Dangers Of Tradition In Shirley Jackson's The Lottery

For example, Jackson illustrates, “The morning of June 27th was clear and sunny, with fresh warmth of full-summer day; the flowers were blooming profusely, and the grass was richly green." (254). Conveying an image of a comfortable and delightful atmosphere distracting the reader from what is truly happening. It is not until Mrs. Adams makes the comment that “Some places have already quit the lotteries” (Jackson 257). That the reader might question why a town would want to quit a lottery?

Many pieces written by Jackson have a small-town setting that end with horror. The short story “The lottery” is about a small village that has an annual lottery in which the winner gets stoned to death. Many of the townspeople know this is inhumane, but they choose not to speak out because their name isn’t picked. Jackson uses direct characterization to describe all the characters in the village and uses symbolism throughout the story. Not to forget about the vivid description of the setting in the beginning of the short story.

“Expectation feeds frustrations. It is an unhealthy attachment to people, things, and outcomes we wish we could control; but don’t“ by Dr. Steve Maraboli. “The Lottery“ is a short story written by Shirley Jackson, which talks about a village whose members have been taking part in a twisted ritual called “The Lottery” and it has been going on for decades.It takes place in an undistinguished village on a clear morning, June 27th and it’s described as an ordinary and pleasant community. "The Lottery" combines elements of horror, irony and tension, all of which are oftenly found separate different short stories. In Shirley Jackson's Short “ The Lottery“ she uses the Black Box as a symbol for ritual homicide as part of the villages community which

In all books authors use figurative language to create suspense and get the reader interested. In “The Lottery,” by Shirley Jackson, a small village gets together on June 27th every year to do the “lottery.” Generally people think of the lottery as being a good thing. In this book, however; if you win you die. One member of each family in the village must walk up to a black box alphabetically, select a piece of paper, and return to their spots. Which every family has the piece of paper with the black dot on it must redraw from the box and who ever then gets the dot will “win” the lottery and get stoned.

Lawrence alludes to the bizarre nature of the relationship between the children and their mother in the first paragraph “Everybody else said of her: "She is such a good mother. She adores her children." Only she herself, and her children themselves, knew it was not so. They read it in each other's eyes.” (Lawrence, 1) So from the start, Lawrence sets up a tension between what society wants to believe and what actually is.

“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.

It occurs when Tessie gets the paper because instead of winning something Tessie gets killed. Since the story's title is “The Lottery” the readers think she going to win something because that's what happens at lottery, but she didn't she ended up getting killed. The word symbolism is a system of symbols or representations (Merriam 1). The “black box” represents evil or death, suggested by the color of the box. They had been using that box since they started with “the lottery's” it was a tradition every time they finished with a lottery they were going to make a new box, but they never did.

I chose Grendel's mother for my character analysis. Even though Grendel's mother is not in a lot of the text I thought she was an interesting just misunderstood character. I liked that she wanted to avenge her son it shows she is human and not just a monster. The dislike I found in her was how went she went about seeking revenge by killing people brutally. On some levels I can see myself like her protecting my loved ones and feeling pain from the death of a loved one.

The black dot in The Lottery `means death in the short story. For example, the black dot on the paper means death in the story. Whoever was the one to draw the paper with the black dot was the one to get stoned. The person who chose the paper with the black dot on it was Tessie Hutchinson, and she said, “It isn’t fair.” She thinks that Mr. Summers didn’t give her husband enough time to choose a paper and that's why their family had to choose a paper and she was the one to get the dot. Another symbol in the story is the black box which symbolizes evil, death, and oldness.

The Lottery In the short story “The Lottery”by Shirley Jackson, the characters of the story all have mixed emotions about this lottery. The character, Tessie Hutchinson, her emotions about this lottery is that she thinks it is unfair. Mrs. Hutchinson thinks the lottery is unfair because they didn't give her family enough time to pick a slip. But i think it was fair because everyone takes their own time. All Mrs.Hutchinson was doing was trying to protect her husband from getting the “black dot”.