old village tradition, conducted by Mr. Summers, the lottery official. During the lottery, the head of each household in the village draws one slip of paper. Whoever draws the slip of paper with the charcoal dot on it is sacrificed for the crop season. This time it was Mr. Hutchinson, who drew the dire slip of paper. So then each member of his household had to draw, including his three small young children, Bill, Jr., and little Dave.

Though she had drawn the paper the actions of the community remain the actions of the community. Her actions did not reflect onto others they did as they pleased and without hesitation. In the Story old man Warner constantly comments in saying “There has always been a lottery.” This shows that people have grown so accustomed to the lottery that they just try to get through it as fast as they can. When Tessie tries to prove her point the community just ignores her and they all state that “all of us took the same chance.”(Part 2 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.

Considering in the story, Tessie accepts the lottery that is taking place within her village. For instance in the story, Mrs. Hutchinson says, "[clean] forgot what day it was […] and they both laughed softly."(Jackson 28-29). In other words, Mrs. Hutchinson acted as though there was no lottery taking place as well as nobody dying momentarily, mainly because she accepted the fact somebody had to die to keep the village business going. Mrs. Hutchinson later on in the story says, "[Mr. Summers did not] give [Bill Hutchinson] time enough to take any paper he wanted." (Jackson 31). The viewer finds Mrs. Hutchinson's reaction very ironic because her attitude shifted because she felt like it is tolerable to let other people die, but when it comes to her being, she feels like she

Shirley Jackson is known for her creative writing and plot twisting stories such as “The Possibility of Evil” and “The Lottery”. Jackson always finds a way to leave the reader somewhat confused and wanting to read more. In both of these stories it is a small town where everyone knows one another but something about each of these towns isn't right. In “The Lottery” it turns out that each year, one family, then individual from that family is chosen to be stoned to death for a sacrifice. Then in “The Possibility of Evil” it turns out that one old woman has been writing rude anonymous letters to the people of the town. In both essays Jackson uses many literary devices that help her create these stories that she is so known for. Some of the literary devices she uses are situational and verbal irony, and mood and foreshadowing. She uses a fair amount of all three of these throughout her short stories.

In this essay I will be doing a compare and contrast between the two stories “The Lottery” by Chris Alani and “the Lottery” by Shirley Jackson. Both stories were good, and had a deep meaning behind both stories that leaves the readers wondering why the stories had to end in the way they did. Now I’ll start off by giving a summary of both stories so you can know and understand my point of view better.

Over the years many critics have wrote articles on Shirley Jackson's numerous works. Many critics had much to say about Jackson's most famous short story, "The Lottery". Her insights and observations about man and society are disturbing; and in the case of "The Lottery," they are shocking. "The themes themselves are not new, evil cloaked in seeming good, prejudice and hypocrisy, loneliness and frustration, psychological studies of minds that have slipped the bonds of reality" (Friedman). Literary critic, Elizabeth Janeway wrote that, " 'The Lottery' makes its effect without having to state a moral about humanity's need to deflect the knowledge of its own death on a victim. That uneasy consciousness is

In “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson and the historical event of blacklisting Americans during the 1950s, the authors convey that loyalty causes us to turn against others around you through symbols. In “The Lottery”, loyalty to tradition caused a society to turn on one another. “The Lottery” was an annual tradition where each head of household (the dominant male in each home) picked a slip of paper. If the piece selected had a black dot on it, you had to go through the selection process again, but this time each individual member of your family had to choose a slip out of the box. Whoever chose the black dot out of there family had won the Lottery, and would be sacrificed for a good corn season. On the seventy-seventh lottery, the

Believing in a passion can be persuasive to others. If one has a passion for something, there is an uncontrollable emotion about it. Everyone in the world is different, if it was not that way, the world would not go around. Someone may have a passion for something that another person can not stand. In “The Lottery,” there was a negative passion for people getting stoned. The emotions of others that did not get stoned were horrific for the one getting stoned to death. The father in “Without Title,” had a huge passion for hunting buffalo. The only problem was that his wife did not let him, she made him work in the city while he would have worked otherwise in the woods. In “Texas vs. Johnson,” as a whole community and around the world, there

In a dystopian village, “A stone hit her in the side of the head. It isn’t fair, it isn’t right, Mrs. Hutchinson screamed and then they were upon her” (7). Keeping the tradition of the lottery alive means that the members of Tessie’s family, her friends, and the villagers will stone her to death. Tessie Hutchinson is the unluckiest person this year, having won the lottery. The theme of “The Lottery” is that there are some traditions that should not be kept alive.

When “The Lottery” was first published in 1948, it created an enormous controversy and great interest in its author, Shirley Jackson.

There are times in the story no one stands up to do the right thing. For example, during the story the whole town continues to bad things killing their own neighbor for better crop. Even when she pleads for the town not to kill her they don’t stop to do the right thing. In the story they even say that, “the black box now resting on the stool had been put into use even before Old Man Warner, the oldest man in town was born”. Old Man Warner is seventy-seven years old that means the lottery was created well before and no one stood up against it during all that time. The only person too stands up for Tessie is herself as she pleads the town not to murder

Reporter: Hey guys I see that this village still participates in the lottery even though most villages have stopped, therefore why do you guys still participate in this event ? Mr.Summers: We believe that it is a traditional ritual and we will proceed with it like we have in the past years. Reporter:

Tessie Hutchinson strolls in late with not a care in the world. She, along with the townspeople, jokes around saying that they were going to miss her at this years lottery. She even states, "Clean forgot what day it was" (Jackson, 864). No one really seems worried that in an hour or so one of their neighbors will be stoned to death. The old worn out black box suggests that Jackson used a bit of irony to bring out the meaning of death. Black being a dark gothic color, and the oldness of the box suggests that the lottery is a tradition that has lasted for years. Old Man Warner, the town grandfather, supports the lottery and tries to make sure it lasts forever. This brings out the true meaning of Shirley Jackson’s story. Are there really towns and cities out there that actually do have old traditions similar to this? The story of "The Lottery" is a cry or a wake up call to everyone to step forward and stand up for what you believe in.