ipl-logo

Examples Of Malpractice In The Lottery By Shirley Jackson

784 Words4 Pages

Have you ever seen a current events article headline, which shows some problems happening in the world, and completely ignored it? In the fiction book “The Giver” by Lois Lowry, a boy named Jonas, who lives in a community where everything is the same, gets transmitted memories about how the world actually is. In the horror short story “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson, a village hosts a lottery each year where the winner gets stoned to death. In “The Lottery” and “The Giver”, Jackson and Lowry use Jonas and Tessie's character development to demonstrate how humans ignore malpractice and wrongdoings until they realize how the wrongdoing applies to them.
In “The Giver”, Lois Lowry uses Jonas’s character development to demonstrate how humans ignore …show more content…

An example of this is how at the beginning of the short story, Tessie said “Clean forgot what day it was,”(Jackson 5) to Mrs. Delacroix, “and they both laughed softly.”(Jackson 5), and at the end of the book, Tessie said “It isn’t fair,” (Jackson 75) as “A stone hit her on the side of the head.”(Jackson 75). These quotes prove how at the beginning of the story, Tessie was not acting against the lottery, and was peacefully laughing, but at the end of the story, when Tessie realized SHE was going to get stoned, she started to protest against the lottery. This demonstrates that Tessie did not care about the lottery until she realized how the lottery impacted her. Another example that indicates this theme in “The Lottery” is how when Tessie was enduring getting stoned to death, “The children had stones already. And someone gave little Davy Hutchinson a few pebbles.”(Jackson 75), and “ Mrs. Delacroix selected a stone so large she had to pick it up with both hands and turned to Mrs. Dunbar.”(Jackson 75). This shows that even though everyone knows the dangers of the lottery, and even though they know this could happen to them, they still participate in the activity of stoning people picked to death, and they don’t care who is getting stoned to death, whether it’s a family member or friend. If they

Show More
Related
2309 Words | 10 Pages

Annotated Bibliography 1. Jackson The Lottery By: Yarmove, Jay A. Explicator. Summer94, Vol. 52 Issue 4, p242. 4p.

Read More
1480 Words | 6 Pages

They only care about it being unfair when they’re in danger themselves. This leads them to strongly regret ever being selfish and supporting such a thing before they got chosen, which is the theme of the short story. Moreover, also in “The Lottery”, Tessie Hutchinson said,“It isn’t fair,”(Jackson, 74) only after she herself was chosen for the lottery. Yet again, we see how people do not stand up against this homicidal tradition when others are at risk of dying, but as soon as it comes to their own lives, they say something. Following them realizing that they’re not immune to such a tradition themselves, they become remorseful for not standing up before which demonstrates their selfishness and the resulting regret.

Read More
597 Words | 3 Pages

In “ The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson, Jackson utilizes innocent details to foreshadow the tragic ending. Shirley Jackson foreshadows the terrible events throughout the short story with the children playing with the stones. Shirley Jackson shows foreshadowing in the story throughout the kids when they make a pile of stones and they play around with them but playing around with them wasn’t their only purpose. “Dellacrroy’-- eventually made a great pile of stones in one corner of the square”(Jackson 1).

Read More
262 Words | 2 Pages

In Shirley Jackson's The Lottery, the author uses a theme that says that people never stick up for one another until they are being harmed or punished by the same problem. In the book The Lottery the townsmen come together to have an annual stoning, which helps them believe that the sacrifice will bring a good year's harvest. This quote from the text lets us see why no one cared to stand up for her, ""It isn't fair," she said. A stone hit her on the side of the head. "

Read More
261 Words | 2 Pages

Shirley Jackson tries to explain to the readers that lying to someone else about something important can often lead into more trouble. In the story, Laurie causes mischief at school, and lies to his parents that a boy named Charles caused all of the trouble that he had actually did. By creating Charles, Laurie had to keep lying to his parents in order for him to stay out of trouble at home. However, Laurie’s parents became suspicious of Charles when they found out that he became a helper at school, and later discovered themselves that Laurie was the source of the trouble within the classroom. This probably made his parents infuriated; more so than if he simply confessed earlier.

Read More
615 Words | 3 Pages

The Dangers of Following Traditions. In 1948 “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson was first published in the New Yorker. The story is thought to be set in a place based on the small town that she was living in at the time. Half way through the story the tone takes a dramatic turn.

Read More
711 Words | 3 Pages

The Lottery Template Topic Sentence: One can see by examining the symbolism of the worn out black box, and the foreshadowing of the children putting rocks in their pockets in the The Lottery by Shirley Jackson, that this story is a classic archetypal horror story. Argument: Firstly, one can see that when Mr. Summers arrived at the square carrying a black wooden box, he asked the villagers if anyone would give him a hand with putting the box on the three- legged stool, however, many hesitated to come near the black box, a symbolic twist that foreshadows the imminent ending. The black box has been used for generations, even before the oldest villager. It has been said that the current box was made from the pieces of the

Read More
656 Words | 3 Pages

In Lois Lowry’s “The Giver”, Jonas resides in a seemingly perfect, idyllic world, meticulously controlled, yet under this guise hides a dark truth. As the story unfolds, Jonas, the protagonist, evolves from a law-abiding citizen to a determined individual challenging his societal norms. Through his experiences, Jonas confronts the limitations of his world and seeks change. Jonas starts just as clueless as any other person in his community, blindly following directions and rules. Chapter 5, page 48, “It’s just the pills”.

Read More
173 Words | 1 Pages

The black box is what holds the piece of paper that control a person’s life or death. This box is ignored all year round (Jackson 7). No one in the town cares enough to fix or maintain the box to a point where it is not falling apart. The morals of the townspeople are very much like the black box almost no one cares enough or even thinks about how wrong and primitive picking one person at random to kill is. The townspeople do not even remember why they have the lottery.

Read More
322 Words | 2 Pages

Artist Statment: "The Lottery" is a short story by Shirley Jackson that takes place in a small town on a summer day. The townspeople gather together for an annual ritual known as "the lottery," which involves drawing slips of paper from a black box. One of the slips has a black dot on it, indicating that the person who drew it will be stoned to death by the other villagers. The sheep inside the black box can be seen as a metaphor for the villagers who participate in the ritual.

Read More
289 Words | 2 Pages

Death can happen to anyone at any time, like winning the lottery. People are naturally curious and flock to death like a pack of hungry vultures. "The Lottery", by Shirley Jackson, emphasizes the randomness of death, while almost poking fun at the behaviour of people not directly affected by it. Death can happen on any day, to anyone, like a lottery. The lottery itself, in the story, symbolizes exactly how random death is; everyone is entered, and nobody is exempt.

Read More
248 Words | 1 Pages

The Lottery Firstly, the town gathers for their annual summer lottery. The boys are looking for rocks, the girls stand chatting and the adults talk with each other and try to keep track of their kids. Then Mr.Summers (who runs the lottery) arrives with an old black box filled with slips of paper. As Mr.Summers begins to prepare, Tessie Hutchinson runs into the crowd, saying that she forgot what day it was. Mr.Summers asks for volunteers to help him, a man and his eldest son offer.

Read More
691 Words | 3 Pages

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.

Read More
520 Words | 3 Pages

Sofia Webster Mrs. Dale Literature 7-4 12 January 2023 The Giver Theme Essay “Jonas did not want to go back. He didn’t want the memories, didn’t want the honor, didn’t want the wisdom, didn’t want the pain.” (Lowry 152)

Read More
1506 Words | 7 Pages

The influence of formalism and its opponents, as well as the emphasis on literary aesthetics in the process, led to the relaxation of the standard for the search of literary significance. Therefore, we must give brand-new attention to what the literary works themselves are intended to tell the reader. (Thomas) Formalism and New Criticism were popular in the mid 1900’s, but became unpopular in the late 1900’s. Although not many people use it today, when reading stories, it will give you a better understanding. For example.

Read More

More about Examples Of Malpractice In The Lottery By Shirley Jackson

Related Topics

Open Document