The Lottery Rhetorical Analysis Persuasive 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. Now, here are some theories why.

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. Everybody actually did get enough time and they all thought it was fair. But Tessie still disagrees. The scene shows Tessie is actually afraid for her life, since they all understand that the drawing was random and unbiased. Most of the characters who have not been picked feel differently and act differently too. Old man Warner said lots of bad things as people were coming up and said “Things are not the way they used to be!”. Maybe everyone is used to to the lottery every year because they

One can see by examining the symbolism of the worn out black box, and the foreshadowing of the children putting rocks in their pockets in the The Lottery by Shirley Jackson, that this story is a classic archetypal horror story.

“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

Traditions have been sought after and passed on for generations; with no questions asked, whether humane or not, traditions are hard to break and diminish as they are often what a culture or community stands for.

In 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.

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. This brutal event is known as, The Lottery. Shirley Jackson describes the villagers that come to this event in her short story, The Lottery. The feelings of the villagers are often confusing, since they appear to want to keep this terrifying event going, even though they dread it. Some villagers show enthusiasm about this tradition, yet, the majority of the villagers are reluctant to participate in this incredible game of chance. Surprisingly, it appears that most villagers want the drawings to remain in tact.

The stories "The Lottery" and "The Hunger Games" are very similar to one another. Both stories show fear, sacrifice, and violence in some way. The government is corrupt and is not willing to stop deadly traditions that have gone on for too long. These traditions should have never started in the first place. In "The Lottery," citizens fear that they will no longer be able to grow crops as a result of not having this deadly game. Carol Cleveland, who wrote Contemporary Literary Criticism, stated "not until the final moments of the action does it become clear that the “winner” of the lottery will be stoned by the rest of the village" (Cleveland). In "The Hunger Games," the government wants to put fear in the hearts of all of the citizens that dare to disobey. Neither government wants to end the laws that have killed so many people. In the stories "The Lottery," by Shirley Jackson, and "The Hunger Games," by Suzanne Collins, both societies have a dysfunctional view of life, use other's fear as a weapon, and use violence as a way to solve problems.

Shirley Jackson uses rhetoric in her fictional short story “The Lottery” to criticize the perpetuation of outdated traditions. She creates a fictional example that includes enthymemes, intrinsic appeals, and extrinsic proofs between characters as well as in the narration to make her thematic argument that mindlessly keeping traditions is foolish. The lottery example is deliberately exaggerated to accentuate her argument and to present an honorable case that her audience will support. In doing this, Jackson establishes a strong kairos and demonstrates her ability to aptly use rhetoric to make an argument through fiction.

“The Lottery”, by Shirley Jackson is a very suspenseful, yet very shocking short story. This story is set in a small village, on a hot summers day in June. Flowers are blooming, and the towns people are gathering for the lottery, which is a tradition the town does every year. As the reader reads the first paragraph they think this is a happy story. The title also says, “The Lottery” which is a word often used for winning something or receiving a prize. It’s a beautiful summer day and everything seems perfect, but as the reader keeps reading they come to realize that this story is not as simple and straight forward as the title suggest, rather it is a horrifying and dark tale. Shirley Jackson is forwarding the theme on tragic it can be to blindly follow traditions by using foreshowing, symbolism, and dialog.

The Lottery is a story by Shirley Jackson. It is about a town that has a type of stoning event called the lottery. It is basically like gambling with your life. Each person has to pull out a slip of paper out of a black box. There are enough slips for each member of the town. It is like a process of elimination. First, each person draws a slip. If a person pulls a slip of paper with a black dot on it, that family has to each pull a slip. The person that pulls a slip with a black dot on it (from the family) has to be stoned to death. So in the end, one person must die. Traditions should not be blindly followed.

Consciously and constructively sensitizing the public of the need to understand the game of playing the lottery, Adam Piore, a freelance journalist with main focus on international business and travel, wrote an article titled “Why We Keep Playing the Lottery”. He wrote to make his audience understand the tricks in playing the lottery, and also to understand that the American Government extorts money from the poor community through the sale of lottery tickets. While analyzing the impact of playing the lottery on the American population, the author uses inoffensive word choices to explain the fundamental facts of playing the lottery. His main argument is that people are tricked into playing the lottery by good marketing schemes, positive re-enforcement, and by substituting logic with fantasy. He effectively convinces his audience of his argument through the use of statistics, references

“The Lottery” is a short story by Shirley Jackson. The story commences with a vivid description of the summer day in the town, giving us the idea that the day will be good. When the lottery begins, families begin to draw slips of paper from the black box. Finally, when Bill Hutchinson withdrew the slip of paper with the black dot, his wife Tessie starts yelling that it wasn 't fair. When the second drawing was held only among the Hutchinson’s family, Tessie gets the same piece of paper with the dot and is stoned to death. Jackson uses imagery and irony, as well as symbolism to make us aware of the custom, and violence and tradition as the themes of this short story.

By definition the word lottery means a process or thing whose success or outcome is measured by chance (“lottery”). To most people winning the lottery would conjure up excitement and overall good feelings. However, in the short story The Lottery written by Shirley Jackson, the lottery has a twisted and horrific meaning. Jackson weaves the theme of tradition and peer pressure together, until they clash and explode on the unfortunate Tessie Hutchinson. Jackson uses many literary elements to get this image in the minds of the reader. Using elements such as foreshadowing, characterization, irony, setting, themes and many more, the reader is transported to this event to witness a tradition, of seventy-seven

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.