Winning The Lottery Research Paper

The idea of winning a lottery is associated with luck, happiness and anticipation of good things. In Shirley Jackson's story, " The Lottery", this is not the case. The irony of the story is that the winner of the lottery gets stoned to death by everyone else in the town. The story is very effective because it examines certain aspects of human nature.

The author speaks to a panel of 6 professionals varying from different backgrounds. The question, do the lottery have an economic benefit, was presented to each panelist. Two members of the panel asserted a positive outlook on the economic benefit of the lottery use of funds in education, public safety, public health to name few examples. Four members of the panel indicated that the lottery is considered a regressive tax on the poor. They strongly suggest that the lottery is not an effective means of revenue for the greater

How do our relationships with others define who we are? Others affect us greatly. The people who surround us everyday have a great impact on our own life. Friends and family are the people who create you, and are part of the reason of who you are today. For example, when there’s a new trend, or when someone says a mean comment, you might change something about you at one point or another. Who affects your life?

The lottery offers a wonderful opportunity to possibly win millions of dollars. While this might seems amazing, it might not be as wonderful as imagined. In fact, maybe even the opposite might true as stated by numerous studies and research done since the 1970s.

First off, winning the lottery may not be a blessing because you can lose your money quicker than you think. After winning the lottery, the government takes almost a quarter of your winnings in taxes to help cover the United States’ debt. If you won about 10 million dollars, the government would take around 2.5 million in taxes. Another way you can

A lottery winner will begin to feel the need to flaunt their wealth because of their popularity. In result, a lottery winner will start buying flashy things for display and buying others overly expensive gifts to show how wealthy they are. Not considering the cost of their flashy and expensive objects, can cause a lottery winner to lose all their winnings in a matter of time. Therefore, the popularity given to a lottery winner isn’t beneficial because the fame and wealth results into dishonor and debt.

The lottery creates immense happiness for the winners, generating huge amounts of revenue for the few lucky winners, at the expense of every other person that did not win. This goes against the general utilitarian way of thinking, the good of the many out weighs the good of the few (2012 books, n.d.). What makes the lottery so bad is how much wealth it bestows upon so few people, and how many people play thinking they might win, but inevitably lose. This widespread suffering by the many so the few can enjoy more wealth than they can imagine is why the lottery is a utilitarian monster.

In today’s society we perceive the lottery as being a great fortune brought down upon you by Lady Luck. It is a serendipitous event, even if the person has done nothing to earn it. One would never see the lottery as an unfortunate occasion that occurred in your life because it is supposed to bring prosperity into your life. Also, one would not dare to think that winning the lottery would bring such repercussions as injury or death. In the short story “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson, the author could have used Mrs. Tessie Hutchinson as the town’s scapegoat due to their reluctance to change traditions, her horrible work ethic, and minority status as a woman.

We all have, at one time or another, day dreamed about what we would do if we won the lottery. Some of those dreams could include traveling to exotic places, buy a new home, and help family and friends, just to name a few of the dreams. Very few people will ever get the chance to make those dreams come true, however many people still have a tradition of playing and many have certain rituals when playing the lottery, such as: playing the same numbers, buying their tickets from only a certain store, or buying tickets only on certain days. Although, I don’t have a tradition of playing the lottery, I will every now and then buy a ticket. The ritual of this irregular tradition is when the jackpot is so high most

The lottery is something you should be thrilled about. In this day and age winning the lottery can revitalize your life. Today, if I won the lottery I could rethink my future and it would be a great outcome. Growing up I saw my family spend their last bottom dollar to get tickets for the lottery in hope they can be winners. Even while playing you end up losing in the long run. My mother told me the chances of winning the lottery are 1 in 14 million. I would think to myself, why play a game you can never win. I would get the response “It’s always fun to play and it’s tradition.” In the “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson, I understand the cause and disagree with the policy on why being stoned to death is worth a tradition to celebrate.

When you think of the lottery, you think of positivity. Many people dream of hitting the lottery. To a man, the lottery is the best thing that could ever happen. However, in Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery,” the ‘lottery’ is far from being the best. What catches my eye the most was the overall theme and the amount of irony throughout the entire piece.

Being stoned to death by 300 of your friends and family is possibly the worst way anyone would ever want to be killed. In the short story “The Lottery” written by an author Shirley Jackson, she mentions about a small village consisting of 300 residents who most reluctantly participate in an annual lottery drawing. I know, who in their right mind would hesitate to be a part of an event that gives you a possibility of winning a prize, which makes you wonder what the prize is. At the end of the story the protagonist, Mrs. Hutchinson, who also happens to be the winner of the lottery is stoned to death. I argue that Jackson wrote this story to inform us how living in a small community isn’t always a great thing because in a small population people start gossiping about one another, which can lead to issues and could turn into hatred.

Lottery is one of the best things that has ever happened to human kind especially those that dream high and but their dreams don’t come to life because they don’t have what it takes to make it happen. Lotteries are in various categories such as sweep stakes, scratch off, the Jackpot and even the green card lottery. The lottery that is being focused in this argument is the jackpot one. When individuals or people in general buy the lottery ticket their hopes are high, and they anxiously await with anticipation hoping to win. If they don’t win, they never give up, for they know that there is always next time and they keep playing. Some people urge that playing lottery is a bad idea because people end up getting

I believe that the characters in “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson are so willing to stone innocents to death is because they believe that it is for a good purpose. It is very similar to how the subjects of the Milgram experiment were alright – on a moral level – with shocking an innocent for the sake of scientific advancements. The citizens are not being ordered to continue with the lottery – Old Man Warner and Mr. Summers never explicitly say that continuing the lottery out of the question – but the two do imply their support for the lottery and its results. For whatever reason, the citizens genuinely believe that the lottery is worth continuing, despite its direct effects in the deaths of those who were once held dear to them. Similarly to