What Is The Central Theme Of The Lottery By Shirley Jackson

“The Lottery” is a short story by Shirley Jackson. It is about a small farming town, and every June they have a lottery. The lottery is held by Mr. Summers, the head of the coal company. Mr. Summers has one card for each person in the town. He places a black dot on one of them. He puts them in a black box. Whoever chooses the black dotted card will get stoned. First the heads of families choose, then everyone else. The people who chose the black dot were Mr. and Mrs. Hutchinson. At the end they were starting to get stoned. This is why you shouldn’t follow traditions or leaders blindly.

On the other hand, the villagers stoning the winner of the lottery was used as a symbol of punishment. It is one of the most established and common execution methods. However, in The Lottery, the stones represent victory of the lottery. Shirley Jackson stated that, “Bobby Martin had already stuffed his pockets full of stones, and the other boys soon followed his example, selecting the smoothest and roundest stones” (Jackson 291). Stoning is symbolic in “The Lottery” because, “For stoning to be effective it requires a crowd to act together. This reinforces the point that the antagonist of this story it is not a single person but society” (Gahr). For instance, this means that the immorality of the village is so severe that the antagonist is not just one person but society itself. How do you think the villagers feel when their children were caught up in this senseless tradition by collecting stones? It is obvious that the villagers were following tradition that was done every year. “What about allowing a child to be a child?” For example; playing with toy cars and trucks, coloring books and Barbie’s, or getting push by their parents on a swing at a park. Children should not be allowed to partake in an event so gruesome and violent or seen raising anything to aggressively hurt an adult.

Most people have some sort of tradition that they follow, be it a family tradition or a morning routine, while most are harmless or have some positive effect there are a few that exist that are negative. This could be made worse if one such negative tradition takes over their life. In “The Lottery” the townsfolk gather for what at first seems like a harmless, fun tradition, a yearly lottery. But, as the story progresses it becomes apparent that there is more going on that first meets the eye. Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery” uses symbolism to show the theme: tradition isn’t always right, dialogue to get readers predicting and start to reveal the sinister nature of what was really going on in the story, and revealing actions to raise the

In Shirley Jacksons, The Lottery, the reader is taken into an almost dreamlike village where the children are playing and the adults are conversing and laughing amongst each other. The story makes the reader believe that this village that they have been introduced to is the ideal spot to live in and has the happiest of people but the story begins to unravel itself as it progresses. The village follows a tradition to hold an annual lottery and this requires that all townspeople are required to meet up at the square. Once a victor is chosen, the story takes a turn for the worst as the said victor, Mrs.Hutchinson, is stoned to death. Upon reading this story and its ending, it is apparent that this result was being hinted at from the beginning and that the mentality of the village is unstable. Having children take part in picking up stones for the pending murder and parents mindlessly allowing these obviously immoral actions to continue.

The Lottery by Shirley Jackson is a short story based on a fictional village that holds a macabre ritual. Although the regularity was not stated within the tale, the story speaks of a regular gathering of the village folk to conduct some form of lottery. In a disturbing twist of the tale, the winner of the lottery doesn’t get to receive a prize, but instead, suffer the indignity of being killed by getting stoned to death by friends, family, and neighbors. Mrs. Hutchinson is the unfortunate soul, who, despite her pleas and protests has no option but accept her fate. In a similarly titled story, The Lottery by Chris Abani talks about an incident he witnessed when he went to the market with his aunt. In the story, Abani explains how he

In the Lottery by Shirley Jackson there are many key ideas about humanity, how valuable life is, and other controversial ideas. This story has started furious debates all across North America about the cruel horrors mankind is capable of in either fact or fiction and how many people were in shock and horror claiming mankind was not capable of things in the story. In Lottery story a young woman was brutally murdered because of her bad luck, Bill Hutchinson had picked the unlucky black spot meaning him and his family were going to pick from the box and whomever got the paper with the black spot would be stoned to death. Tessie was the one who had the spot so the whole town, friends, family and even her little boy all turned and stoned her to death.

In Shirley Jackson’s short story “The Lottery” it seems that Jackson is trying to portray how people do not question the rituals they partake in and continuously do them. There is no form of second thought on the rituals people perform but a sense of conformity. People go along with such rituals because it is accepted and only frowned upon when someone questions these rituals.

“The Lottery” was written by Shirley Jackson in 1948 and was actually banned in many places for the morbid conclusion of the story. The story takes part in a rural village during the summer and begins with describing the buzzing mood of the people preparing for something. They begin gathering stones and to participate in pre-Lottery celebrations and rituals until everyone can come together to partake in the Lottery. There are mentions that other villages in the town over have ceased in going through with the tradition at all and it seems that they do not take kindly to the idea of change. The society also appears somewhat patriarchal where the men and boys represent the head of the household and everyone follows old traditional gender roles.

The Lottery" by Shirley Jackson is a fictional story based on a small society where every person within the society lives happily and prosperously. Although behind the happiness is darkness. Throughout the story the reader learns that every summer the town holds a lottery which decides people's fate. Each individual is to draw one slip from the box and if that slip contains a black dot then that individual is stoned to death. The idea and concept behind this is that if they kill one person a year it will make their harvest heavy and farmers will have full crops. Society acts as the protagonist within the story because it creates a vicious tradition. The tradition being that one person must sacrifice there happiness in order to satisfy and bring

It is often said that good things come in small packages, and short stories are a great example of that. Short stories, although not as lengthy as other forms of literature, still create a huge impact in a limited amount of time. The goal of most short stories is to convey a message or moral, but like any form of literature, some short stories are better than others. Out of all the short fictions read in the Grade 11 English curriculum, The Lottery by Shirley Jackson is by far the most important story read because of the theme, the characters and the symbolism.

The short story by Shirley Jackson should have been published. Your story "The Lottery" should have been published because the theme makes the reader be more interested while reading the short story. The first time reading this short story and reactions were puzzled at first but then as far as reading and understanding the theme the short story was more interesting and made your readers think about their families and problem they had. The evidence and reactions connect back to the claim because the reaction they had made them interested and wanting to read more based on these reactions and the way the short story really caught your attention as well.

The short story “The Lottery”, by Shirley Jackson displays a common theme in many ways. One way is by symbolization. According to Dictionary.com, symbolization is “an unconscious mental process whereby one object or idea comes to stand for another through some part.” Another way Jackson expresses the theme is through conflict. Conflict is “to come into collision or disagreement” (Dictionary.com). “The Lottery” is a short story about how old traditions can lead people blindly. In “The Lottery,” the people continue an old tradition because they have no idea they could possibly be subject to change. This creates conflict.. “The Lottery” is a short story similar in theme to Romeo and Juliet, by Shakespeare, or The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins. The theme of this short story is that people should be more aware of their surroundings and their traditions.

Shirley Jackson wrote The Lottery in the late 1940’s. It seems as though the village is just having a regular annual celebration. Everyone is dressed and talking casually. The kids are playing, gathering and protecting stones. The atmosphere Jackson portrays is easy going.

When I saw a title of the story is "The Lottery", I thought it was supposed to be a fun story about how people could get a huge fortune. However, the whole story was totally difference. I can understand winning lottery in this situation is a bad luck. No one want to win a death wish if I do say so for myself. Specially, when an execution way is stoned to dead. It's a little confuse in here about why they have to chose one of these people who was their neighborhood to kill for no reason. I have learned that in many ancient culture, they chose one people to sacrifice to their God in return of having a good crops or a good weather. But in this story, I didn't find any reason that lead them have to do so. Maybe they learned

During the last few decades, the amount of violence around the world has fluctuated. However, the recent increase in violence has stemmed from past scenarios of pointless actions. According to the authors Philip J. Cook who is a professor at Stanford University and is also an expertise in violence; and co-author John H. Laub who is an American criminologist and Distinguished University Professor in the Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice at the University of Maryland, College Park. They wrote, “the rise and fall of youth violence has been narrowly confined with respect to race, sex, and age, but not geography”. The way a person looks or acts has been the primary cause