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Community In Shirley Jackson's The Lottery

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Recommended: Extended literary analysis over the lottery by shirley jackson

Shirley Jackson created a short story by the name of “The Lottery”, which was published by The New Yorker in 1948. “The Lottery” talks about a community in which the villagers gather once a year on June 27th to have a village wide lottery. The head of households are called by surname and pick a slip of paper from a black box that has been used for generations as per tradition. When a family has been chosen by the lottery, each member participates in a family lottery. Once a family member is chosen by a black dot on their paper slip, the family, excluding the chosen family member, joins the community once again, and the community comes together to stone to death the “winner”. All lottery activities usually end at noon, so villagers can get home …show more content…

The explanations of civil activities switching to stoning of a community member changed only words, but never attitude. Jackson made sure to keep the tone rather casual despite the conflicts. “The Lottery” began casually, describing the normal day of the annual lottery, “The morning of June 27th was clear and sunny...the whole lottery took less than two hours, so it could begin at ten o’clock in the morning and still be through in time to allow the villagers to get home for noon dinner...children assembled first... they broke out in boisterous play...jokes were quiet...The women...exchanged bits of gossip...The lottery was conducted...civic activities (Jackson …show more content…

There is much symbolism hidden within the lines and small items and words. The black box, the black spot, even the villagers’ names, have symbolism. The black box is a form of symbolism for death, by its color, and it is also a symbol for the reuse of the lottery. According to LitCharts, the symbolism in the black box is related to the mentality of the villagers. LitCharts explains, “The box is worn and old, but the villagers do not want to “upset tradition” by replacing it...black box lends confidence to the villagers because it reminds them to trust in the tradition of their forefathers—never considering that those traditions might be immoral (LitCharts

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On June 26 of 1948, Shirley Jackson’s short story, The Lottery, made its first appearance in an issue of The New Yorker. Jackson was surprised by the substantial amount of backlash she received in regards to her harrowing writing that manifests the rituals of human sacrifice. The story takes place in a small town on an ordinary summer morning. The villagers assemble at the town square for the annual lottery, where one of the villagers will be randomly chosen to sacrifice themselves to the gods of a fertility religion. The villagers believe that a human sacrifice must take place in June to ensure that a bountiful harvest was ahead of them.

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In the text it describes how, “Mr. Summers spoke frequently to the villagers about making a new box, but no one liked to even upset as much tradition as was represented by the black box” (Jackson 1). Even though the box is old and the always talk about a new one, the villagers are too scared to replace it. This helps the readers understand more about the ritual and the box. It also clarifies what they do with the box when it’s not in use. “The rest of the year, the box was put away, sometimes one place, sometimes another; it had spent one year in Mr.Graves’s barn and another year underfoot in the post office.

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The box shows wear from the time that it has endured. Except for the fact that the box is not the original artifact. It is known however, that the box is older than even the oldest man in the town. The black box shows foreshadowing as one would not expect that a lottery of a different sorts would be that decayed. Another usage of foreshadowing was a small conversation between a man and a woman.

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In the story, it is stated, “The people of the village began to gather in the square, between the post office and the bank, around ten o'clock; [...] the whole lottery took less than two hours, so it could begin at ten o'clock in the morning and still be through in time to allow the villagers to get home for noon dinner” (Jackson 250-251). This detail specifically entails how important this lottery is for the villagers to unite, leading them to a shocking custom of choosing who gets to be stoned to death. The villagers are aware of what atrocity they are going through, yet no one ever questions their customs because traditions are to be continued through beliefs and customs to show oneness, even if it leads to cruel-ness. The interesting part of believing in such a tradition is that the villagers never chose to believe in it, but were forced.

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When most people hear the word “lottery” they think of fame, fortune, and an instantly better life. However, in some cases, a lottery may not always be as great as it seems. In a short story by Shirley Jackson, winning the lottery didn’t mean all your problems were over, rather, it meant they were just beginning. The story centers around a town that holds a lottery on June 27th of every year. Each family must draw a slip of paper, the family with a dot on their paper remains in the drawing.

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Jackson gives an impression that the shabby, black box is a personal and constant reminder to the people so that they must remain faithful to the tradition of their forefathers and never ponder on the notion that those customs might be wrong or immoral. In addition, the villagers’ behavior towards the box embodies their assessment on the entire system of the lottery. They seem to be frightened by the lottery and the box, but they are even more petrified to alter or doubt one or the other. Pressures, traditions and longstanding beliefs may potentially guide that society to an extensive ignorance and sanctioned malevolence that is directly strengthened by

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The tension also comes from the unanswered question about the purpose of “The Lottery”. The main focus about this disturbing short story is the purpose of the villager’s culture, which Jackson withholds the answer from the audience to portray the strain of her anxiety. Jackson’s idea of foreshadowing that supports the ongoing tradition is vacuous goes hand in and with the role of

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“The Lottery” is an realism/horror story written by Shirley Jackson. The story is about some villagers of a small New England town who follow the tradition of making a lottery every year. When it comes, they like to celebrate it with the correct rules and the correct objects so they can feel more comfortable. Everyone need to take a slip of paper from a small black box, and the paper with a black dot in it means that the family is the winner, then they raffle again; Bill Hutchinson, who was the husband of the protagonist Tessie Hutchinson picked a paper with a black dot in it, that meant that Tessie was the winner of the lottery, then she starts complaining because the drawing was not conducted properly. At the end, the townspeople moved off to a cleared spot outside the town and they begin stoning her to death (Jackson).

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The purpose of the lottery is to continue the old tradition of sacrificing a scapegoat in order for a harvest. The scapegoat is chosen at random and then stoned to death by his/her companions. Although “The Lottery” reflects an event from the past, Jackson shows that many of the actions of the town resemble the tribulations that ensue in today’s society. To begin with, like the villagers in the story, our society also partakes in valuing tradition.

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“The Lottery”, by Shirley Jackson is a very suspenseful, yet very shocking short story. This story is set in a small village, on a hot summers day in June. Flowers are blooming, and the towns people are gathering for the lottery, which is a tradition the town does every year. As the reader reads the first paragraph they think this is a happy story. The title also says, “The Lottery” which is a word often used for winning something or receiving a prize.

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In Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery," the author has demonstrated each symbol and the meaning that holds behind them. The black box is culturally known as a dark and evil color. It represents the fate of the people in town, and the three-legged stool is used as a support for the black box to lay on top of the object. Stoning is ancient.

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In her story "The Lottery", Shirley Jackson implies the negative consequences of blindly following tradition through the acceptance, by the villagers, of the tradition of the lottery. Jackson suggests that the people of the village are afraid to give up the little tradition they have, even if it is not good. Every year after the lottery, the conductor of the lottery, Mr. Summers suggests that they should build a new box but, “No one [likes] to upset even as much tradition as [is] represented by the box.” (Jackson, 1). The black box symbolizes ritual and tradition.

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“The Lottery”, a short story by Shirley Jackson, is about a lottery that takes place in a small village. The story starts off with the whole town gathering in the town square, where Mr. Summers holds the lottery. Once everyone gathers, every family draws a slip of paper out of an old black box, and the family with the black mark on their paper gets picked. After that, each family member older than 3 years of age re-draws a slip of paper again and this time, the person with the black mark on their paper gets picked as the “lucky winner” of the lottery. In this short story, after the Hutchinson family gets drawn, Tessie Hutchinson is declared “winner” of the lottery, with her reward is being stoned to death.

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The Lottery The short story, The Lottery by Shirley Jackson proposes an annual lottery drawing in a little village set in New England. However, unlike any usual lottery, the winner is stoned to death by their fellow townsmen, women and children included. The lottery seems to have been a custom around the area for over seventy years.

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Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery” is an account of a tradition gone awry. In this short story the villagers of this town have a tradition where they have a “lottery” to see who gets stoned to death. The characterization and symbolism used in the story makes the reader feel as if society has crumbled with the inhumane tradition that ultimately lost its meaning. Throughout the story, Jackson uses characterization and symbolism to imply a message to society about the meaning of tradition. Through the use of characterization and symbolism Jackson establishes that blindly following traditions can be hazardous

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