ipl-logo

The Black Myth In Shirley Jackson's The Lottery

149 Words1 Pages
The black dot in the short story, “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson possesses a considerable amount of power due to it’s ability to indicate and determine one’s fate. The lottery consist of a process in which the villagers gather to draw a ticket from the box. The one who selects the distinct ticket with a black spot will be unfavorably rewarded through death. As the slips have been chosen the reveal is beginning to arise, “...[Bill Hutchinson] forced the slip out of her hand. It had a black spot on it…” Mr. Summers concludes, “Let’s finish quickly.” (page 33, 34). As soon as a villager whom contains the slip with the black spot is uncovered the villagers are immediately overtaken and begin to perform their practice. Moreover, this indicates
Show More
Related
200 Words | 1 Pages

After Matt Null’s presentation, I was entertained by the creative writings of the famous novelist and short story writer Edward P. Jones. His presentation began with one of his associates introducing him as one of the greatest writers in contemporary America writing on the struggles African Americans faced in the nation’s history. In his presentation, Jones read to us two of his newest short stories The Devil Swims Across the Anacostia River and In The Blink of God’s Eye. Jones used outstanding imagery, but what I took note of most was the particular way he used dialog to describe his characters subliminally. He would use intense descriptive details to describe a scene’s environment and perhaps the outfits of his characters, but Jones took

Read More
543 Words | 3 Pages

Today when one thinks about the lottery it means in winning a lumpsum of money. “It has a black spot on it, the black Mr. Summers had made the night before with the heavy pencil in the coal-company office” (Jackson 342). In this case of lottery, the tradition is the winner will get stoned by everyone in town. The color of the dot which is black is symbolic of what it is about to happen to

Read More
287 Words | 2 Pages

Thierry Paré Seyyedesaghar Najafi 604-102-MQ 23th October, 2017 The Lottery The Lottery, written by Shirley Jackson and published in 1948, tells the story of a yearly celebration that consists of stoning one randomly chosen person to death. Throughout the narrative, the author portrays the dominance of men over women.

Read More
605 Words | 3 Pages

The Danger of Tradition Traditionally many ancient societies would kill their people to sacrifice to God in order to obtain rain or a good harvest. These mindlessly, followed traditions were never critically thought about and therefore citizens died year after year. A similar tragedy occurs in Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery”. This story features a civilization much like our own but with one small difference, the town’s people hold a lottery every year and the town stones who ever loses to death.

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
828 Words | 4 Pages

Aaron Davis January 18, 2017 English-11 Ms. Metzker The Devil and Tom Walker The overall theme of this story is greed. The narrator uses the description of the swamp and other things to suggest this theme and establish the tone for the story. The devil, in the story, guards the treasure not to protect it, but to use it in tempting people to live lives of sin and mainly greed.

Read More
909 Words | 4 Pages

“The Lottery” is a short story by Shirley Jackson. The story commences with a vivid description of the summer day in the town, giving us the idea that the day will be good. When the lottery begins, families begin to draw slips of paper from the black box. Finally, when Bill Hutchinson withdrew the slip of paper with the black dot, his wife Tessie starts yelling that it wasn 't fair. When the second drawing was held only among the Hutchinson’s family, Tessie gets the same piece of paper with the dot and is stoned to death.

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
1031 Words | 5 Pages

The story “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson is a short story of horror and realism. On June 27th on a late summer morning, the villagers of a small New England village gatherd together in the town square to conduct their annual lottery. There is a black box on a stool and in the box there is pieces of paper in the box. Each person from a family get one paper from the black box even the children get a piece of paper and every stayed quiet and nervouse. Then Bill Hutchinson looked at the paper and notice that he got the black dot.

Read More
1033 Words | 5 Pages

“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.

Read More
253 Words | 2 Pages

Shirley Jackson's The Lottery is about analyzing traditional social and class divisions. Because the story is asking us to think about the ceremony and traditions that we careless following as members of our society. The story is analysis the ways custom is concealed right and wrong, the lottery is becoming a way to analysis social and class divisions. The random samples of paper mean that some of the family are fortunate and that others aren’t fortunate.

Read More
1220 Words | 5 Pages

Human nature can be characterized as being positive, capable of altruism and goodness which sets humankind apart from savage animals; however, human nature possesses a dark side, namely cruelty, and it is capable of barbarism like any beast. In “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson, cruelty is part of human nature, and the participants of the lottery demonstrate human cruelty through violence towards one another; markedly, by exhibiting desensitization to violence and the acceptance of violence resulting in internal dysfunction which is perpetuated yearly. Participants of the lottery belong to a close-knit community, and every year the community hosts an enigmatic lottery draw. The conclusion of the lottery draw is only mysterious until the outcome

Read More
1898 Words | 8 Pages

The short story, The Lottery, by Shirley Jackson. The Lottery is about people from a small town that gather together in the square in June. In this village, there are only 300 people. Therefore, unlike most towns, the lottery only takes a few hours. The children in the town collect stones, rocks, and small pebbles and put them in a pile in the corner of the square.

Read More
502 Words | 3 Pages

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

Read More
978 Words | 4 Pages

Everyone has a different set of criteria when they decide whether a piece of writing is good or not. I have my own criteria as well. Although there are so many elements that influence an impression of a piece of writing, I narrowed it down to three; Is it open to various interpretations? Is it easy to understand? Is it realistic?

Read More

More about The Black Myth In Shirley Jackson's The Lottery

Related Topics

Open Document