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The Lottery In Babylon Rhetorical Analysis

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Jack Fahrnow 5/23/23 The Nature of Control and Fate in “The Lottery in Babylon” “The Lottery in Babylon” by Jorge Luis Borges’ is a really good narrative short story that pokes into a tangled relationship between control and fate within the foundation of a society consumed by a flip of a coin (or chances for short). Using the literary elements that were used in class, such as plot, characterization, narration, and language, Borges’ story explores the theme of jeopardizing chances. This long form essay will inspect the story, drawing evidence from these literary elements to support the explanation that this short story serves as a warning, the danger of hazardous chances to earn something big or lose it all. The plot of Jorge Luis Borges’ story, “The Lottery in Babylon”, shows the change of lottery from being just a game to have fun with into a powerful organization that surrounds the Babylonian society. At first, the lottery provides a number of prizes but then progressively expands its scope to include rewards like wealth, power, and even control of someone's life. This change shows the increased dominance of change and the decrease in control of people over their own lives. The plot symbolizes the theme of abandoned businesses to an enormous force, showing the danger of jeopardizing chances. …show more content…

An inhabitant of Babylon was the narrator for this story and he serves as a typical resident in the Babylon population and responses to the lottery. The narrator is a disconnected observer, and hands the information to the reader the connections of the lottery’s impact. The people of Babylon are seen as both victims and violators, guiding and controlling their own lives or destroying other individual lives. The characterization highlights that the inhabitants of Babylon are stuck between ruining their own lives and hurting other people's lives because of

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Throughout time, society has had its ups and downs but in the short story “The Lottery” people’s lives are taken to the next level by challenging their luck of survival. Today winning the lottery is rewarding and a positive feeling, but in the short story it’s nothing but a dangerous tradition that will end someone’s life. In “The Lottery” Shirley Jackson creates a story filled with foreshadowing, irony and a ritualized tradition that masks evil which ultimately demonstrates the central idea that people should not blindly follow tradition. For starters, The short story foreshadows many events to come and makes people’s lives more stressful and fearful.

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“The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson is a short story that paints an illustration of either a post-civilization society or a pre-civilized society depending on your interpretation of the situation. Regardless though, the civilization that is described throughout the short story is one that would not be considered within the norm when discussing societies in a modern setting. The antithetical juxtaposition of the characters from the beginning of the story to the final stanzas offer an example of conforming to social norms which include the murder of innocent members of the civilization. Throughout the story, Jackson uses foreshadow and biblical allusions to build suspense for the unexpected. Jackson begins by describing what seems to be a normal sunny day at the end of June in a small town in New England where three hundred people gathered in suspense for the upcoming lottery.

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Despite the length of the writings short stories can be filled to the brim with literary devices. Upon analyzing the short story “The Lottery”, one can find multiple examples of literary devices. The use of devices, such as foreshadowing, symbolism, and irony help create a clearer picture of people’s reaction to the lottery. These devices are important is discovering what the lottery really is. It also shows how this event has changed the humanity of the town itself.

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“The Lottery” shows how society can't carelessly obey past customs and

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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.

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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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Certain rules and traditions are placed to create order in society; although, extreme traditions can cause a corrupt society, instead of benefiting it will damage the society. “The Lottery” is a short story written by Shirley Jackson, one of the first examples of a dystopian society in literature. In the lottery, author Jackson, portrays a rural society from the past, that is unconscionable and corrupt, displaying immoral community caused by living in a bureaucratic dystopian society. This is displayed through characters actions and element’s. Analyzing the text for symbols and archetypes As the story progresses characters begin to incriminate oneself and show true colors.

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The Lottery itself represents a primal example of loss of innocence; portrayed through the young boys who gather at the town square to collect rocks for the horrors soon to follow. An illustration of how traditions can lose their true meanings and come to represent violence and warfare. Furthermore, “The Lottery” also represents the decaying characteristics of traditions, as symbolized by the town’s black box, in this case where every year, someone’s name is drawn out of the black box and they are stoned to death, by other members who may or may not end up to be family. Nonetheless, it ends up to be the villagers who

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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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