Short on time?

Get essay writing help

The Lottery Essays

32 samples in this category

Essay examples
Essay topics

‘The Lottery’ is a short story written by Shirley Jackson, an American author who wrote short stories and novels. It has been described as ‘one of the most famous short stories in the history of American literature.’ The story depicts a fictional small town in contemporary America, observing an annual ...

Show More
‘The Lottery’ by Shirley Jackson is a short story in which there is an isolated character, Tessie Hutchinson. There are many themes and techniques in the story such as foreshadowing, symbolism, and setting which highlight Tessie`s isolation from society. In the story, there is a village that takes part in a lottery each year when someone is chosen by a black spot on a slip of paper from a black box to be killed. This demonstrates the thin veneer of...
2 Pages 884 Words
Shirley Jackson's short story 'The Lottery' is about an unassuming community holding its yearly lottery. The story starts portraying the day of the lottery, June 27th, as the individuals assembled in the square. The youngsters start to make heaps of stones while the men unobtrusively joke. The ladies tattle with one another before moving to be with their spouses. Mr. Summers, the conductor of the lottery, shows up in the square conveying a dark wooden box that holds the bits...
4 Pages 1597 Words
“Winning a lottery may prove to be bad luck,” once said the famous James Cook. The notorious, Shirley Jackson certainly places Cook's words into action in her short story, 'The Lottery'. Composed following World War II, it investigates thoughts, such as communal violence, individual vulnerability, and the perils of indiscriminately following tradition. Set in an anecdotal town in mid-20th-century New England, the story starts as a straightforward tale about a community's annual lottery. By the end, it develops into a...
2 Pages 687 Words
The fictional short story “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson, discusses the themes of unjustified crimes and nature of evil in humans. This fictional text depicts a community of villagers who hold as part of their tradition an annual lottery. In this essay I will discuss how the structure of the fictional world as a Dystopia helps the reader to understand the overall message behind by the implied author’s criticism of the text. Dystopia is a term refers to a fictitious...
3 Pages 1162 Words
One of the best qualities humans have in life is freedom, however when it is removed, life becomes something not very pleasant. Oppression of individual and collective freedom should not be included in anyone's life, but under the authoritarian power of abusive societies, the human value of freedom is only a dream impossible to achieve. When society implements such regulations and lifestyles to its citizens, there is no other solution than to adapt to those norms even if they are...
3 Pages 1293 Words
Two short stories “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson, and “Harrison Bergeron” by Kurt Vonnegut, both share many similarities. The government has full control over society by having authoritarian practices and traditions. In “The Lottery '' the short story begins with people gathering together at the town square for the annual lottery in their small village. At the start of the story, children were playing with stones that later turned into a twist towards the end. The ‘winner’ of the lottery,...
2 Pages 801 Words
Throughout the world People do things for various reasons. Belief, survival, religion, peer pressure, culture or tradition, are some of the reasons the people carry out things. People have various traditions such as Christmas, Easter Day and so forth. Some people have strange or out of the ordinary traditions. The two short stories The Lottery by Shirley Jackson and A Rose For Emily by William Faulkner? Both depict the theme of tradition. By exploring violence, brutality, and death within these...
5 Pages 2450 Words
Elizabeth Holmes, the former CEO of Theranos, was once valued at ten billion dollars for her idea of a revolutionary machine that could detect diseases including cancer, diabetes, and tumors from a single drop of blood. However she was a fraud, and her Silicon-Valley startup was a hoax. Even worse, some people knew, but never could speak up due to Elizabeth’s meticulous organization of the company. Employees were never allowed to talk to each other about their tasks, and if...
6 Pages 2615 Words
When discussing The Devil and Miss Prym and “The Lottery” three main points will be proven the first point shall be how both stories show conflicts and patterns. The second point archetype is being shown in both stories discussing who's the scapegoat in each story. Third discussing how both stories connect with different philosophies, and their theories. The type of conflict means “situations or problem causing the action”(Detrick, Literature). In the book “The Lottery” there are many examples of person...
2 Pages 886 Words
There always comes a time where a change in life needs to happen. Change is not always negative; it sometimes can be positive depending on the situation you are dealing with. You will never know how it can affect you if you never try to attempt it. In Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery” and Kurt Vonnegut’s “Harrison Bergeron”, there were people who feared change because of the possible consequences they may face. We only see that perspective from two main characters...
5 Pages 2180 Words
In 'The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson there is a lot of pointless violence. Her story emphasizes the idea that all Americans are constantly trying to do bad. The yearly ritual of the lottery promotes the killing of an innocent individual each time the lottery is conducted. Throughout history as well as currently, there have continuously been multiple acts of kindness and cruelty in America. Although, there will always be violent individuals in America it does not mean that all Americans...
2 Pages 1028 Words
The Lottery was written by Shirley Jackson on June 26th, 1948. This story was done in a small rural town called Vermont where people observed an annual ritual referred to as “the lottery”. The Lottery is all about the person that would be killed by being stoned to death with rocks by people or throwing stones at the victim’s skull until it would be crushed. The story is not about the literal meaning of a lottery, however, it is about...
3 Pages 1448 Words
Shirley Jackson’s short story “The Lottery” presents the reader with a seemingly idyllic town that actually participates in a horrific annual 'lottery' event. The story can be considered as part of the horror genre, as the characters in the story blindly follow a tradition that involves a lottery in which the winner is actually stoned to death by the villagers. Throughout the story, Jackson masterfully creates suspense through the choice of words. The setting that Jackson depicts in 'The Lottery'...
2 Pages 802 Words
The Lottery is a fictional short story by Shirley Jackson about blindly following traditions set in a small village. Every year in June, the villagers prepare for the annual ritual, most of whom do not understand the purpose of the lottery. Who is Tessie in the Lottery? Tessie Hutchinson is the main character and like everyone else she follows the rules of the village. She is a dynamic character. Tessie appears to be an ideal citizen of her town who...
1 Page 488 Words
As one reads the story of “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson the suspense and playful nature of exactly the lottery's purpose keeps the reader reading until the end. The story starts as one would consider being a town’s tradition to gather for this event. The lottery is kept a mystery until the very end, the little boys are gathering rocks, the adults are discussing their daily lives as normal, but the reader is kept page flipping to figure out what's...
4 Pages 1601 Words
Life is all about making choices. Sometimes making the wrong choices can have a negative impact on life. Human nature is a prime example of life choices. Human nature is more than just feelings and compassion, it’s instinct, a way of living, the way someone was raised to think or believe. This has been portrayed in a plethora of different events based on 3 short stories conveying the contrasting characteristics such as selfishness, influence, and survival. Selfishness is everywhere in...
2 Pages 896 Words
In Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery” tradition is followed without question, however, the people of the town may not fully realize just how sickening their actions truly are. This work of literature demonstrates how society can blindly follow tradition, thus, blaming the innocent, and further causing a hindrance to their own development. At the beginning of the short story, we are introduced to children who are seamlessly engrossed in a large pile of stones, playing as children normally would. Within the...
2 Pages 767 Words
Comparing and contrasting two stories requires a summary of both stories to allow an understanding of the aspects that they are similar and those that they differ. Two different stories by two different authors will be analyzed in this paper, with the aim of understanding whether they have similar themes, symbols, and setting among other elements. The two short stories are “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson and “The Gift of the Magi” by O.Henry. Some of the themes that will...
4 Pages 1688 Words
“The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson could be a story of AN uncommon city caught in an exceedingly lure of perpetually following tradition, even once it's not in their best interest. Jackson uses symbols throughout the story that relate to the theme. This helps the reader clearly perceive her main message. Jackson uses setting, tone, and symbols to convey a topic to her audience. By doing therefore she creates important connections to the theme exploitation previous man Warner and therefore the...
2 Pages 1036 Words
Human beings often overlook the horrors of humanity as they neglect the personal wellbeing of others. Ursula Le Guin’s speculative text “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas” and Shirley Jackson’s dystopian short story “The Lottery” encapsulates the effect of social conformity within a society. Written in the aftermath of World War II and towards the final years of the Vietnam War, Jackson and Le Guin’s works present idyllic societies, yet with a dark twist. Both writers go into great...
3 Pages 1266 Words
The Lottery' is a story written by Shirley Jackson, first published within the 1948 issue of the magazine 'The New Yorker.' It's been said to be one of the simplest American literature short stories created. The title of the story 'The Lottery' refers to an unquestioned ritual that takes place during a small farming town annually and requires all members of the community to draw sheets of paper to work out a 'winner.' Sadly, the winner of the lottery must...
2 Pages 1121 Words
The Lottery is a very similar story to that of Hunger Games, which is a modern movie that has a similar theme. The tradition is not like one that most people would assume, rather it is quite wicked. Each year, citizens gather to pick the drawing on slips of paper of who will be put to death. Over the years, some formalities of this lottery have changed, however, much has stayed the same. Including the idea that citizens are left...
1 Page 494 Words
The idea of a planned and deliberate retribution at the heart of Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery” reflects to some degree the vengeful ideology that inspired the Salem Witch Trials in Massachusetts. Jackson took immense inspiration from tales of the macabre in an otherwise seemingly mundane society—she wrote, for instance, of seeking out the news articles depicting something horrendous like an ax murder for the sake of reviving her spirits after so many life-affirming stories about babies: “The lead article on...
2 Pages 971 Words
Making its first appearance in the 1930´s, Southern Gothic became a sub-genre of the popular Gothic Literature, taking the macabre and the grotesque and transplanting it into the American South. It takes issues of race, poverty and religion. Southern Gothic Literature is an attempt to understand society in its deepest and darkest parts. The stories originate in everyday events and emotions and writers trying to answer this question they were telling, in some detail, the story of their life. “The...
2 Pages 820 Words
When Shirley Jackson's chilling story 'The Lottery' was first published in 1948 in The New Yorker, it generated more letters than any work of fiction the magazine had ever published. Readers were furious, disgusted, occasionally curious, and almost uniformly bewildered. The public outcry over the story can be attributed, in part, to The New Yorker's practice at the time of publishing works without identifying them as fact or fiction. Readers were also presumably still reeling from the horrors of World...
2 Pages 1114 Words
The Lottery, a chilling short story written by Shirley Jackson, has long captivated readers with its haunting portrayal of a seemingly idyllic small town. This essay delves into the key elements that make The Lottery a thought-provoking literary piece. Exploring the significance of the setting, the tragic fate of Tessie Hutchinson, and its contribution to cultural awareness, we will unravel the hidden depths and disturbing realities beneath the surface of this renowned tale. The Setting The setting of "The Lottery"...
4 Pages 1287 Words
Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery” is a frightening illustration of a society that has only two classes, specifically a working class and an oppressive wealthy class. Looking at the text through a Marxist lens makes the distinction between classes even more apparent. The bourgeoisie, or the wealthy upper class, are those who hold power over the lower class using oppression. This lower class, also known as the proletariat, is composed of downtrodden workers who are not allowed to think for sheer...
4 Pages 1955 Words
A person’s free will is limited because of gender and traditions. The people of the town are taught from a young age to be a part of the tradition because of society. At the beginning of the story Jackson writes, “The boys run around and gather rocks. The girls talk to one another and the woman greeted one another and exchange bits of gossip as they went to join their husbands.” We can infer that when the adults of the...
2 Pages 983 Words
'The Lottery' authored by Shirley Jackson was first published on June 26, 1948, just after World War II. It took place in a small village in New England. The story is such unique literature that once gets reading to it but also all attention gripping into the same. 'The Lottery' actually gives the lottery a different meaning because of the unique nature of this story, it's accepted as one of the best American short stories and it's used in most...
2 Pages 900 Words
'The Lottery' is one of the short stories by Shirley Jackson, it takes place on June 27, in the center of the village between an office and a bank, it presented the theme 'The Danger of Blindly Following Traditions', in my essay I will explain how the theme is represented in the lottery story which is why is my favorite story. The village lottery ends with violent murder every year, a bizarre ritual that suggests how dangerous tradition can be...
1 Page 411 Words
price Check the Price of Your Paper
Topic
Number of pages
Email Invalid email

By continuing, you agree to our Terms of Use & Privacy Policy.

Join 100k satisfied students
  • Get original paper written according to your instructions
  • Save time for what matters most
hire writer

Fair Use Policy

EduBirdie considers academic integrity to be the essential part of the learning process and does not support any violation of the academic standards. Should you have any questions regarding our Fair Use Policy or become aware of any violations, please do not hesitate to contact us via support@edubirdie.com.

Check it out!