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Interpreted In Shirley Jackson's The Lottery

493 Words2 Pages

The Lottery Essay The Lottery by Shirley Jackson is an interesting story that can be interpreted in many different ways. Not everyone is enthusiastic about the sacrifice. Most members of the village are reluctant to participate in the lottery. Some members of the village want to continue the lottery. This essay will provide evidence for these statements. No one in this story is enthusiastic about the lottery. The story supports this when Mrs. Hutchinson shows up late and says she forgot what day it was. Generally when people show up late to things it means they are not excited or enthusiastic. If anyone was slightly enthusiastic about the lottery it would be Old Man Warner. He is yelling at the younger people of the village for wanting to quit the lottery. Also when the villagers tell Old Man Henry that other places have already quit lotteries he thinks it's a bad idea and is trouble. No one can blame the villagers for not being enthusiastic about the daunting lottery. Most members of the village are reluctant to participate in the lottery. The text supports this idea when some members of the village talk about discontinuing lotteries. Another part from the text that supports how members of the village are reluctant to …show more content…

There is only one villager who would be disappointed and maybe mad if the lottery ended, Old Man Henry. The text shows this when the other villagers are talking about stopping lotteries and he says that it would be trouble if they did that. Also Old Man Henry has been participating in lotteries for seventy-seven years, he would be mad if the village broke the tradition. The young kids in the story seem to slightly enjoy the lottery. The text supports this statement when the kids are all running around and collecting rocks and guarding their piles. But the younger kids do not fully understand what's actually happening. If the lottery did end Old Man Henry would be the only one

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Interpretive Essay: The Lottery By Shirley Jackson

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“The Lottery” Interpretive Essay “The Lottery”, a short story by Shirley Jackson, is about a lottery that takes place in a small village. The story starts of with the whole town gathering in the town square, where Mr. Summers, the official, holds the lottery. After that, every family draws out of an old black box, and a certain family gets picked. Out of the certain family, one person gets picked as the unlucky “winner” of the lottery. In this short story, after the Hutchinson family gets drawn, Tessie Hutchinson is declared “winner” of the lottery.

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Hypocrisy In Shirley Jackson's The Lottery

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In the short story, “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson, the characters face their fates determined by playing in the town’s annual lottery. The main idea of the story is, sometimes in life, you have to take certain chances, regardless if you are blindly taking that chance; however, the natives of the village are willingly taking a chance of death by playing the lottery. There are many different themes in this story; however, I will only focus on the hypocrisy trait that many of the characters show throughout the story. The hypocrisy theme stuck out the most to me in this short story because it seemed to be a lot of back and forth between opinions and loyalties of many of the characters.

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We would not be able to know this unless we knew the whole story, much like the villagers themselves. In addition, right before the lottery starts, Mr. Summers says, “Well, now, … guess we better get started, get this over with, so’s we can go back to work. Anybody ain’t here?” To us, we believe that he is saying that in order to make sure that the lottery goes in an

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At the beginning of the story, Jackson describes the villagers as any other small village, with children playing and adults socializing. The only thing off about the village is how regular they are considering the event taking place. The only evidence that someone does not fully support the lottery in the village is when Tessie Hutchinson is late to the event. Although she makes jokes when she’s late and is not concerned about the event, she did not consider the lottery important enough to remember.

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The gathering and guarding of the pile of stones suggests that the children were preparing for the lottery’s conclusion, and even anticipate participating in it as if it is a game of dodgeball. The eventual outcome and demise of a community member at the end of the lottery event does not faze the youths demonstrating a numbness towards

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The Use Of Tone In The Lottery By Shirley Jackson

1333 Words | 6 Pages

“The Lottery”, by Shirley Jackson is atypical of any other story from its time. Jackson utilizes a shift in tone that is emphasized through the event’s location, attendees, and rituals found within her work to take readers on a wild ride. What begins as an average day on June 27, unfolds into a situation that never could have been expected. Jackson’s use of tone in “The Lottery” functions as a way to distract readers from the overall mood of the gathering. The pleasant and easy-going tone, presented throughout the beginning of Jacksons’s work aims to deter readers from questioning the villager’s initial motives.

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The tradition of the lottery has been carried out for so long in this village that nobody even knows the reason for its occurring in the first place and nobody questions it. When Old Man Warner, the oldest man in the village, is told about other villages giving up the tradition of the lottery, he says that they are, “[A] pack of crazy fools [...]. There [has] always been a lottery [...]” (Jackson, 4). There is no reason why there has always been a lottery except that every year on June 27th, they held the lottery.

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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 villagers on “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson are afraid to let go of their tradition, the lottery. They are concern of unknown consequences that will happen if they change their old customs. So, for every year, the villagers gather at the square to do the lottery at 10 AM . The villagers are afraid to quit their outdated tradition because they think that changing their old customs will only bring trouble.

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