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The Lottery Essays

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‘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 ...

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Shirley Jackson, well known for her 200 plus short stories, 6 novels, and 2 memoirs was a very profound author, one of her most popular short stories “The Lottery” (1948) enlightens us of how some people can commit evil acts towards their peers showing no remorse and just to keep a tradition going. Her argument is supported throughout the story because multiple acts are put on to show how important this tradition is to them. Shirley wrote this to show...
2 Pages 694 Words
The word lottery implies a fortunate outcome: the lottery will result in a winner who will receive a treasure or money. “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson contradicts the positive connotation of a lottery: in the story, the villagers participate in an annual tradition by having a lottery to choose a winner, someone they sacrifice to ensure a plentiful harvest for their survival. The plot unfolds on a full-summer day around 10 in the morning, with children gathering stones and heading...
2 Pages 1054 Words
Is Buying a Lottery Ticket a Waste of Money? Kathy B once described people who buy lottery tickets as “People who buy lottery tickets are not people who want to send their kids to college. While buying a lottery lottery may have many advantages and have a huge impact on people’s lives, buying a lottery ticket can also be the demise of people. Win or loss. The first modern lottery started in 1934 in Puerto Rico but was changed to...
3 Pages 1420 Words
‘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 904 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 1619 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 691 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 1185 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 1317 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 802 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 2474 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 2629 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 898 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 2202 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 1029 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 1454 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 805 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 501 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 1606 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 918 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 775 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 1695 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 1298 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 1129 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 998 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 833 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 1151 Words
In literature, tradition can be seen as the driving force for an idea or a question that the author feels the reader has to know. The theme of tradition can raise hypothetical queries about the validity of these practices. This theme and the questions asked regarding it can be seen in two of the most influential short stories in literature, “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas'' by Ursula K. Le Guin and “The Lottery'' by Shirley Jackson. Both short...
3 Pages 1416 Words
Hi, I’m the editor of The New Yorker magazine and I’ve seen quite a lot of people confused about The Lottery or described it as “perverted” and “gratuitously disagreeable”, so I’m making this video of me analyzing the story to give everyone a new perspective when looking at The Lottery by Shirley Jackson. The setting of the story is set in Bennington, Vermont in her story her village is a rural area surrounded by people living narrow lives and maybe...
2 Pages 1032 Words
Today I will be looking at The Lottery and Married at First Sight. I am looking at a lack of morality. The lack of a moral compass is common in both The Lottery and Married at first. Morals are defined as the standard behavior and the principles of right and wrong. So here is my thesis statement- In The Lottery and Married at First Sight we are invited to look at immoral acts throughout these stories and shows. Stoning a...
3 Pages 1336 Words
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