Ideas And Symbolism In The Lottery By Shirley Jackson

Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery” is an account of a tradition gone awry. In this short story the villagers of this town have a tradition where they have a “lottery” to see who gets stoned to death. The characterization and symbolism used in the story makes the reader feel as if society has crumbled with the inhumane tradition that ultimately lost its meaning. Throughout the story, Jackson uses characterization and symbolism to imply a message to society about the meaning of tradition. Through the use of characterization and symbolism Jackson establishes that blindly following traditions can be hazardous

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.

Essay Prompt #3 Can you imagine going to a town meeting once a year, with all of your friends, family, and loved ones. At this meeting one person is selected to be stoned to death, not only that but EVERYONE has to help.

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.

Everyone has a different set of criteria when they decide whether a piece of writing is good or not. I have my own criteria as well. Although there are so many elements that influence an impression of a piece of writing, I narrowed it down to three; Is it open to various interpretations? Is it easy to understand? Is it realistic? These three are the most important factors when I evaluate a novel or a movie. Based on these criteria, I think Shirley Jackson’s ‘The Lottery’ is a good story.

The irony of the lottery is that it’s random and everyone has the same chance of being picked, it also exposes what kind of character Mrs. Hutchinson is. Mrs. Hutchinson at first is thought to be a caring mother, but when under pressure, instead of attempting to protect her children, she selfishly wanted to include all her children, specifically her married daughter, in the drawing to make them “take their chance” (299), to improve her chances of survival. Mrs. Delacroix and Mrs. Hutchinson are good friends, joking about Mrs. Hutchinson’s tardiness to the drawing. Although they’re friends, “Mrs. Delacroix selected a stone so large she had to pick it up with both hands” (301) and promotes the stoning of Mrs. Hutchinson. The irony of the friendship is that the ritual is so embedded in the community that Mrs. Delacroix does not hesitate to murder her good

“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. Why would such a cruel event take

“The Lottery,” is a short story written by Shirley Jackson portraying what readers think would be an innocent story. The story takes place in the summer, in a small village of 300 people. In the story Jackson describes the people of the village gathering for their annual lottery that has happened for years. She sets up her readers by naming the story “The Lottery,” which have them believe that the lottery will be a great outcome. Although, as readers read the story they have an odd feeling that something terrible will occur at any moment and there will be no great outcome. Throughout the story Jackson uses suspense, symbolism and foreshadowing while having readers discover the main theme of the story.

The Lottery Analytical Essay In this short story, written by Shirley Jackson, the townspeople have somewhat of violent “tradition”. The people participate in this process called stoning where someone is randomly beaten to death by stones. Shirley doesn't specifically say why they do this or why it is still happening but she does drop hints.

In this particular time and age the act of what happening would seem normal. The era of a small or large town coming together the residents of a tiny town assemble together in the square on June 27, a gorgeous daytime, for the urban raffle. In additional towns, the lottery yields slower, but there was only 300 people in this town, so the lottery takes only two hours. Village families, who have just finished school for the summer, run around collecting stones. They put the stones in their pockets and make a load in the square.

The villagers on “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson are afraid to let go of their tradition, the lottery. They are concern of unknown consequences that will happen if they change their old customs. So, for every year, the villagers gather at the square to do the lottery at 10 AM . The villagers are afraid to quit their outdated tradition because they think that changing their old customs will only bring trouble.

“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). In “The Lottery”, Shirley Jackson uses characterization, symbolism and themes to develop the action of the short story.

‘The Lottery’ is a story about tradition and sacrifice. However, even though the NY times article is about sacrifice, they are for different things. Such as money vs. good luck. ‘The Lottery’ talks about this small, peaceful village that have no problems and has mainly positive dialogue. But this village has this really weird tradition. This tradition is based on a lottery. There would be this lottery and every family has their name on it by force since it is a tradition and the family that gets picked would have to do another lottery to see which one in the family dies. To know which person in the family dies every person in the family gets a paper and the paper with the black dot dash. In the lottery someone picks out a family name and the family name that year was the Hutchinsons. The Hutchinsons were pretty mad and mostly Tessie Hutchinson, who started shouting that this is unfair. Then they proceeded to the final lottery, which was the one based on who will die. Every person in the family got a paper and the person with the black dot was Tessie Hutchinson, who then started shouting this is unfair and everyone started throwing rocks at her until she died. The whole story is ironic itself because the tone of the story is a place that’s perfect. The dialogue is mainly positive. The title “The Lottery” also gives the reader a positive perception of the story, that the lottery is a contest, not an execution, but it is in fact an execution at the end. In the article it talks

The short story “The Lottery,” by Shirley Jackson is full of literary elements. The old and innocent, small town atmosphere creates the perfect stage for this ironic tale. Several literary elements are evident throughout the composition but three specific elements stand out the most. Jackson’s unique ability to use tone and style, symbolism, and theme are what makes this story so fascinating.

This essay contends that the convention of the lottery speaks to the discriminatory stratification of the social order along lines of gender and financial position. The story sets put in a residential community in New England. Consistently a lottery is held, in which one individual is to be randomly decided to be stoned to death by the individuals in the town. The lottery has been practiced in excess of seventy years by the townspeople. By utilizing imagery, Jackson uses names, items, and the setting to hide the genuine importance and expectation of the lottery.