ipl-logo

Central Idea Of The Lottery By Shirley Jackson

366 Words2 Pages

Plot and Central Idea: “The Lottery” The short story “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson begins with the idealistic image of children playing in town on a summer morning. Eventually, their fathers and mothers began to congregate followed by Mr.Summers, who was in charge of the assembly, carrying a large black box. The attention of the villagers was quickly redirected to aid Mr.Summers in creating and confirming a list of all the families in the village. As this occurred, the town's oldest participant in the lottery, Old Man Warner began to discuss the importance of the tradition of the lottery and how foolish it was that surrounding towns were getting rid of it. Amidst all of these events, the remaining villagers arrive, Mrs.Hutchinson, being

Show More
Related

  • Interpretive Essay: The Lottery By Shirley Jackson

    520 Words  | 3 Pages

    “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.

    Read More

  • Symbolism In The Lottery By Shirley Jackson

    152 Words  | 1 Pages

    In Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery," the author has demonstrated each symbol and the meaning that holds behind them. The black box is culturally known as a dark and evil color. It represents the fate of the people in town, and the three-legged stool is used as a support for the black box to lay on top of the object. Stoning is ancient.

    Read More

  • Conflict And Controversy In The Lottery By Shirley Jackson

    480 Words  | 2 Pages

    “The lottery” (1948) Analysis The short story, “The lottery” by Shirley Jackson takes place in a small village. Was conducted the lottery story in 1948. In this story, the lottery is a yearly tradition that takes place in a small American Town.

    Read More

  • Literary Analysis Of The Lottery By Shirley Jackson

    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

  • Literary Elements Used In The Lottery By Shirley Jackson

    584 Words  | 3 Pages

    Shirley Jackson is known for her supernatural novels, her most famous novels are “The Haunting of Hill House” and “The Lottery” with many more to follow. Jackson’s work was the most popular during the twentieth century. The story “The Lottery” is based in the late 1940’s in a time after World War II. Literary elements used in this story are irony; because when you begin to read the story it makes the reader believe the winner is going to win something but at the end the “winner” dies. Another term used is setting and conflict because they help explain the story in more detail and give the story a plot twist and makes it more interesting for the reader.

    Read More

  • Essay On Symbolism In The Lottery By Shirley Jackson

    492 Words  | 2 Pages

    The Symbolism of The Lottery One big symbol that the short story is discreet about is the black box that is repeated throughout the short story symbolizes fear to adults which could affect even the most innocent. The black box appears to be the only paraphernalia that is still being used in the tradition of having a lottery. Mr. Summers is the one who is running the lottery at the time. Mr. Summers is seen as a nice man, however, when he is introduced, he is seen with the black box. “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson is a short story that uses the black box as a symbol to convey an underlying message that when the power of a tradition is given to a person, it could lead a crumbling society.

    Read More

  • Thesis For The Lottery By Shirley Jackson Essay

    711 Words  | 3 Pages

    The Lottery Template Topic Sentence: One can see by examining the symbolism of the worn out black box, and the foreshadowing of the children putting rocks in their pockets in the The Lottery by Shirley Jackson, that this story is a classic archetypal horror story. Argument: Firstly, one can see that when Mr. Summers arrived at the square carrying a black wooden box, he asked the villagers if anyone would give him a hand with putting the box on the three- legged stool, however, many hesitated to come near the black box, a symbolic twist that foreshadows the imminent ending. The black box has been used for generations, even before the oldest villager. It has been said that the current box was made from the pieces of the

    Read More

  • The Negative Consequences Of Tradition In The Lottery By Shirley Jackson

    467 Words  | 2 Pages

    The tradition of the lottery has been carried out for so long in this village that nobody even knows the reason for its occurring in the first place and nobody questions it. When Old Man Warner, the oldest man in the village, is told about other villages giving up the tradition of the lottery, he says that they are, “[A] pack of crazy fools [...]. There [has] always been a lottery [...]” (Jackson, 4). There is no reason why there has always been a lottery except that every year on June 27th, they held the lottery.

    Read More

  • Explication Of Shirley Jackson's The Lottery

    543 Words  | 3 Pages

    Explication of “The Lottery” In Shirley Jackson’s short story “The Lottery” in the final paragraphs the character Tessie is the winner of the lottery which ironically means she will be getting stoned. The author uses theme of the story to display how traditions are blindly followed for centuries even if they lack any meaning to them at all. She uses several metaphors and allusions throughout the story to convey this message. The significance of the paragraph is even though they do not remember the originally ritual of the lottery yet they do not forget to follow and participate in it every year.

    Read More

  • Thesis For The Lottery By Shirley Jackson

    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

  • Symbolism And Themes In The Lottery, By Shirley Jackson

    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

  • Human Nature In Shirley Jackson's The Lottery

    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

  • Symbolism In The Lottery By Shirley Jackson

    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

  • Chapter Summary: The Lottery By Shirley Jackson

    217 Words  | 1 Pages

    The Lottery In the short story ¨The Lottery¨ by Shirley Jackson the characters have different feelings about ¨The Lottery¨ . Tessie comes to ¨The Lottery¨ late . ¨Clean forgot what day it was ... ¨ she makes it seem like she forgot it was ¨The Lottery¨ day . The people's mood changed once it was to to pick from the box .

    Read More

  • Brief Summary Of The Lottery By Shirley Jackson

    467 Words  | 2 Pages

    It is the morning of June 27th and the village people are gathering in the square. The village consists of about three hundred people so, the lottery is not expected to take much longer than two hours in total. In other villages it can take up to two days to complete the lottery. The children start arriving first, including Bobby Martin, Harry Jones, and Dickie Delacorix, all gathering together and running off to go collect pills of pebbles.

    Read More

More about Central Idea Of The Lottery By Shirley Jackson

Open Document