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Use of Symbolism in The Lottery by Shirley Jackson
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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.
“The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson, is a short story expressed through the theme of apathy, when the community feels no emotion for anyone, that a ritual is more important than a human being, mob mentality, and hypocrisy which is prevalent within the townspeople. It may help learning more about Shirley Jackson to better understand why she wrote such a horrific story like, “The Lottery.” Shirley Jackson moved into a small town, Bennington, Vermont, where she wasn’t accepted within her town which shows she was thinking how cruel people can be. Not being accepted is not the same as being stoned or killed, but it has the capacity for cruelty. Through this, Shirley Jackson is suggesting that we need to examine ourselves and our actions carefully and live our lives consciously instead of
1. The Misfit doesn’t know if Jesus had raised the dead or performed all the miracles he has been said to have done. Misfit wanted to see Jesus in person to having living visual proof of Jesus’ existence. This way, Misfit could convert to the Christianity and live his life as a devout Christian.
In recent years, feminism has been widely talked about, however, in the 1700’s few dared to mention the subject. One of those few brave people was Madame Louise d’Epinay. The Enlightenment in the 1700’s was a time of exploration, new ideas and transforming society. During this innovative time period, Madame Louise d’Epinay saw an opportunity to spur change that defied social norms. Her courage and dedication to a vital cause created lasting impact on women around the world.
Many current customs can be traced back hundreds of years. Sometimes these traditions change over time, often so much so that the details or even the original purpose can be forgotten. In her short story “The Lottery,” Shirley Jackson points out how even modern will participate in rituals that can range from foolish to barbaric in the name of antiquated cultural customs whose details and very purpose has long been forgotten. Jackson sets the scene with a description of a sunny…summer day” in a civilized community, with a “post office,” “bank,” and a “school” (paragraph 1). Little children play with stones” and run around in the schoolyard (2).
The short story, "The Lottery" by Shirley Jackson depicts a small town on a traditional day called the lottery. Although the lottery might've gotten it's beginning for a certain purpose, such as religion, the town has since forgotten why their doing it, but they still do it anyways. In the story, Tessie Hutchinson is picked in the annual lottery. Although everybody else has no issue with killing Tessie, Tessie keeps yelling out and exclaiming, "It isn't fair, it isn't right." (Jackson 29).
Imagine a society where killing somebody for the sake of a tradition is acceptable. In the short story “The Lottery” Shirley Jackson describes an ordinary village with normal people, but as the story progress the details of their yearly practice known as “the lottery” unravels to be more disturbing. The author subverts the readers’ expiations by persuading the reader into assuming “the lottery” is a ordinary tradition until unusual details and the behavior of the characters come into place. In her short story “The Lottery,” Jackson seemingly uses ordinary details about the setting and the townspeople to characterize her theme that although society claims to be civilized, and may appear so, it is inherently barbaric.
One of many characteristics of a good story is its unpredictability, which makes readers stick to the end to find out what happens next. Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery” is a short story that has left readers shocked or as some may say, “scarred for life” the reason being that it had a rather unexpected ending. Tradition is an important part of people’s identity, as it holds significant information about ancestral beliefs. But sometimes, doing these traditions can make you feel stuck in time. Jackson’s story greatly shows this because of how Tessie Hutchinson, the story’s main character, dreads the day of the lottery, although it has been going on for more than seven decades—according to old man Warner.
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.
Javier Rosario march 7, 2018 ENC 1143 The Lottery Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery” shows how a tradition goes through certain changes as years pass, and how the people manipulate that same tradition. Throughout the story, we can see how the people live their lives around a tradition that has become an assassination instead of a sacrifice. The primary events in the story seem benign. Children run around the town square collecting stones, and while they pile up the stones, the adult villagers arrive (women first then men).
The gruesome tale of Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery” showcased a dystopian society heavily dependent upon tradition. Throughout the short story, I saw instances where Jackson juxtaposed peace and violence. In fact, Jackson opened the short story with picturesque scenes of flowers, making the readers completely unaware of the violence that followed. When the narrator began by saying “the morning of June 27th was clear and sunny, with the fresh warmth of a full-summer day; the flowers were blossoming profusely and the grass was richly green” (216) the setting appeared peaceful and happy. At this point the readers were left in the dark, which was why the death of Tessie Hutchinson was a huge shock at the end.
Edgar Allan Poe said, “The death of a beautiful woman is, unquestionably, the most poetical topic in the world” (good reads, 1). Although not many of Edgar Allan Poe’s works surrounded the idea of the death of a woman, most of his poems, if not all, portrayed death. He became renowned for his stories and poems about mystery and horror (bio, 1). The extent of Poe’s influence on our culture is immense. He, in fact, was nicknamed “Father of the Detective Story”, because of all of his brilliant tales of mystery and adventure (bio, 1).
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.
Charmain Baker-Deer ENC1102 Mar 02, 2018 Essay draft 1 Topic: What is the theme of “The Lottery”? “The Lottery” is about small town, with a population of three hundred people. Everyone from the village is subjected to participates in an annual ritual, where members are required to pick from a black box to determine their destiny. In “The Lottery,” Jackson highlights human kind capacity of victimizing violence and tradition to control the masses.
In Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery,” she depicts how tradition can be so blinding and the dangers of never seeing how destructive an event can be. First, the gathering of the lottery becomes more and more familiar for the people of the village. With
