Rhetorical Analysis Of The Lottery By Shirley Jackson

From the villagers’ words to their actions to their lack of value placed on life, Jackson shows a society that conducts a ritual killing in the same manner that it conducts “square dances, the teen club, the Halloween program” (Jackson 1). While most are unaffected, some of the villagers call for change by saying the Lottery is unfair; others say that a few towns have quit the Lottery altogether. In a powerful way, Jackson shows the reader the importance of saying the right thing, doing the right thing, and valuing human life by not being ashamed to stand up against

It was almost a way of life and if it was not followed there were dire consequences. The story starts to become ironic when specified what the lottery really means to them. A lottery, in any other community, is seen as a chance to win rewards that are in your favor. Within this town, it’s a chance to murder a single person every year. The main idea Jackson make in “The Lottery” is that people can come to together to perform this terrible act and then completely forget about.

People are very sentimental about festivals “And such things are very important to our local voters. Had we stopped the Gotmaar this year, for example, the congress party definitely would be sent away in the next elections. (Stone Throwing pg 310)” Tradition could blind people by being destructive and creating victims through social pressure. Shirley Jackson's story ''The Lottery'' portrays an ordinary village with average citizens engaged in a deadly rite, the annual selection of sacrificial a victim by means of a public lottery. Miss Hutchinson who is the victim in the story, by showing the tradition's selfishness results while releasing her from social pressure.

Obviously Tessie Hutchinson is more likely to stone other people is somebody else would’ve gotten the black dot paper but now she argues that the lottery is unfair because she got the paper with the black dots. Things that came in my mind one of them is Motivation. Villagers continue to kill other villagers because they are so proud about their rituals and they don’t want to go against the authority because Villagers are the one who choose it. I think they story is trying to say that you should protest against the authority when authority is wrong. It’s like a democracy.

“Now look you… I will come to you in the black of some terrible night… bring a reckoning that will shudder you… I can make you wish you had never seen the sun go down”. In order to save herself she did extreme things; she made people fear of her, that way people would obey. In act II, she accused Elizabeth Proctor of witchery; she said that Elizabeth used poppets to damage her. Abagail Williams had a horrible obsession with John Proctor; she invented false testimonies in order to keep away Elizabeth form John. The fact is that because her name was pure in Salem, almost everybody trusted her.

Instead of interrogating Abigail, he is silenced by her which most likely shows that he has accepted her demand of not being judged. At this point, there is a flip in power dynamics at the witchcraft trials, Abigail has overpowered Danforth in courtroom. Judge Danforth an honorable Judge of the supreme court has easily been dominated by a seventeen-year-old Abigail, proving that he is gullible to her lies. Lastly, right after the Andover witchcraft trial revolt, Abigail runs away and also steals Reverend Parris’s money (The crucible). The sheer act of fleeing away shows a sign of guilt and fear of punishment along with her act of stealing Reverend Parris’s money clearly speaks a lot about the criminal character of Abigail Williams.

Last but not least, about the theme of the movie, it’s actually the same as the text. They both trying to talk about the concept of McCarthyism and the intolerance of humanity. McCarthyism basically means accuse others while no evidences can provide. Just like what happened in The Crucible. Girls creates unwarranted charges from nothing and ironically everyone believes and while they watch others hanging to death, they cheered as we see in the movie.

“‘It’s not fair,’ she said. A stone hit her on the side of the head… ‘It isn’t fair! It isn’t right!’” (Jackson 6) Not all traditions should be kept, and this is prominent in The Lottery by Shirley Jackson. But why exactly must we keep these traditions? On a clear and sunny June day the members of a village gathered in the town square to participate in the lottery.

“The Lottery” is a use of irony itself. Usually when hearing lottery, something good comes to mind, which is why the title is very misleading. She creates a lot of suspense while leading up to what actually happens, because in reality something really devastating comes from this tradition. Also, the entire reason the lottery even started was forgotten. However, the villagers did not forget how to use the stones.

Shirley Jackson uses situational irony in this story because a plot changing event occurs that is unexpected by everyone. She does this by creating a lottery in her story that nobody wants to win because the "winner" ends up being sacrificed for the town. What makes this story so ironic is that most of the time, when one thinks of a lottery, they would want

We are introduced to the character Mr. Summers and we learn that he will be officiating the lottery, just like he does every other event. Then, the author includes a detail about kids arriving and collecting stones, which is just a huge foreshadow moment. Tessie Hutchison is introduced as a late arrival. Next, Mr. Summers begins calling each head of household forward to pull a slip of paper out of this old wooden black box. During the time of picking the oldest villager Mr. Warner makes the comment that” If they stop doing the lottery, life would go back to cave men ways”.