Attention In Shirley Jackson's The Lottery

Catherine A. Boateng English 101 Prof. Mattew Rockwood PAPER # 2 ‘The Lottery’ is a story of fiction that demonstrates revolution and allegiance while insinuating that a lottery is part of a ritualistic ceremony. It revolves around some misguided beliefs saying that the villagers would have good crops in the next year should they sacrifice one of their people. Most villagers believe that if they fail to make the sacrifice, they would not have good crops, and would experience challenging times. People gather around for a ritualistic drawing of names, however, the winner of the drawing will lose their life. In ‘Stone Throwing in India: an annual bash, it is Pandhurna tradition, where once a year a wildly exciting festival of distraction- a

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.

Shawn Jande Ms. Clancy American Literature B3 15 November 2015 The Crucible Analytical Essay Imagine, being accused of a crime you didn’t commit by your neighbors and friends out of jealousy, and desire. This is what many people in the town of Salem had to go through during the time of the Salem Witch Trials. People's motives such as: gaining and maintaining power, and aspirations for what other people had caused them to make irrational, and atrocious decisions. In The Crucible by Arthur Miller, desire and power drive characters to create chaos in the community. One way the tensions of the community in Salem are created in the play is through tone.

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

Why does an individual follow a blind tradition in hopes of achieving “sameness” with the public eye or society? One is unconsciously trained to follow mindless tradition without knowing what it’s deeper meaning is. “The Lottery”, by Shirley Jackson, represents a long lost sacrifice ritual, now morphed into a blind tradition that people follow. A fictional village struggles with this concept, holding a voluntary “lottery” every year, where the “winner” is stoned to death. The villagers hold the lottery because they believe that the crops will be bountiful in the event that they do as such.

I do not fathom it, why am I persecuted here? I cannot offer one proposition but there be a howling riot of argument. I have often wondered if the Devil be in it somewhere; I cannot understand you people otherwise.” (Miller, 30) His dislike influenced other people of the village to question Parris’s authority such as Giles Corey. His death had the most influential impact on the village because when he passed away, Parris and the trials are overthrown which may signify his impact on the society. This frees the next generations of the corrupt minister and the unjust

While the townsfolk’s self-interest is in prioritising the town’s future needs ahead of its safety, Parris’ selfishness is depicted through his greed for monetary compensation including “firewood” (34), being “the first minister ever” to “demand the deed to his house” (34). Notwithstanding his daughter’s “sickness”, Parris predominantly worries that his “ministry’s at stake” (20) as he “cannot have anyone” discover “such corruption” of witchcraft in his house (21, 22). To avoid this “disastrous charge”, Parris perpetuates Abigail’s “deceit” in accusing the innocent, transposing to the audience the destructive

Old Man Warner said, “Lottery in June, corn be heavy soon” (Jackson 3). This quote supports the thesis because they all are greedy and do not care about the next person; all they want is good times. Warner is extremely sticky about the tradition that he fears the villagers will return to bad times if they stop holding the lottery. But, killing should not be tolerated at any time not matter what the circumstances are. Big

For example, after Tessi is shown with the black dot, Mr. Summers says “All right folks,... Let's finish quickly.” This shows that Mr.Summers’ mind is crumbling after being the one who is controlling the black box, did not hesitate when telling others to stone Tessi. The others were not hesitant to go and stone her if anything they gave a rock to her own son. The black box and the tradition of the lottery have caused crumbling minds. To them, it is just a yearly activity that they are hesitant to question despite the fact that it puts everyone’s life on the

Guilt can pressure a good person to do the right thing. For example John Proctor wanted to confess to the charge of witchcraft, in order to save his life a long with his wife’s. Even though he wanted to live he refused to confess and ruin the names of the accused. He did this because he knew he wouldn’t be able to live with the guilt of condemning someone’s life. Another example would be Reverend Hale’s guilt of condeming Innocent lives to death.