ipl-logo

How Does Society Follow Barbaric Actions In The Lottery '?

158 Words1 Page

“God has given you one face, and you make yourself another” (William Shakespeare). “The Lottery” is a short story that was published during the 1940s, shortly after the end of World War II. People believed that this story’s setting and characters were modeled after the author’s life and where she lived in 1940. The short story was meant to highlight the social, political, and cultural atmosphere of the society during the time it was written. During this era, there was a large male dominant societies, where women had barely any power or say in what was occurring. This was also shown in the short story “The Lottery”, along with the spread of communism, and how society will follow barbaric actions in order to ensure their own means to survival.

Show More
Related

  • Blindly Accepting Traditions In The Lottery By Shirley Jackson

    586 Words  | 3 Pages

    At a time when basic religious beliefs and traditions were being questioned by academia, author Shirley Jackson penned a poignant attack against those who blindly accepted values and traditions in her short story, “The Lottery.” The Lottery is presented as an event that has always occurred throughout the region's history without any opposition. Nonchalantly, the entire village commits homicide at the finale. Finally, aspects of the traditional lottery evolved without notice or were forgotten by the villagers. Within “The Lottery,” author Shirley Jackson embeds the theme of blindly accepting traditions as illustrated by the actions of the villagers.

    Read More

  • The Lottery Tradition Analysis

    569 Words  | 3 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Fritz Oehlschlaegar's The Lottery

    362 Words  | 2 Pages

    Fritz Oehlschlaegar links the meaning of “The Lottery” to patriarchy. He suggests that the event was a depiction of the way the male dominated over women sexuality in the society. According to the author, women gave birth to many children to increase their survival probabilities during the “The Lottery”. He also discusses the conflict between male authority and women resistance. He suggests that the women did not support the event, felt it was unfair but could not however raise their opinions since they were submissive to their husbands, and were controlled by the men.

    Read More

  • The Role Of The Holocaust In Shirley Jackson's The Lottery

    72 Words  | 1 Pages

    Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery" could have potentially been influenced by the events of the holocaust, because the people in the village blindly follow the leader despite knowing it's wrong. I feel like this story however, is more of an analogy between the people in the village and people in general. I think she was trying to say people too often follow the leader even though it's not the right thing to do.

    Read More

  • Morality In The Lottery And The Last Duchess

    749 Words  | 3 Pages

    In life people tend to heavily rely on others, because we aren’t an independent species. Because of this, when we are told what things are “right” and “wrong” by our leaders, we believe them and follow what they say. This is how society has functioned since the beginning of time. As people, when we follow our leaders we begin to heavily rely on them losing all of our ability to step back to our own conscious reality, and decide whether or not the actions we are doing are humane or inhumane. In the story The Lottery we see this to its full extent, as well as in The Last Duchess, both of these stories show How a group of people can lose their morality, and follow a blind tradition without any regard to the outcomes.

    Read More

  • What Is The Relationship Between The Lottery And Culture

    93 Words  | 1 Pages

    “The Lottery” employs contrast to effectively deliver the story’s theme while encouraging the reader to question what is acceptable and what is not in one 's own culture. Tessie changed her attitude after the lottery was drawn compared to before the lottery. Tessie was excited and joyful before the lottery because she didn 't care what was going to happen to other so she was all in favour of it, but as soon as her family was drawn she started complaining “it wasn 't fair”(232) and “it isn 't right”(234) as she was being stoned to

    Read More

  • Mob Mentality In The Lottery

    717 Words  | 3 Pages

    "The Lottery" by Shirley Jackson is a short story about a strange village that blindly follows a non beneficial tradition. Jackson uses several objects in order to convey the overall theme of mob mentality to the reader, such as stones, old man Warner, and the black box. The symbols build upon the story to solidify the theme that mob mentality can ruin a society. Many societies even today struggle with mob mentality especially communist societies. " The Lottery" is a prominent example of how history repeats itself.

    Read More

  • Conformity In Shirley Jackson's The Lottery

    1060 Words  | 5 Pages

    Conformity is a powerful and influential behavior that can drastically affect a society’s circumstances. The morality and wellbeing of the individuals’ in a society are shaped by the everyday traditions and customs of that culture. Shirley Jackson, an award-winning author for her works in horror and mystery, unveils the perturbing effect of conformity on a society and its people in her short story “The Lottery.” In her thought-provoking story, a village situated in a warm area of England prepares to partake in a traditional crop fertility ritual that involves a paper drawing to elect a ‘winner’ who will be stoned to death. The societal conformity to continue this brutal tradition causes the life of a person to be insensitively taken away each

    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

  • The Lottery Argumentative Essay

    691 Words  | 3 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Women In The Lottery

    595 Words  | 3 Pages

    Using details from the story, discuss how “The Lottery” depicts and treats its female characters. Are they treated in a positive or a negative manner? Women are worthless human beings, who are clearly inferior to men. At least that has been the theory in the past. Throughout history, many stories have been written with intention to not only entertain or inform, but also to depict sexism, anecdotally.

    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

  • Examples Of Irony In The Lottery

    1191 Words  | 5 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Feminist Criticism In The Lottery By Shirley Jackson

    360 Words  | 2 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • The Dangers Of Following Traditions In The Lottery And Examination Day By Henry Slesar

    1138 Words  | 5 Pages

    The Dangers of Following Traditions Blindly Why do people follow authorities and traditions blindly without reflecting upon what they are doing? The two short stories, The Lottery by Shirley Jackson and Examination Day by Henry Slesar, are perfect examples of societies that don’t question what they are doing because killing a person is rather an uncivilized and barbaric act. People will often be cruel when following traditions, beliefs, religion, or authorities. Thus, in the two short stories The Lottery and Examination Day, the authors are indirectly warning the reader about the dangers of not questioning authorities or traditions, and how we tend to be sheep that simply follow and don’t question.

    Read More

More about How Does Society Follow Barbaric Actions In The Lottery '?

Open Document