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Violence And Foreshadowing In Shirley Jackson's The Lottery

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The violence of human nature constantly shows throughout literature. In The Lottery by Shirley Jackson, the stoning of young women resembles the witch trials of the 1700s. The town in the story seems to be normal, friendly place where everybody knows everybody. However, it is a place where a barbaric ritual of stoning takes place. Throughout the story, Shirley Jackson creates a sense of normality, ending with a conclusion that has both suspense and foreshadowing. The secrets, traditions and immoral behaviors in the town prove the point that society's basest instincts are ones of compulsion and destruction place. The violence and suspense littered throughout the story prove that human nature is one of fight or flight. Secrecy is one of the prevailing themes in the story. The town keeps the lottery hidden and does not let the outside world see their terrible secret. “Summers was very good at all this; in his clean white shirt and blue jeans” (Jackson 10). In this quote, Jackson describes Summers, who runs the Lottery. This description portrays false normalcy -- a person appearing perfectly normal who runs the completely abnormal lottery. This illustrates the secretive nature of the human race. Secrets seem to protect the well-being of …show more content…

These themes are excellent examples of the autonomic human reaction fight or flight. The secrets, lies, and betrayal showed throughout The Lottery all contribute to the point that the people of The Lottery have a belief that they have a direct link to God, in which they feel that they are executing God’s will. The Lottery brings to light the darkest and basest instincts of the human race. Humans, in general, need to take a critical look at themselves, in order to change and understand the barbaric traditions of the past. People take too much enjoyment in the abuse of others and are lying to society and the world about the real

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Usually there’s a winner in a lottery, but not in Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery”. This story intrigued me by it's suspenseful nature and it's chaotic events. In small town America, they come together once a year to perform an annual tradition. Mrs. Jackson demonstrates literary devices such as foreshadowing, mood, and conflict in “The Lottery”. Foreshadowing is used quite a few times in “The Lottery”.

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Upon reading the end of “The Lottery”, there is no doubt that one can see a clear picture of humanity and brutality it can cause. The act of stoning is violent, it is a killing which allows the killer to see and be seen by the victim. Throughout history stoning has been used, “So when they continued asking Him, He raised Himself up and said to them, “He who is without sin among you, let him throw a stone at her first” (The New King James Bible John 8:7). Additionally, the brutality and horror highlighted by the fact that the stoning requires the participation of the entire village, including family members of the victim and children, it also includes the selection process as well.

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The short story “The lottery” is about a small village that has an annual lottery in which the winner gets stoned to death. Many of the townspeople know this is inhumane, but they choose not to speak out because their name isn’t picked. Jackson uses direct characterization to describe all the characters in the village and uses symbolism throughout the story. Not to forget about the vivid description of the setting in the beginning of the short story. Shirley

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“Lottery in June, corn be heavy soon” (Jackson, literature) This seemingly harmless act to the townspeople is considered to be immoral and illegal in today’s society. This is because of the way norms and standards can vary by location and time period The act of stoning a citizen in The Lottery is normalized through the trial and errors

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The story of “ The Lottery ” by Shirley Jackson is a very surprising story especially towards the end. It causes great consternation and shock when we learn that the winner of the lottery - Tessie Hutchinson, does not win an award, rather finds herself stoned to death. This somewhat shows the role that superstition played years ago. It was widely prevalent and as we progressed in terms of science and technology, we have come to break apart from such harmful traditions. It is precisely due to these superstitions, often many an innocent life has been taken without just cause.

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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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Throughout centuries, traditions and rituals have had the ability to control one’s behavior. In Shirley Jackson’s, “The Lottery”, she tells the reader of a small village. On the surface, this community may seem relatively normal. However, despite the picturesque appeal, this falsely serene village has a distinct deceitful flaw. On June 27th, every year, a lottery takes place.

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It’s a beautiful summer day and everything seems perfect, but as the reader keeps reading they come to realize that this story is not as simple and straight forward as the title suggest, rather it is a horrifying and dark tale. Shirley Jackson is forwarding the theme on tragic it can be to blindly follow traditions by using foreshowing, symbolism, and dialog. The first literary device Shirley Jackson uses to forward the theme blindly following traditions, is foreshowing. The first example I am going to us I talked about in my introduction.

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Traditions have been sought after and passed on for generations; with no questions asked, whether humane or not, traditions are hard to break and diminish as they are often what a culture or community stands for. In Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery”, a story about the tradition of a small village, is painted in impeccable details of peace, and serenity on a warm summer day, as everyone follows the tradition they have known since a long time ago despite the true intentions and meaning of it forgotten. The Lottery taking place annually is like no other lottery, it paints the true picture of the horror that epitomizes the tradition that none of the villagers dare to question, despite it creating separation between gender and families and ruining

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In “The Lottery,” Shirley Jackson uses foreshadowing when the children are collecting stones from the river and putting them into piles. It hints that something bad is going to happen because it is unusual for boys to be grabbing stones and randomly put them into a pile. For example, while the towns people were getting ready for the lottery the narrator states, “Bobby Martin had already stuffed his pockets full of stones, and the other boys soon followed his example,selecting the smoothest and roundest stones; Bobby and Harry Jones and Dickie Delacroix, eventually made a great pile of stones in one corner of the square and guarded it against the raids of the other boys.” (Jackson). This quotation shows that the boys in the village are finding the smoothest and roundest stones and putting them into a big pile.

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While real life traditions are rarely so extreme, Jackson’s exaggerated fictional example emphasizes her point to great effect. By the end of the story, the audience is convinced that the town is wrong to uphold the lottery tradition, but Jackson is not really writing about a lottery; she is writing about how damaging it can

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Many people would die to win the lottery; in the short story “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson you would do anything NOT to win this lottery. This annual lottery reveals the negative aspects of this town’s Tradition, Savagery, Barbarism, and cold-heartedness. In this paper I will show why this town blindly follows these customs, not because it’s a tradition but because of the accepting wickedness that can be shown. Why does the town follow this foolish tradition? Throughout “The Lottery” the narrator tells that the people do not remember how the lottery began, and that some of the older people believe the lottery has changed over the years, that now people just want to get it over with as fast as possible.

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Once the reader begins to question the lack of explanation surrounding the event, a suspenseful tone beings to grow. Due to the unexpected

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This event happens during the summer, and at the end a woman was stoned to death by her friends, families and residence. Over the years, the black box had become worn, indicating that the ritual was old and obsolete. Violence played a significant role in this story. The story of “The Lottery” was committed by ordinary people. The act of brutality demonstrated how cruel and viscerally evil humans can be.

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Imagery, syntax, and irony are all used to create this horrific story. Jackson vividly describes the day in which this story takes place giving it a specific date, and describing it as a nice and full-summer day where “the flowers were blossoming profusely and the grass was richly green” (539). Imagery helps to set a positive mood, and suspend reality to draw the reader into the story. The syntax evolves over the course of the story as the tone of the story changes. The story starts off with longer descriptive

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