The Evil Of Human Nature In The Lottery By Shirley Jackson
The short story “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson is about a small town that conducts an annual lottery. The entire town gathers to participate in the sacrificial stoning of the so-called winner. Jackson’s aim for this story was to show the general evil of human nature and the unnecessary violence in the world. Jackson uses the third person point of view and a lot of characters to help convey the purpose of the story by distancing the reader from the characters. This shocks the reader at the ending and allows them to view the story from an outside perspective and see the reality of the situation. Shirley Jackson’s use of many characters creates distance between the reader and the story. On June 27th, the day of the lottery, the entire village gathers in the …show more content…
Mr. Summers initiates the beginning of the lottery when he starts to list of the names of the families, calling them up to draw from the box. “‘Allen,’ Mr. Summers said, ‘Anderson….Bentham,’” (p 3). He continues to go through the list, with only minor interruptions of commentary from some of the villagers. The way that this story is written makes it increasingly difficult to focus on any character long enough to create any sort of bond. The fact that no character is really mentioned long enough to have any description or individuality distances the reader from the story. Again, this works very well in Jackson’s favor as the reader cannot grasp onto any character and root for them or empathize with them. So when it comes to the ending, the reader is shocked by the pain that the ‘winner’ feels and the pure evil that seems to resonate from every other villager, supporting Jackson’s idea of the unnecessary violence in the world. Jackson also uses third person objective point of view to effectively convey her view of the world. The entire story is told not through the minds of the characters but as if the narrator is just recounting the details of the event. “ The women, wearing faded house dresses and sweaters,
Interpretive Essay: The Lottery By Shirley Jackson
520 Words | 3 Pages“The Lottery” Interpretive Essay “The Lottery”, a short story by Shirley Jackson, is about a lottery that takes place in a small village. The story starts of with the whole town gathering in the town square, where Mr. Summers, the official, holds the lottery. After that, every family draws out of an old black box, and a certain family gets picked. Out of the certain family, one person gets picked as the unlucky “winner” of the lottery. In this short story, after the Hutchinson family gets drawn, Tessie Hutchinson is declared “winner” of the lottery.
Shirley Jackson The Lottery Rhetorical Analysis
871 Words | 4 PagesWhile real life traditions are rarely so extreme, Jackson’s exaggerated fictional example emphasizes her point to great effect. By the end of the story, the audience is convinced that the town is wrong to uphold the lottery tradition, but Jackson is not really writing about a lottery; she is writing about how damaging it can
The Lottery Rhetorical Analysis
1000 Words | 4 PagesIn 1948, when the New Yorker published Shirley Jacksons piece, “The Lottery,” it sparked outrage among readers, but could arguably be known as one of her most famous pieces of writing. In this short story, Shirley Jackson used literally elements such as imagery, diction, and symbolism to foreshadow the negative and harsh ending of the story; the harsh ending that sparked such outrage by society in the 1940’s. One of the main ways Jackson foreshadows the ending and true meaning of her short story, “The Lottery,” is through symbolism. Jackson uses the color black throughout the story.
Research Paper On The Lottery By Shirley Jackson
1675 Words | 7 PagesResearch Paper The famous short story by Shirley Jackson "The Lottery'" was published on June 26th, 1948. The short story has been drawn into discussion for many years for its short, but intricate and complex story. A summary story in its simplest form could be put as a tradition that was followed by a small town called the lottery, but there is so much more contained in between the lines of that statement. The story has a very dark premise regarding the tradition that the town must follow is for the safety of the town itself.
Mental Illness In Shirley Jackson's The Lottery
1100 Words | 5 PagesJackson plans on taking the audience's’ assumptions to her advantage toward the end of the story, which lures viewers to continue reading her story. Also, another hint in the beginning of the short story indicates the boys in the town filling their pockets with stones. Jackson also signifies the importance to these stones when she informs the readers the boys are protecting a pile of rocks. At first, readers would not notice the significance of these stones, but these stones will return into the reader’s thoughts when the climax arises. Jackson also adds the fact the girls are not participating in the boys’ activity, which could draw lines between men and women in the village.
How Does Shirley Jackson Build Suspense In The Lottery
550 Words | 3 Pages3/8/2017 The lottery essay Anan Istetieh Anticipation mingled with uncertainty, better known, as suspense, is an inevitable quality of human nature. Suspense is occasionally a great mechanism. It allows the author to keep the readers alert and leads up to the element of surprise, which is a successful writing tool that makes a story more enjoyable. The story “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson builds up suspense through the foreshadowing of a horrible moment, creating a character that stands out from the crowd all while withholding the true nature of the story. The author of “The Lottery” foreshadowed the horrible climax of the story by explaining how the children were recently released from school for the summer, but they felt discomfort, “and
The Negative Consequences Of Tradition In The Lottery By Shirley Jackson
467 Words | 2 PagesThe tradition of the lottery has been carried out for so long in this village that nobody even knows the reason for its occurring in the first place and nobody questions it. When Old Man Warner, the oldest man in the village, is told about other villages giving up the tradition of the lottery, he says that they are, “[A] pack of crazy fools [...]. There [has] always been a lottery [...]” (Jackson, 4). There is no reason why there has always been a lottery except that every year on June 27th, they held the lottery.
Examples Of Foreshadowing In The Lottery
322 Words | 2 PagesUsually there’s a winner in a lottery, but not in Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery”. This story intrigued me by it's suspenseful nature and it's chaotic events. In small town America, they come together once a year to perform an annual tradition. Mrs. Jackson demonstrates literary devices such as foreshadowing, mood, and conflict in “The Lottery”. Foreshadowing is used quite a few times in “The Lottery”.
The Duality Of Human Nature In The Lottery By Shirley Jackson
205 Words | 1 PagesThe Lottery In this short story “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson we can see the theme of the duality of human nature. Tessie Hutchinson thinks the lottery is unfair. She claims that they didn't get through time. But everybody had the same chance and time.
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.
The Use Of Tone In The Lottery By Shirley Jackson
1333 Words | 6 PagesFull of plot twists, and turns, “The Lottery” relies on its characters to convey a sense of normalcy throughout a majority of the story. The villagers’ acceptance of rituals allows them to act normal while knowingly partaking in a deadly tradition. Jackson’s brilliant use of deceptiveness leaves readers blind sighted as one could never predict this story’s outcome. Jackson’s work is renowned because of its unpredictable shift in tone. June 27, may appear to be a pleasant summer day, but this prediction could not be further from the truth.
Horror And Symbolism In Shirley Jackson's 'The Lottery'
1737 Words | 7 PagesThe 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. Shirley
The Lottery Argumentative Essay
691 Words | 3 Pages“The Lottery’s” opening lines read: “The morning of June 27th was clear and sunny, with the fresh warmth of a full-summer day; the flowers were blossoming profusely and the grass was richly green. ”(Jackson 309). From this line, one can conclude that Jackson is trying to portray the village as a quaint and nice place where townsfolk gather, and no harm occurs. However, this strays far from the truth. As the story continues, the gathering abruptly changes and ultimately leads the townspeople to commit violence and murder.
Examples Of Irony In The Lottery
1191 Words | 5 PagesThe 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.
Symbolism In The Lottery By Shirley Jackson
926 Words | 4 PagesThis story still remains relevant in comparison to today. Simple towns people who speak to each other on a daily basis and joke around with each other all of the sudden turn around and kill one of their one. This story symbolized the change of heart within people when events go on. With various symbols, Shirley Jackson created the short story, The Lottery, to show society and what it has been and what it could be. One might even say that Jackson wanted to keep it in the mind of a ‘modern’ society that such things could happen again.
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