The Lottery Argumentative Essay

“The Lottery” In the short story, “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson, the story depicts a theme of conformity and rebellion. This theme contributes to the literary elements of plot, character, and setting which help develop the story. A lottery is defined as a drawing of lots in which prizes are distributed to the winner’s among persons buying the chance. However, in “The Lottery” the author portrays lottery as a traditional ritualistic ceremony, which symbolizes that whomever draws the black dot on a slip of paper becomes the sacrifice. The sacrifice is to help harvest crops to feed the town throughout the year.

“Expectation feeds frustrations. It is an unhealthy attachment to people, things, and outcomes we wish we could control; but don’t“ by Dr. Steve Maraboli. “The Lottery“ is a short story written by Shirley Jackson, which talks about a village whose members have been taking part in a twisted ritual called “The Lottery” and it has been going on for decades.It takes place in an undistinguished village on a clear morning, June 27th and it’s described as an ordinary and pleasant community. "The Lottery" combines elements of horror, irony and tension, all of which are oftenly found separate different short stories. In Shirley Jackson's Short “ The Lottery“ she uses the Black Box as a symbol for ritual homicide as part of the villages community which

For example, Jackson illustrates, “The morning of June 27th was clear and sunny, with fresh warmth of full-summer day; the flowers were blooming profusely, and the grass was richly green." (254). Conveying an image of a comfortable and delightful atmosphere distracting the reader from what is truly happening. It is not until Mrs. Adams makes the comment that “Some places have already quit the lotteries” (Jackson 257). That the reader might question why a town would want to quit a lottery?

Many pieces written by Jackson have a small-town setting that end with horror. The 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.

Communities across America practice different annual traditions – Easter egg hunts, Christmas tree decorating, or fourth of July fireworks. It’s often unknown how these traditions began. We associate lotteries with good things, (such as, winning cash prizes), Like the blooming, cheerful village itself, nothing indicates that something is wrong with the set up. The lottery is, in fact, operating as an allegory of village life itself: at first, it seems harmless, but then we start to wonder what's going on with all

By being poor tenant farmers Sarty and his family must contrast the difference between his family and all the privileged families they have worked for such as Major de Spain. The antagonist in the novel which is Sarty’s father, rebels against these wealthy families and burns down their barns as vengeance, by doing this Abner is pushing his family into impoverishment. https://www.census.gov/history/www/through_the_decades/fast_facts/1890_fast_facts.html Within the novel Faulkner provided his audience with a certain structure of writing he creates depth of characters by using lengthy descriptions of them. Furthermore, the descriptions of the writing would follow an object to validate the character. (Introduction of Sarty or Abner

Usually you can tell the mood of the story by the first few lines of a story and in the beginning of the story, it says “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”. The season of summer is a very happy, youth, and simplicity. Never would you imagine anything relating to death or gloomy times in the summer. Using summer as a symbol created a light, easy mood for the story, which help bring out another symbol. Another symbol Jackson used was the use of stones.

The first example I am going to us I talked about in my introduction. Jackson talks about how perfect the day was. Jackson states, “The morning of June 27th was clear and sunny, with the fresh warmth of a full-summers day; the flowers were blossoming profusely and the grass was richly green” (255). This is foreshowing a perfect day, but really, it’s not. It’s a tragic, sad day which we will soon come to find out.

The so called the tradition that the town has in happens to be in a stoning to death by the draw of a piece of paper. If the paper that is drawn from the box and has the black mark he/she would be stoned to death. Everyone in this village follows the tradition of the lottery every single year even other villages although other villages take longer than usual, because of a population issue they start on June 2nd. With tradition being the main theme of the short story “The Lottery” it provides the reader with an idea of how the small town has been running for years and will continue to do so. Jackson comes across the short story with her views of tradition being negative, by having an outdated tradition to choose weather they will live or die.

Symbolism is used multiple times throughout “The Lottery.” Mr. Summers is the person who calls people up to draw. His name symbolizes when the lottery takes place, “The morning of June 27th was clear and sunny, with the fresh warmth of a full-summer day;.” Mr. Warner is the oldest man in the village and obviously has done the lottery the most times. People around the village are talking about getting rid the lottery. Mr. Warner warns the people that getting rid of the lottery could be bad. His name symbolizes his thoughts about the lottery.