The Possibility Of Evil, And The Lottery, By Shirley Jackson

Attempting to control the fate of others can lead to multiple problems. The short story “The Lottery” written by Shirley Jackson centers around a town that has an annual tradition where everybody in the town draws a piece of paper from a box, and the person with the black dot on the paper will be stoned to death. The main character, Tessie Hutchinson, is picked for the Lottery this year, and issues arise from that. This story uses irony and imagery to show how fate plays a big role in this town. The story “Ruthless” by William de Mille is about a man named Judson Webb who finds out that somebody has stolen his belongings so, instead of telling the police, he takes the law into his hands. Judson adds poison to a bottle of whiskey and leaves

In Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery”, the small village, at first, seems to be lovely, full of tradition, with the townspeople fulfilling their civic duties, but instead this story is bursting with contrast. The expectations that the reader has are increasingly altered. The title of this short story raises hope, for in our society the term “lottery” typically is associated with winning money or other perceived “good” things. Most people associate winning a lottery with luck, yet Jackson twists this notion around and the luck in this village is with each of the losers.

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.

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.

Hit it! Hit it! Hit it! Don’t lose your aim, because if you lose it, you lose the way. A birthday party without a piñata just doesn't seem to be a birthday party. There's a joy that tiptoes up and takes over the whole party when the expectation of candy, the ability for young children to handle a bat and destroy something, and parents can mess with the little children. The element of danger and malice all in good fun is in the air and it makes a giddy happiness that is addictive to the point where they are giggling and laughing before they know they are or the reason why they are. Handling a bat blindfolded while laughing hysterically is a time that nobody should miss. In “The Lottery,” by Shirley Jackson, things are done the way they have always been done, even if there is no reason why. Certain people remember where the rituals created, and certain people seem to know why they are important. Yet tradition is important, so they continue. “The Lottery” is an excellent example of an allegorical short story. Jackson uses symbolism through the description of the characters, significant objects, and the actions in the story.

Once upon a time there was a little village. In this village three hundred people happily farmed and played and went about their business. The children went to school while the men cut wood or farmed, and the women cooked and cleaned. Every summer in June each of villagers took part in the traditional lottery drawing and one villager was picked for the prize – a stoning. In 1948, Shirley Jackson published this short story known as “The Lottery,” in The New York Times. The story’s plot shocked readers all over America as they learned of the horror happening in such a quaint town. Jackson purposely set this tragic event in this innocent setting to emphasize humanity’s cruelty. Using her appalling short story, The Lottery,

Tessie Hutchinson and Miss Strangeworth both are older women who live in small quiet towns. In the short stories “The Possibility of Evil” and “The Lottery” by shirley Jackson, both stories feature a female protagonist who face the “cruel” people of society to them. In the two short stories by shirley Jackson, there are many examples of literary devices that are the same in both stories such as, imagery and symbolism, but the short stories also have a difference in the choice of tone. The tone in both short stories have a rather dark or evil tone, but the sudden or gradual change is the difference.

Both, “The Possibility of Evil” and, “The Lottery” are unique from one another but there are many similar elements readers may not notice. “The Possibility of Evil” is a short story written by Shirley Jackson. Similarly, “The Lottery” is also a short story written by Shirley Jackson. Both stories have a dynamic storyline and dramatic ending for their female protagonist showing how quickly things turn. The three main literary elements that are significant in similarities and differences of both short stories are the Setting, theme, and Mood.

Pressures that rule the world “The Lottery” is a short story about a village with a very special tradition. Every year they arrange a lottery. One person from each family takes a paper from a box and one of the these has a black dot on it. The family that receives the black dot needs to have another lottery to pick what family member is chosen. When everyone in the family has taken a piece of paper the family member who has a black dot on it is chosen to get stoned to death by the villagers.

In the story the lottery the author makes the title lottery seems like what it sounds like, but in truth, the author describes the realities of the meaning of the lottery, while displaying the true intentions of the villagers. Essentially, I would explain the title lottery like any other lottery you find at the corner stores or at the supermarket because everything about the lottery process is the same with the exception of a few things. For instance, the lotto in the village is different because the drawing always takes place during a certain time of the year which is the month of June during the first harvest of the summer. “The rest of the year, the box was put way, sometimes one place, sometimes another; it had spent one year in Mr. Graves's barn and another year underfoot in the post office”.

Shirley Jackson, an American gothic writer, was born in San Francisco in 1919. She enrolled at the University of Rochester in New York, dropped out after a couple years, and later in 1937, enrolled at Syracuse University, initiating a career of a lifetime. Jackson seized bits of her writing from her “lifetime obsession with mental anguish” ("Introduction”). Her tales reflect a flawless surface and as the reader dives deeper, the image becomes distorted. Suspicion grows. Now the reader is entangled in pure terror. Shirley Jackson spun a fascinating spider web, in “The Lottery,” which proves true to this day. It deals with the belief that if the community sacrifices one of its own, the gods will provide a bountiful harvest. “Lottery in June,

A tradition is a belief or behavior passed from generation to generation with symbolic meaning or special significance with origins in the past. The lottery is a savage tradition for more seventy-seventh years that ends with the death of a member in the village.

Both authors use irony, characterization, and theme in their short stories. Both short stories use irony. The story Charles uses situational irony ,but the story The Open window uses dramatic irony. At the end of the story Charles, the audience experiences a twist in the story. The mother goes to ask about Charles to her son’s kindergarten teacher, and the teacher replies, “Charles?”

On June 28, 1948 Shirley Jackson short story the lottery had been publish by The New Yorker. This short story had not been Shirley Jackson's first or last story that she write but she believed that if it was her last and only story her name would be remembered for ever. This short story had generated "more mail than any" fiction they had ever published the great majority of the feed back to her story was negative. Millions of people and her mother had pronounced dislike to Shirley Jackson for writing the story. This short story was fiction of how a town would gather together and would pick out a peaice of paper from a black box which would lead to their death if the wrong paper was picked.This had a great theme but theme specificly has a greater

The Lottery (1948) “The lottery” story is written by Shirley Jackson, talks about a lottery goes on in a small village. On a sunny and beautiful summer day, June 27th, a village consists of about three hundred people has a town lottery. People from all ages gather in the square of the village to participate; children who recently finished their schools run around the village to collect stones and make piles in the town square. Mr. Summers is the one who runs the lottery for couple hours; he does not have any children, so he has plenty time to work for the village. Mr. Summers brings in the new black box because the original was lost longtime ago; however, he has been asking to replace the old box for years, but nobody actually respond; people say that they do not want to miss with their tradition.