The Lottery by Shirley Jackson

    "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

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.

In some ways, “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson could be seen as controversial. Within the first paragraph, we are left with two main questions; “what is the lottery?” and “why does it happen?” A major theme that answers the first question is all about tradition. Yes, the lottery is a tradition in many towns. No one has ever questioned this tradition, even though it is quite inhumane. In all honesty, you could compare this story very well to The Hunger Games just because of what this tradition consists of. Imagine being in a town of around three hundred people and having your life put on the line. The lottery itself comes down to all of the townspeople meeting up, and each family name is read by Mr. Summers, and the head of the family

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.

In “The Lottery” Shirley Jackson writes about the game lottery, which makes the story very ironic. Unlike all of the other Lottery games, in this traditional version no one wants to be chosen, because that brings them the end of their life. Jackson explains how keeping up with some traditions that are part of people’s life, may not be the best choice to embrace a particular culture. Jackson uses the Lottery as an example to express her idea about the ethical issues such as; violent murder, harming people, forcefully following a tradition, and lying. All of these ethical issues are created by blindly following tradition in “The Lottery.”

We get one explanation of why this lottery even exists from one of the characters, Old Man Warner. He explains that there’s some connection between the corn that’s growing and this ritual. So he says “Lottery in June, corn

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.

In many stories, settings are constructed to help build the mood and to foreshadow of things to come. "The Lottery" by Shirley Jackson is a story in which the setting sets up the reader to think of positive outcomes. However, this description of the setting foreshadows exactly the opposite of what is to come. In addition, the theme that we learn of at the end leads us to think of where the sanity of some human beings lies.

Ever wondered what perfect society would be like? At some point everyone has dreamt of a society where there is total peace and equality for all peoples alike. When reading “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson, she describes what most people would think of as the perfect small town setting. In the town, families and friends get together every year to hold an annual lottery in the town’s square. However; this is not an average lottery and it turns out that this small village has a very dark secret. “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas” by Ursula LE Guin , is more imaginary than anything else. In Omelas there are green hills and beautiful meadows. People throw big parties with all the food and drink you could possibly consume. But this perfect society in the green hills has a dirty secret too. There is a small child about the age of 12 kept in a closet, and that child must bear all the pain for the entire city of Omelas. Without the child the city is no different than any other, and some of its citizens can’t forget about the secret and choose to leave. In these stories both authors discuss the idea of a perfect world and challenge the reader to consider what a utopia really is. After reading these two articles, the authors show you there cannot be a utopia if even a single person is suffering, which is also why there can’t be a perfect society because of human nature.

When a person thinks of the lottery they think of something good. They fantasize about all of the luxurious things they can now afford, and moving into a fancy new neighborhood. While playing games, there is a winner and a loser. The Hunger Games and “The Lottery” certainly include both. When some people play the lottery they gamble away their life’s savings with hopes of winning three or four times as much as they own. The lottery in this case is more of a death pool. Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery” shares infinite similarities with Suzanne Collins trilogy The Hunger Games.

Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery” is a story about a ritualistic ceremony performed by a village every year around June 26. The meaning of conformity is to do something because everyone else is doing it and this story is conformity at it’s best. The townspeople continue this event year after year simply because it has always been done and because they believe they will have bad crops if it is not done. At the beginning of the story, the reader is led to believe it is a normal sunny day. Children playing, men talking about planting, tractors and taxes and women standing around gossiping. Not until the story starts to unfold does the reader discover what the lottery truly is and how one of the village people are about to be sacrificed for what the town believes will be good crops.

The Lottery by Shirley Jackson, is a short story about an annual lottery draw in a small town. The story sets place in a small town of three hundred or so people. The theme of destructive tradition pervades the text, beginning with irony manner of choosing the person and, of course, ultimately leading to the person’s death. Every year a lottery is held, in which one someone is cruelly chosen to be stoned to death by the people in the town to be able to provide more for the others in the town.

The short story, “The Lottery” by author Shirley Jackson, encompasses many themes that can call society’s morals into question. Taking place in a small, New England town, the story begins with the town folk gathering for its annual lottery. On a warm, summer day, the schoolchildren gather in the square, followed by the other villagers. Children and adults alike collect stones, at this time, for an unknown reason. Neighbors converse and share the excitement of another lottery day. The author creates a serene and jovial setting which offsets the story’s ending. One by one, each person is called up by Mr. Summers to pull a piece of paper from the lottery box. The one person who is “lucky” enough to win the lottery is stoned to death by the rest of the town. The conclusion of the tale is not foreseen throughout the beginning of the story due to the lively attitude of the characters as well as the title. When thinking of a lottery, you think of a happy ending. The sudden murder of Tessie Hutchinson by those she was close to could be a critique on not only society’s inclination to be blind followers, but it could also call morals and religion into question.

In “The Lottery”, written by Shirley Jackson, Jackson uses the third person objective point of view to narrate the story of a small unnamed town – presumably during the early Twentieth century – that practices a dark event annually. True to the fly-on-the-wall description of third person, the narrator of the story details the events unfolding from an objective and unbiased point of view, almost as if he or she is watching the entire scene from the outside. Jacksons’ choice of narration is an effective method to keep the reader oblivious from the truth behind this dark event. The narrator only gives small hinted details to what “The Lottery” really is leaving the most significant and unsettling detail until the end, that the “winner” of the Lottery is stoned to death by the other villagers. The narration style is almost identical to that of a bored reporter which counterparts the apathy of the townspeople, through the unprejudiced narrative voice, the dark an effect of uncertainty grows while the twisted ending of the story remains a surprise to the reader.

The Lottery is an allegory which was written by Shirley Jackson in 1948. In it, she used an irony to show how inane some traditions could be as well as the people who essentially follow them. The lottery is the ritual when all people from the small village crowd together, and Mr. Summers, who enjoys devoting himself to civic activities, organizes this event. He and his assistant make small pieces of paper, one of which has a black dot. They put it into the shabby black box, after which Mr. Summers calls heads of household to determine who will «win» the lottery. But she should not be happy, because all other citizens will stone her to death. The people do it annually, because they are afraid that the harvest could be poor. Everyone must participate, regardless of gender and age. This short story contains a lot of different characters to explain how an abnormal belief in something of previous generations