The Lottery Short Story

In Shirley Jackson’s "The Lottery," what appears to be an ordinary day in a small town takes an evil turn when a woman is stoned to death after "winning" the town lottery. The lottery in this story reflects an old tradition of sacrificing a scapegoat in order to encourage the growth of crops. But this story is not about the past, for through the actions of the town, Jackson shows us many of the social ills that exist in our own lives.

When a loving, caring, family oriented, women come in conflict with the horrible, despicable, inhumane lottery in a situation in which the town goes together, the results may be a terrible end in a young life. In “The Lottery” written by, Shirley Jackson, the main character Mrs. Tessie Hutchinson’s and the town folk are the main characters of this story. In “The Lottery” Shirley Jackson uses the use of characterization to portray the main ideas of the story. Shirley Jackson also uses the use of plot structure and the point of view in which the story is being told. The Lottery is a way to make a sacrifice for a good harvest in the upcoming season.

As Tessie’s protests continue and the Hutchinson family prepares to draw again the sense of apprehension is one again mounting, this time fearing for whoever wins yet still not knowing what their “prize” will be. “The crowd was quiet. A girl whispered, ‘I hope it’s not Nancy’”, the silence and fear of the crowds manifests in the reader as the three children and their parents all draw slips of paper. Tessie “wins” the lottery and when the narrator explains “although the villagers had forgotten the ritual, and lost they original black box, they still remembered to use stones” (6) its suddenly shockingly clear to the readers what the winner is to receive. The drastic switch from a light and cheerful tone with talk of the beautiful day and children playing to the closing like of “and they were upon her” (7) is in part why this story is so effective. The unforeseen sinister end of the story makes the revelation of the tradition much more shocking and unsettling than had the reader known from the beginning what the outcome would be. Jackson very effectively builds a sense of apprehension and foreboding as she slowly cues the reader into the reality of the situation.

Shirley Jackson’s famous short story, “The Lottery,” was published in 1948 and remains to this day one of the most enduring and affecting American works in the literary canon. “The Lottery” tells the story of a farming community that holds a ritualistic lottery among its citizens each year. Although the text initially presents audiences with a close-knit community participating in a social event together on a special day, the shocking twist at the work’s end—with the death of the lottery’s “winner” by public stoning—has led to its widespread popularity, public outcry and discussion, and continued examination in modern times (Jackson). One potential critical theory that can be applied to Jackson’s “The Lottery” is the reader-response

Shirley Jackson takes great care in creating a setting for the story, The Lottery. She gives the reader a sense of comfort and stability from the very beginning. It begins, "clear and sunny, with the fresh warmth of a full-summer day; the flowers were blossoming profusely and the grass was richly green." The setting throughout The Lottery creates a sense of peacefulness and tranquility, while portraying a typical town on a normal summer day.

In Shirley Jacksons story, The Lottery, a small town is stuck in a deadly tradition. A tradition that was continued in the hopes that the towns crops will be plentiful. The character Old Man Warner even talking about the old saying “Lottery in June, corn be heavy soon“ when talking about the lottery to Mr. and Mrs. Adams. The story shows a small town stuck in old ways, and the victim of mob mentality.

In a short story that was written by Shirley Jackson, The Lottery, is a short literature that discussed an annual lottery draw that took place in a small New England town. In the literature, Jackson presented the event that took place in the small town very summer time of the year, in which one random villager get chosen and to be stoned to death by the people in the village. As Jackson stated in her short literature, the lottery has been practiced in the small village for over seventy years by its town people (Citation). In this research paper, the project will present the symbolism that Jackson indicated in the story, the usage of each character’s name, objects, the literature location setting and the intention of the lottery, and

The Lottery by Shirley Jackson is about a town of 300 people who have an annual lottery to decide who is stoned to death (stones thrown at them until they die). The purpose of the lottery is for good luck with the harvest and crops. The townspeople only remember the purpose and tidbits of the traditional lottery. Because it is a long-standing tradition, the town is too afraid to change anything or give up the lottery entirely.

“The Lottery” describes the proceedings of a lottery in an American village, in which the winner of the lottery will be stoned to death. Most readers are shocked when they get to the ending, mainly because they would never expect something so horrific to be described with such normality. Perhaps the narrator of the “Lottery” themselves grew up with and is used to such a tradition. Perhaps to them, they are just describing a regular part of life. It can be said, then, that “The Lottery” depicts how a person’s surroundings play the role of guide, shaping their morals and ethics.

It is the matter-of-fact tone and benign cadence of the narrator that sets the atmosphere for this story, and matches perfectly with the perfunctory attitude the villagers have toward the lottery. The narrator is going about his or her business -- explaining details, recording conversations, revealing the history of the lottery -- while the villagers are going on with the routine business of the lottery. This banality lulls the reader into a lowered sense of expectation, while the story slowly builds to the climax.

Like it’s time, this story’s realistic yet vague location provides insight into Jackson’s evaluation of society’s inhumanity. The setting continues to expose the idea that we do not know where this horrible event occurs; it could be in the next country or even the next town. But Jackson purposefully shows that this barbaric cruelty could be anywhere, and critic Jay A. Yarmove agrees: “At no point does the author tell us where the lottery takes place, but we are made aware of several possible indicators” (41). Jackson hints at a quaint town as she describes the village “where there were only three hundred people” who came together and “greeted one another and exchanged bits of gossip” (1). These details create the possibility that this town exists and the lottery really occurs somewhere. As Cleanth Brooks states it, “the village is made to exist for us” (76). Shirley Jackson makes a concerted effort through these details to make the village

In the short story “The lottery” by Shirley Jackson, the lottery is an yearly event, that happens on June 27th. The lottery process starts at ten o'clock in them morning. The ending time is not set, because that depends on the population of the town. All the people are gathered, and are organized by their family. Each family sends a person from their family to take a slip of paper out of the black box; this is usually the male head of the family, but a women can draw in the absence of him. Those papers cannot be opened until every family gets a paper. After family gets their paper, everyone opens their up. If your paper has a black dot on it, then that means you are the “lucky” family. The paper with the black dot is then placed back into the box, along with a white piece of paper for each person in the “lucky” family. Each family member then redraws the slip of paper. Then, each person in the family opens their paper up, and whoever got the piece of paper with the black dot on it, you will be stoned to death.

Typically, when one hears the word lottery, they think about someone winning a desirable prize. Unfortunately, this is not the case in a small American town that Shirley Jackson introduces us to in her novel, "The Lottery". In this novel, readers get to know a patriarch community that takes part in an unusual annual tradition. In this tradition, the town gathers to play a game. The head of each family in the town draws a slip from a black box. One of the slips in the black box contains a black dot. This game is the town 's form of a lottery; who ever draws the dotted slip will be stoned to death by the other town members. The story starts off serene and idyllic but by the end readers witness a murder. Shirley Jackson’s, "The Lottery”, shows how people often hold on to traditions even when they are barbaric and have lost their meaning. She does this by showing readers that members of the society will hold on to inhumane practices simply because the practice is considered tradition. In this exploration of this towns traditional "lottery", Jackson leads the reader down a savage story line. Jackson is able to draw on the ethnic appeal by focusing on the very moment of the stoning. After the stoning, the reader is able to look back and see several details they might have missed or overlooked. The tradition has taken control of the community members.

The point of view of the stories “A Rose for Emily” by William Faulkner and “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson is an essential literary mechanism, when comparing these two stories. The short story “A Rose for Emily” is in the first person perspective of a town as they both discovered Emily’s, an elder of the town, mysterious and dark secret. In contrast, I will compare the story of “A Rose for Emily” with another short story “The Lottery.” The short story “The Lottery” is told in objective third person depicting a town holding a mysterious lottery and quickly discovering the dark purpose behind it and what awaits the winner. With a gothic-like horror, I found the point of view of these two stories to depict their climaxes in a shocking, but also almost mundane way. Painting the world with a dark palette steeped in death and an adverse to change, I found these stories to be dark but also enlightening. Faulkner and Jackson use of point of view dramatically affect how I saw the use of chronology, how one interpreted author's' intent, and the theme of death in their two stories and how they differed. The point of view depict dark and terrifying in almost mundane ways creating power and impactful stories individually, but these stories can be even more powerful when read side by side.

    Often, we paint a fairytale view of life for ourselves and our children. Sometimes, an author paints a frightfully realistic picture of life and forces us to reconsider the fairytale. In Shirley Jackson’s story, "The Lottery," a town each year conducts a lottery in which the winner or looser, in this case, is stoned to death by his or her own neighbors. The tradition is supposed to uphold social structure within the town, but in order to comprehend the true meaning of the story you must be able to read between the lines. "The Lottery" is a story about a town that has let its traditions go too far. Also, it is clear that the story contains eye-opening facts that lead me to