Essay On The Lottery

Essay on The Lottery
Shirley Jackson's insights and observations about man and society are reflected in her famous short
story "The
Lottery". Many of her readers have found this story shocking and disturbing. Jackson reveals
two general attitudes in this story: first, the shocking reality of human's tendency to select a
scapegoat and second, society as a victim of tradition and ritual.
Throughout history we have witnessed and participated in many events, where, in time of turmoil
and hardship, society has a tendency to seize upon a scapegoat as means of resolution. The people
of the village had been taught to believe that in order for their crop to be abundant for the year,
some individual had to be sacrificed. "Lottery in June, corn be heavy...show more content...
She does not appear to take the ritual seriously, as she comes rushing to the square because she
"clean forgot what day it was". The villagers are aware of her rebellious attitude and
they are weary that she may be a possible cause for their crops not to be plentiful. "It isn't fair,
it isn't right," Mrs. Hutchinson screamed, and then they were upon her.
We can understand how traditions are easily lost through the handing down of information, beliefs,
and customs by word of mouth or by example from one generation to another. It is how traditions
that lose their meaning due to human forgetfulness can cause dreadful consequences to occur.
Although "the villagers had forgotten the ritual and lost the original box, they still
remembered to use stones".
Do people just pick and choose which part of a tradition they want to keep? We tend to remember
the actions and the objects necessary to proceed with a ritual, but we always seem to forget the
purpose or the reason behind it.
Are we correct in still continuing the tradition even though there is a victim involved? It seems we,
as part of a society, are scared of being ridiculed if we change or end a tradition because everyone
around us will still behave in the manner they were taught. "The people had done it so many
times that they only half listened to the directions," shows that the meaning and purpose
behind the ritual had been lost and they were just acting
Get more content on HelpWriting.net

The Lottery Theme Essay
In both The Lottery, and The Possibility of Evil there is a very evident theme that is horror lies in
the most everyday settings and situations. This is shown in The Lottery by the "lottery" being
considered an everyday normal aspect of life.We know that the "lottery" is the act of a name being
drawn from a box, and the person who is drawn is going to be stoned to death, with frankly no
reason at all. Also in The Lottery, no one is emotionally phased to the cruelty shown in the town,
and throughout the story, as if it is apart of their everyday life. In The Possibility of Evil, we see
this theme during the whole story, considering the main idea of the story is a woman who is trying
to stop all of the evil in her and her towns everyday...show more content...
Old Man Warner is appalled by this idea saying, "Pack of crazy fools... there has always been a
lottery." Old Man Warner is very adamant about continuing this tradition, and is very critical to the
people who are trying to end the tradition, almost as if he has no empathy for others. We view the
lottery as something horrific and something that in today's time would be socially unacceptable.
In The Possibility of Evil, we see the horror in everyday situations in a very different way. The
main idea of The Possibility of Evil is that the protagonist, Miss Strangeworth, is that Miss
Strangeworth is trying to prevent all of the evil in her small town by passing letters about gossip
that she heard to other people anonymously. In the story, we are first told of Miss Strangeworth's
roses, which are her most prized possession. In the beginning of the story, Miss Strangeworth
encounters new parents, Don and Helen Crane. Helen Crane makes a comment about her baby
seeming to be "slow." Miss Strangeworth tells Helen that she is worrying for no reason and that
"some of them develop much quicker than others others." Later in the story Miss Strangeworth
writes a letter to the Crane's and says, "Didn't you ever see an idiot child before? Some people just
shouldn't have children, should they?" Even though Miss Strangeworth views herself as the epitome
of a citizen in her town, she is a factor to the evil in the town by creating these letters and spreading
lies and

Essay On The Lottery
Name: Jonathan Roy Teacher's Name: Seyyedesaghar Najafi Course Code: 00002 Date: 23 october
2017 The Lottery The short story "The lottery" is a shocking text to read. I think that the main goal
of this text is to denounce some injustices there was with the community back in the 50s. At the
beginning of the story, everything seems to be normal: "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" . But after few pages, we can easily see that there is something wrong with these
people. The first thing I noticed is the injustice between men and women. Men are considered a lot
more important than women in this text. For example, when Mrs. Dunbar wanted to pick the
piece of paper for her family, because her husband wasn't there, Mr. Summer told her: "Don't you
have a grown boy to do it for you, Janey?" . We can clearly see here that Mr. Summer don't
consider Mrs. Dunbar able to do it only because she is a girl. Further, when the Hutchinson's family
got chosen by the lottery, Mrs. Hutchinson tried to express herself and defend her opinion, but her
husband...show more content...
At the beginning of the day, everyone knew what June 27th was about, and everyone was acting
like it was a normal day. People were talking about other things without even trying to stop the
stoning. For them, it was a normal tradition to do. Some children were already prepared for the
stoning. They "had already stuffed [their] pockets full of stones" . It's crazy! All these people
don't even realise how cruel it is to stone someone. Likewise, they don't have any empathy for the
members of their community. Everyone know each other, because it's a close community, and they
don't seem to care about who is chosen. It could be their friends or their family and they will
probably still do it. For them, it's a normal thing to do. It's crazy how cruel people can

Essay about The Lottery
Shirley Jackson's, The Lottery, has raised questions in the back of every reader's mind towards the
destructive yet blind rituals of mankind. A reflection of ourselves is what we see when looking
through the pond of Jackson's mind. The Lottery clearly expressed Jackson's feelings concerning
traditional rituals through her story, opened the eyes of its readers to properly classify and question
some of today's traditions as cruel, and allowed room to foretell the outcome of these unusual
traditions. Jackson's feelings towards the misuse of tradition as an excuse to cause harm have
triggered her creativity for the creation of The Lottery. Jackson obviously saw examples of this
misuse of tradition and ingeniously placed it into an...show more content...
Hazing is a ritual performed in high schools, gangs, colleges, and even your own best friend can be
in on it. Perhaps just as barbaric as the stoning, no good at all results from hazing. The running of the
bulls, in Italy, may also be compared to The Lottery. Many deaths have been cause by the bulls
running ramped through the streets, yet this tradition is not about to be abolished due to the
endless support of participators along with media and tourists. What does it take to end these cruel
and misunderstood traditions and evolve into a more civilized society where we can see what kind
of harm they cause? In the story, the townspeople were against abolishing the tradition of stoning
and if our society feels the same, there will never be a chance for our civilization to grow together.
What ever happened to the townspeople in this story? Could they have finally given in and
abolished the lottery for the next year? Perhaps they never did abolish the lottery and eventually
destroyed each other on a wide–scale basis. Any way you chose to compare the situations, our future
depends heavily upon the allowance of evolution through our present standpoints and how we select
to alter it. Human nature will prevail no matter what our society wants to alter; however, who is to
say that human nature is a violent one without compassion for fellow spirit? Shirley

The Lottery Research Paper
How do our relationships with others define who we are? Others affect us greatly. The people
who surround us everyday have a great impact on our own life. Friends and family are the people
who create you, and are part of the reason of who you are today. For example, when there's a new
trend, or when someone says a mean comment, you might change something about you at one point
or another. Who affects your life? "The Lottery" is a short story that may have opened people's eyes
onto what you follow. This story shows how you may not let go of a tradition, here showing it in a
negative way. A lottery, which in turn, the winner gets stoned. An example of a tradition is a
quinceanera. Although it's not a negative tradition, this has been something

Thesis For The Lottery
Being stoned to death by 300 of your friends and family is possibly the worst way anyone would
ever want to be killed. In the short story "The Lottery" written by an author Shirley Jackson, she
mentions about a small village consisting of 300 residents who most reluctantly participate in an
annual lottery drawing. I know, who in their right mind would hesitate to be a part of an event that
gives you a possibility of winning a prize, which makes you wonder what the prize is. At the end of
the story the protagonist, Mrs. Hutchinson, who also happens to be the winner of the lottery is stoned
to death. I argue that Jackson wrote this story to inform us how living in a small community isn't
always a great thing because in a small population people start gossiping about one another, which
can lead to issues and could turn into hatred.
I believe that winning is not always a good thing because it can be...show more content...
One can say that there are certain demons that inhabit the closest people in your life, such as betrayal
and jealousy to protect themselves. To shed more light on this, in the short story "The Lottery" stated
that, "And someone gave little Davy Hutchinson a few pebbles" –– and closes in on her" (Jackson).
As I read this section of the story, I strongly believe that money tends to destroy the strong bonds
one has with their own family members. Furthermore, after seeing a movie clip of this story, I seen
Davy Hutchinson and Mr. Hutchinson moving away from Mrs. Hutchinson in a clam way, they had
no expression in their face that made them look hurt after what was going to happen to Mrs.
Hutchison (Jackson, Rando). I think that Jackson was showing us that your own family turns against
you and that cruel things would continue to happen in life. In addition, Jackson is trying to say that
winning is not always a positive thing or it's not guaranteed a happy

Evidence For The Lottery
"The Lottery" by Shirley Jackson is about a small village where they have a strange annual
tradition. The tradition is a lottery where whoever "wins" is stoned to death by the other
townspeople. Why would they do such a horrible thing to their friends and family members? They
started the lottery as a sacrifice for good luck. They wanted good crops for the year and they thought
a human sacrifice would help them. But, now most of the people no longer think it helps the crops.
Most probably think it's wrong to murder someone just because they lost the lottery, but they are
terrified to upset tradition, so they blindly continue the lottery.
The first piece of evidence is on page 13, line 8. Here it talks about how the town is small, only
around...show more content...
Evidence for that is on page 22 line 260, where Old Man Warner says the old sayings, "Lottery in
june, corn be heavy soon." This shows that they thought the lottery would bring them luck. Another
piece of evidence is one page 28 line 427. Here, Steve Adams says, "Come on, come on,
everyone." This indicates that the people need to be riled up and they probably don't want to, but
ome people, specifically Old Man Warner, feel they have to.
Another quote from Old Man Warner is on page 23 line 268, after hearing some towns are giving
up their lottery, he says, "Nothing but trouble in that. Pack of crazy fools." This shows that he
disapproves of not doing the lottery. It is all he has ever known and it scares him to think that the
town could be giving up something from him parents and grandparents generations.
This story is about speaking up for up you believe in and to not blindly follow what others in the
past have laid down as the norm. If no one spoke out when people were being discriminated against,
it would never have changed. Instead of standing up and questioning the lottery, everyone just kind
of went along with it and people continued to

The Lottery Short Story Essay
Elements that reinforce the horror of "the lottery"
An astonishing ending of a story makes a story more memorable and interesting. It lingers in
reader's memory and starts to evoke multiple readings. Such story allows the author to better deliver
his or her values to the audience. In order to build a surprising ending, not only the plotline has to be
interesting, but also needs to use some smart tricks or techniques. In the short story, "The Lottery"
written by Shirley Jackson, the setting, tone, narrative strategy and irony effectively builds up the
plot, inconspicuously foreshadows and exaggerates the shock and horror of the ending, therefore,
effectively reinforces the themes of the story.
The story starts with the residents of a village gathering together on June 27th, 1948 for an annual
ritual ceremony, the lottery. Although the first half of the story seems celebratory and cheerful, it
soon becomes mysterious that nobody wants to win this lottery. The protagonist, Tessie Hutchinson
who arrives late protests that the event is not fair when her family is selected as the "winner".
Although it seems weird, the readers still have no idea what to expect. Until the very last two
paragraphs, the truth is finally revealed. "The winner will be stoned to death" by all the residents in
this town. Throughout the story, the readers learn about the history of the lottery, people's opinion
about the lottery and procedure of the lottery. However, the final prize of the lottery is

Essay On The Lottery

Empfohlen

Empfohlen

Weitere ähnliche Inhalte

Mehr von Paper Writing Service Reviews

Mehr von Paper Writing Service Reviews (20)

Kürzlich hochgeladen

Kürzlich hochgeladen (20)

Essay On The Lottery