Malcolm Bradbury once said ¨Culture is a way of coping with the world by defining it in detail.¨ meaning culture can influence how people can see the world. Cultural background can also affect how people see the world.cultural background affect perspective as evidence the stories "An Ordinary Man" by Paul Rusesabagina,¨Desiree's baby¨ by Kate Chopin, and ¨The Lottery¨ by Shirley Jackson shows how cultural background affects them. In Paul Rusesabagina's "An Ordinary Man," the author provides insights into how cultural background affects perspective. Rusesabagina, a Rwandan man, reflects on the events leading up to the genocide that occurred in his home country in 1994. He writes, "As an African, I was brought up to believe that the community is more important than the individual. This is why we are often criticized for being collective and not individualistic. But …show more content…
Through Desiree's experience, Chopin highlights the importance of understanding and respecting different cultural backgrounds in order to prevent misunderstandings and discrimination. Then, in In Shirley Jackson's short story, "The Lottery," the characters' cultural background significantly influences their perspective on the annual lottery. The protagonist, Tessie Hutchinson, is a newcomer to the village and has not fully assimilated to their traditions. When her family is chosen in the lottery, she protests, "You didn't give him time enough to choose. Everybody saw that" (Jackson 7). Her statement reveals her belief that the lottery is unfair and the process was not done correctly. However, the other villagers view the lottery as an essential part of their cultural heritage and respond to Tessie's objections with, "Be a good sport, Tessie" (Jackson 7). This response highlights their cultural background and the importance placed on tradition and
“The Lottery” is about a town that kills people off as part of a fertility ritual by a lottery system. The conflict is hard to pinpoint since the main character, Tessie Hutchinson shows up late to the lottery in the middle of the story. Tessie can be seen as a representative of the whole town. Tessie speaks her mind and voices thoughts that others have. For example, when she screams “It isn’t fair, it isn’t right” before she is killed (245).Other people have also voiced their opinions about the lottery.
“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.
Stories have always been something that we, as humans, enjoy to hear and read. This is shown throughout history and continues to remain true today. In Shirley Jackson’s short story, “The Lottery,” she takes her readers through a whirlwind of a story, starting it out one way and ending it with something unexpected. She does a great job of writing, by implementing in foreshadowing, imagery, and the theme of tradition. When someone thinks of a lottery, it usually means that someone is going to win something, such as money.
She is indifferent to participating in the lottery with the rest of the town. When her family is chosen and she is at risk however, she does an immediate one eighty, declaring multiple times that it is not fair and demanding that they start over. This shows how hypocritical she is in the face of danger. The townspeople solidify this idea when they respond to her protests stating “‘Be a good sport, Tessie.’ Mrs. Delacroix called, and Mrs. Graves said, ‘All of us took the same chance’”(Jackson 8).
"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
On the morning of the lottery, children are at play and make “a great pile of stones” while adults speak amongst one another (Jackson). The setting on the day of the Lottery is fresh, warm, and even family friendly to imply a cheerful mood that deeply contrasts to the brutality of the tradition these people are going to take part in. Jackson includes dialogue between Tessie Hutchinson and other villagers and how she “jokes with the crowd about leaving dishes in the sink” as she arrives late and they respond with friendly banter (Michelson). It goes to show that these people were friends, or at least knew one another, and everyone ends up ignoring Tessie after she is chosen, because they aren’t being affected. But Tessie isn’t only a victim in this scenario, she “suggests that Don and Eva should be included in her family’s drawing” in order to increase her chance of survival (Michelson).
Tessie wins the lottery, and the story finishes as the townspeople, including members of her own family, start throwing rocks at her. It is then revealed that the "winner" of the lottery is executed with stones by the remaining citizens. This tradition was created in order to guarantee a successful crop and rid the town of evil prophecies, and the lottery is meticulously explained, along with the events that led to it, but the outcome for the winner is kept a secret until the very end. The frightening community ritual of selecting someone arbitrarily to be stoned to death is literally depicted. However, figuratively speaking, one section of Jackson's short story bravely reveals the truth of the current societal control of women by enforcing standards and limitations upon them. "
The main conflict in The Lottery is between Tessie Hutchinson and the rest of the town. According to Shirley Jackson, “Tessie Hutchinson was in the center of a cleared space by now, and she held her hands out desperately as the villages moved in on her.” “It isn’t fair,” she said. The rest of the town people disagree with her and says everyone took the same chance. One of Shirley Jackson’s conflicts is between the character’s dark actions and the picture-perfect setting.
Tessie Hutchinson is the only villager who protests against the Lottery. When the Hutchinson family draws the marked paper, Tessie exclaims: “It wasn’t fair!”. But her fight is not supported by her family and people around. Her voice is ignored even her husband asks her to be quiet. This refrain continues as she is selected and subsequently stoned to death, but people are always selfish.
Protagonist Although Jackson’s “The Lottery” is filled with many different outspoken characters, she utilizes characterization to turn an ordinary housewife into the conflicted protagonist. When Tessie Hutchinson is first introduced to the reader as a flat character, Jackson describes her as just an ordinary citizen “Mrs. Hutchinson came hurriedly along the path to the square, her sweater thrown over her shoulders” (Jackson, 1948, para.8).
Shirley Jackson’s short story, “The Lottery” uses Tessie as a symbol to convey an underlying message about how communities can have a negative impact when women speak up for what’s right. For instance, the text states that Tessie thought it was unfair and Mrs. Hutchinson agreed with Tessie and also thought it was unfair, “ ‘ It isn’t fair’ she said. A stone hit the side of her head…’It isn’t fair, it isn’t right’, Mrs. Hutchinson screamed, and then they were upon her.” This piece of evidence reveals Tessie’s struggle to convince the crowd that this lottery is biased. The lottery was never fair to begin with and Tessie had to fight back against her community.
She realizes that this is an unpleasurable and outdated tradition and should be forgotten only because she got chosen. However, if her family’s name wasn’t drawn, she would have blindly followed the ritual, thrilled to have escaped a gruesome, sacrificial death. As a reader it is easy to empathize for Tessie since she or others don’t have a voice in their community or are even able to look at the bigger picture and see that the lottery is unnecessary. Not only does the dramatic irony of the lottery allow the reader to understand Tessie’s view, it creates a similar feeling towards Bill Hutchinson. For example, “Bill Hutchinson went over to his wife and forced the slip of paper out of her hand.
“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.
Its human nature to turn a blind eye to injustice inflicted into others. In the ‘’The Lottery’’ by Shirley Jackson, the author tells a complex story about how a simple lottery took place in a small town changing the lives, and fates of its inhabitants. Jackson main focus in the story is Feminism Criticism to illustrated the misogynistic views in ‘’The Lottery’’. In the story, the author uses the treatment of the females characters against its male counter parts to illustrate how women are view as second-class citizens, and how disrespected, and stereotypical they are. An example of this is showed in the very beginning of the story, where Jackson writes ‘’ against the raids of the other boys.
The extreme tradition in Shirley Jackson's, "The Lottery," produces no positive difference, but rather only a negative difference. The traditional belief upheld by the agrarian village in Jackson's story is human sacrifice, which aims at satisfying their gods so that they may have a copious harvest. When the lottery session determined that Tessie Hutchinson won the lottery, she said in response, "it isn't fair." (Reading Literature and Writing Argument) Tessie believed prior to winning the lottery that she was going to lose; however, she became a victim of her overconfidence.