ipl-logo

The Purpose Of The Lottery

175 Words1 Page

What is the purpose of The Lottery? The Lottery, by Shirley Jackson is a short story about an annual lottery that happens every June. The “winner” of the lottery gets stoned to death by everybody else in the village. Originally, the people of a small village started this tradition because they believed if the village made a sacrifice they would have a heavy corn season. Eventually it just became an annual tradition. Initially the purpose of the lottery was a sacrifice to have a good corn season. The author illustrates this when Old Man Warner says “Lottery in June, corn be heavy soon” (pg.22, lines 260-261). Evidently, he wants to keep the tradition going because he thinks the sacrifice works. Furthermore, even though the lottery started

Show More
Related

  • 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.

    Read More

  • Irony In The Tell-Tale Heart And The Lottery

    471 Words  | 2 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Annotated Bibliography: The Lottery By Shirley Jackson

    2309 Words  | 10 Pages

    Annotated Bibliography 1. Jackson The Lottery By: Yarmove, Jay A. Explicator. Summer94, Vol. 52 Issue 4, p242. 4p.

    Read More

  • Superstition In Shirley Jackson's The Lottery

    464 Words  | 2 Pages

    A lottery is usually an occasion for celebration but this one is a ritual that involves stoning a person to death based on the lottery’s results. Old Man Warner’s explanation offers insight into why utilitarianism and superstition blend together : "Used to be a saying about ‘Lottery in June, corn be heavy soon." ( para. 33 ) . It seems that the villagers believed that in order to have a good harvest of corn for the village, they would have to sacrifice one person in the guise of a lottery. They assumed that trouble would follow if they didn’t go through with the lottery and they might even find themselves living in caves again like the ancient men.

    Read More

  • Symbolism And Realism In Shirley Jackson's The Lottery

    1031 Words  | 5 Pages

    The story “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson is a short story of horror and realism. On June 27th on a late summer morning, the villagers of a small New England village gatherd together in the town square to conduct their annual lottery. There is a black box on a stool and in the box there is pieces of paper in the box. Each person from a family get one paper from the black box even the children get a piece of paper and every stayed quiet and nervouse. Then Bill Hutchinson looked at the paper and notice that he got the black dot.

    Read More

  • The Negative Consequences Of Tradition In The Lottery By Shirley Jackson

    467 Words  | 2 Pages

    The 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.

    Read More

  • The Duality Of Human Nature In The Lottery By Shirley Jackson

    205 Words  | 1 Pages

    Maybe everyone is used to to the lottery every year because they

    Read More

  • Thesis For The Lottery By Shirley Jackson

    650 Words  | 3 Pages

    The characters’ behaviors don’t exactly scream “I love the lottery!” The most logical reason for doing something that makes them unhappy is they are doing it as a tradition. But why not break the tradition? After digging a little deeper, it is easy to see that the lottery has been going on for a long time: “There was a story that the present box had been made with some pieces of the box that had preceded it, the one that had been constructed when the first people settled down to make a village here (p. 16, lines 78-82).” Since the original black box was made when the village first settled, the lottery is an ancient tradition that is generations old.

    Read More

  • The Lottery Argumentative Essay

    691 Words  | 3 Pages

    The purpose of the lottery is to continue the old tradition of sacrificing a scapegoat in order for a harvest. The scapegoat is chosen at random and then stoned to death by his/her companions. Although “The Lottery” reflects an event from the past, Jackson shows that many of the actions of the town resemble the tribulations that ensue in today’s society. To begin with, like the villagers in the story, our society also partakes in valuing tradition.

    Read More

  • Foreshadowing In The Lottery By Shirley Jackson

    811 Words  | 4 Pages

    The townspeople act indifferent to the lottery because most of them have forgotten why they are doing it except the elders. Yet there's signal phrases in the story used to identify how the lottery is a good thing for the community. As described by Mr.Warner, "Lottery in June, corn be heavy soon. "(628). Warner's comment foreshadows that this is some type of ritual that will produce corn.

    Read More

  • Argumentative Essay On The Lottery

    504 Words  | 3 Pages

    Traditions should not be blindly followed. For some reason, People seem to enjoy the event shown in The Lottery. The whole town visits this event. Most of the time, the lottery takes two days.

    Read More

  • Symbolism And Themes In The Lottery, By Shirley Jackson

    1474 Words  | 6 Pages

    “The Lottery” is an realism/horror story written by Shirley Jackson. The story is about some villagers of a small New England town who follow the tradition of making a lottery every year. When it comes, they like to celebrate it with the correct rules and the correct objects so they can feel more comfortable. Everyone need to take a slip of paper from a small black box, and the paper with a black dot in it means that the family is the winner, then they raffle again; Bill Hutchinson, who was the husband of the protagonist Tessie Hutchinson picked a paper with a black dot in it, that meant that Tessie was the winner of the lottery, then she starts complaining because the drawing was not conducted properly. At the end, the townspeople moved off to a cleared spot outside the town and they begin stoning her to death (Jackson).

    Read More

  • Examples Of Irony In The Lottery

    1191 Words  | 5 Pages

    The 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.

    Read More

  • Symbolism In The Lottery By Shirley Jackson

    926 Words  | 4 Pages

    The Lottery The short story, The Lottery by Shirley Jackson proposes an annual lottery drawing in a little village set in New England. However, unlike any usual lottery, the winner is stoned to death by their fellow townsmen, women and children included. The lottery seems to have been a custom around the area for over seventy years.

    Read More

  • Analytical Essay: The Lottery By Shirley Jackson

    355 Words  | 2 Pages

    The Lottery Analytical 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.

    Read More

More about The Purpose Of The Lottery

Open Document