ipl-logo

Not Your Ordinary Lottery Research Paper

641 Words3 Pages

Kalee Von Alvensleben Professor Emily Malsam ENGLISH 50 10/20/17 Not Your Ordinary Lottery In Shirley Jackson’s short story, The Lottery, a lottery takes place in a small village where the town gets together for an annual tradition. It's not your normal, everyday lottery; but a lottery where you don't want to be pronounced the winner. In this lottery, if your name gets called, you are chosen to be stone to death. In this short story, the government controls the town with horrible, traumatizing laws. Jackson’s short story feeds readers to believe that the town is living in a perfect society. However, it is actually a plot twist and that they are living in dystopia because the government dehumanizes and controls the town, making them live in fear of change, and having no realization that tradition isn’t always good. …show more content…

The Lottery proves that this dystopian society is sustained through a state that manages and controls almost every detail of the society. For example, Mr. Summers says, “Now, I'll read the names --heads of families first-- and then men come up and take a paper out of the box. Keep the paper folded in your hand without looking at it until everyone has had a turn. Everything clear?” (Jackson 3). The villagers have got used to the government diminishing the value of life in humans that they take the ticket without fighting. For instance, Jackson talks about the kids of the village getting out of school, getting prepared and stuffing their pockets with stones. The villagers blind acceptance has made the terrible “crime” of tradition as an ordinary

Show More
Related
615 Words | 3 Pages

Most people know the lottery as a contest to win money. But in the short story, “The Lottery,” written by Shirley Jackson, the lottery is not a simple game competing for money. In this small village’s version of the lottery, everyone must draw out of a box, and if their family is chosen then the whole family must redraw and the death of a member is decided. After the fate is decided, the rest of the village throws stones at him or her until he or she dies. The villages reasoning of this process is they believe it guarantees a plentiful crop season.

Read More
1737 Words | 7 Pages

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

Read More
807 Words | 4 Pages

"The Lottery" by Shirley Jackson begins innocently enough with a village preparing for an annual event, but as the story progresses, it becomes clear that the seemingly harmless tradition is anything but, forcing readers to confront the dangers of blindly following tradition. Jackson employs rhetorical techniques that highlight the importance of avoiding conformity, as it will lead to dire consequences. Shirley Jackson's story is a powerful example of the use of symbolism, vivid imagery, and irony to illuminate the danger and violence of blindly following traditions, as the seemingly innocent annual lottery in a small town ultimately reveals the brutal consequences of conformity and the human capacity for violence. Throughout the story Jackson

Read More
524 Words | 3 Pages

Bees Noga Bees are a very important part of our lives, as proven by theguardian.com and saveourbees.org.uk. Bees are important because they pollinate 84% of every single crop we eat. 84% means a third of every bite we eat. They pollinate crops such as broccoli, tomatoes, papaya, watermelon, strawberry, apples, mango, pears, and many more! Bees pollinate over 400 different types of crops.

Read More
227 Words | 1 Pages

The short story “The Lottery” written by Shirley Jackson, the plot in the story that it only gives people an account of drawing lots to determine the winner who shall be stoned to death for harvest. However, we get a deep impression of the characters and their fate after reading the story. Jackson indicated a prevalent theme, the indirect of characterization and using symbolism and irony to modify this horror story. The Allegorical story of “ The Lottery” is often regarded as a satire of human behavior and social institutions, and exemplifies some of the central themes of Jackson’s fiction, including the victimization of the individual by society, the tendency of people to be cruel, and the presence of evil in everyday life.

Read More
1191 Words | 5 Pages

The short story “The Lottery” is written by Shirley Jackson. This story takes place in a small village where everybody knows each other. In this story all the villagers gather around town for their annual lottery. Everyone in the village is compelled to follow this tradition even if the outcome ends up with someone dying. In “The Lottery”, Shirley Jackson uses conflict, theme, and irony to develop this suspenseful short story.

Read More
881 Words | 4 Pages

The short story “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson is about a small town that conducts an annual lottery. The entire town gathers to participate in the sacrificial stoning of the so-called winner. Jackson’s aim for this story was to show the general evil of human nature and the unnecessary violence in the world. Jackson uses the third person point of view and a lot of characters to help convey the purpose of the story by distancing the reader from the characters. This shocks the reader at the ending and allows them to view the story from an outside perspective and see the reality of the situation.

Read More
1474 Words | 6 Pages

“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).

Read More
1009 Words | 5 Pages

“The Lottery" is a verdict of depraved tradition of a community. The story surrounds a town where the lottery is drawn every year as a sacrifice ritual one 's life for a good fertile crop. The lottery rose up public opinions when it first published in 1948. It is a piece of Shirley Jackson in which she wrote about inhumanity and violence among human based on her real experience when she moved to a small town and was rejected by its people. Shirley Jackson always believed in sinful spirit within each individual self as her writing style portrayed the vicious side of her and people 's souls, “The dark current of awareness of evil that runs through her life and work seems too strong to have as its sole root the observance of suburban hypocrisy” (Judy Oppenhaimer).

Read More
691 Words | 3 Pages

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.

Read More
1048 Words | 5 Pages

This appeared to be their way of life since the community did not offer any employment opportunities after the plantations were closed. People started to engage in criminal activities which lead to their incarceration. In Lalee’s household alone, three men were in jail. Redman and Granny’s fathers were serving time and Lalee’ son was in and out of jail. They often talked about the criminal justice system because their love ones were within that system.

Read More
569 Words | 3 Pages

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.

Read More
1675 Words | 7 Pages

Research Paper The famous short story by Shirley Jackson "The Lottery'" was published on June 26th, 1948. The short story has been drawn into discussion for many years for its short, but intricate and complex story. A summary story in its simplest form could be put as a tradition that was followed by a small town called the lottery, but there is so much more contained in between the lines of that statement. The story has a very dark premise regarding the tradition that the town must follow is for the safety of the town itself.

Read More
650 Words | 3 Pages

“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.

Read More
926 Words | 4 Pages

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.

Read More

More about Not Your Ordinary Lottery Research Paper

Related Topics

Open Document