Study Like a Boss
Being a Cripple, Greasy Lake, Infant Books, Nickel and Dimed, Pedagogy of The Oppressed, Stephen King, Thank You Ma Am, The Plastic Pink Flamingo: a Natural History, The World Is Flat, Why Nations Fail, 1984, A Raisin in The Sun, Animal Farm, Beowulf, Fahrenheit 451, Frankenstein, George Orwell, Hamlet, Into The Wild, Lord of The Flies, A Modest Proposal, All Quiet on The Western Front, Allegory, Antigone, Between The World and Me.
The events of “The Lottery” border on the absurd. Nevertheless, the story cries out for interpretation on several levels. Shirley Jackson has skillfully used the elements of several ancient rituals to create a tale that touches on the character of ritual itself and the devastating effects of mob psychology. At the heart of the story … Read more
“The Hunger Games” by Suzanne Collins and the short story “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson both illustrate the dangers of blindly following ritualized practices and traditions. The stories involve the use of an institutionalized drawing system, one which is employed to blindly choose a sacrifice for the respective societies. “The Hunger Games” uses a system … Read more
I think this story applies to life in the United States, 70 years after it was written, because of today’s controversial politics and republican platform. In the Lottery, Old man Warner – a survivor of many lotteries- bitterly rejects reform and complains that “It’s not the way it used to be… People ain’t the way … Read more
Horrific, extraordinary, macabre, or supernatural events and “an atmosphere of mystery and suspense” are the essentials of the American Gothic genre of literature (Phillips). The Southern Gothic sub-genre sets the events in the American South, makes extensive use of irony, and includes eccentric, deeply flawed characters but who possess enough positive characteristics that the reader … Read more
The Lottery and Course Themes The Lottery, which is written by Shirley Jackson was written in the year 1948. The story is very similar to that of Hunger Games, which is a modern movie that most people have seen. In this story, the author tells about a tradition of the village located in New England. … Read more
Humanity is best known for confusing one thing for another and doing things in the name of following cultural guidelines or social expectations. But, is that action justified? Is it even a rational mindset? Most times, such behavior is very harmful and dangerous to individuals. That is why it is important to analyze how, if, … Read more
The Lottery Character Symbolization When one reads a story they often look for character development, traits, and symbolization to help them better understand the context. In the short story “The Lottery”, by Shirley Jackson, she helps the reader better understand the story by using vast character symbolization through the characters of Tessie Hutchison, Old Man … Read more
Written during separate times of war, Shirley Jackson’s 1948 short story “The Lottery” and Ursula Le Guin’s “The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas” written in 1974, both chillingly demonstrate the concept of the scapegoat. By definition, the scapegoat often represents a person or object who is subjected to carry unwarranted blame or irrational hostility, … Read more
“Racism is not about how you look, it’s about how people assign meaning to how you look.” (Robin Kelley, an American History Professor at the University of California, Los Angeles) People tend to judge each other based on social constructions that society has subconsciously implemented. Race itself is merely a concept, yet individuals in a … Read more
Shirley Jackson’s The Lottery is an alarming parable that explores the concept of senseless violence whilst featuring many other prominent themes. The short story revolves around an annual lottery that a village holds to ensure that “lottery in June, corn be heavy soon” (6). Appallingly, the winner of the lottery proceeds to be stoned to … Read more
Shirley Jackson’s, “The Lottery,” is saturated with the use of symbolism. Symbolism is practiced to represent something else. It helps construct significance and feeling in a story by causing the reader to make connections between the piece of literature and the real world. Sometimes it can be very difficult to find the fundamental connotation that … Read more
The crowd of villagers threw the stones at Tessie with all their might. “NO! Stop it! Please!” Tessie shouted with tears in her eyes. ”What’s happening?” Little Davy asked Mr. Hutchinson. With tears falling down his face, Mr.Hutchinson said “Oh, it’s nothing you have to worry about. Just stand behind me until this is over.” … Read more
The story entitled “The Lottery,” written by Shirley Jackson is an intriguing and shocking parable. “The Lottery” is set in a small village on a clear summer day. Written in objective third person point of view, “The Lottery” keeps the reader in suspense as the story progresses. This story shows the cruelty of people and … Read more
Evil and charm are considered by many people to be very different things. It is not often that it is thought that evil and charm coexist together. Evil is defined to be; morally bad, or wicked, while charms definition is; a trait that fascinates, allures or delights. According to British author Brian Masters evil is … Read more
The Lottery, raises many questions in the back of a readers mind towards the destructive yet blind rituals of mankind. The Lottery clearly expresses Jacksons feelings concerning mankinds evil nature hiding behind traditions and rituals. She shows how coldness and lack of compassion in people can exhibit in situations regarding tradition and values. Jackson presents … Read more
Shirley Jacksons 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 humans tendency to select a scapegoat and second, society as a victim of … Read more
The Lottery, written by Shirley Jackson, is a short story set around early 20th century in a small American village. Throughout the entire story Jackson plays psychological games with the readers mind. Jackson leaves clues and symbols all through the story; however, it could be easy for a reader to not fully understand the meaning … Read more
In many stories, settings are constructed to help build the mood and to foreshadow of things to come. “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson is a story in which the setting sets up the reader to think of positive outcomes. However, this description of the setting foreshadows exactly the opposite of what is to come. In … Read more
Shirley Jackson takes great care in creating a setting for the story, The Lottery. She gives the reader a sense of comfort and stability from the very beginning. It begins, “clear and sunny, with the fresh warmth of a full-summer day; the flowers were blossoming profusely and the grass was richly green. ” The setting … Read more
The Lottery, a short story by the nonconformist author Shirley Jackson, represents communities, America, the world, and conformist society as a whole by using setting and most importantly symbolism with her inventive, cryptic writing style. It was written in 1948, roughly three years after the liberation of a World War II concentration camp Auschwitz. Even … Read more
According to anthropologist, William A. Haviland, ” ritual is the means by which the social bonds of a group are reinforced and tensions relieved. ” Shirley Jacksons short story, “The Lottery,” vividly illustrates the ease with which the individual in society tolerates and even participates in acts that if undertaken singly would be considered reprehensible. … Read more
Shirley Jackson wrote The Lottery in 1948, not long after the second World War. The horror of the Holocaust was still fresh in everyones minds. Jackson wrote this story to remind everyone that we are not so far from this world of sadistic human sacrifice. She created a town, very much like any American town, … Read more
The authors, Shirley Jackson and Nathaniel Hawthorne, both frequently use symbols within their stories “The Lottery” and “Young Goodman Brown. ” Symbols are utilized as an enhancement tool to stress the theme of each story. Hawthorne uses names and objects to enhance the theme, and Jackson mainly utilizes names to stress the theme, although she … Read more
In the short story, The Lottery, Shirley Jackson aids the reader in shaping some horrific images of her characters. Each and every one of the villagers Jackson portrays manages to remove herself from the lives of friends and family so that she is able to stone another fellow villager to death. Jackson clearly proves that … Read more
Many authors use irony in their stories. There are different forms of irony, including verbal, situational, and dramatic irony. Irony adds a twist at the end of the story and leaves the readers a little confused. Irony plays a big part in Shirley Jackson’s short story, “The Lottery. ” Throughout the story, the reader is … Read more
Gothic is defined as “a style of fiction that emphasizes the grotesque and the mysterious. ” Similar to the works of Edgar Allan Poe, many of Shirley Jacksons stories are considered “gothic” fiction. One such story is “The Lottery” which was first published in 1948. This story focuses on a very grim day in the … Read more
Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery” portrays a small town in which the citizens gather for a yearly lottery. Unlike the “typical” lottery, this is not one you would want to win. Throughout “The Lottery,” Jackson focuses on families from the village in order to demonstrate the role of separation of genders. Gender is defined as the … Read more
The authors, Shirley Jackson and Nathaniel Hawthorne, both frequently use symbols within their stories “The Lottery” and “Young Goodman Brown. ” Symbols are utilized as an enhancement tool to stress the theme of each story. Hawthorne uses names and objects to enhance the theme, and Jackson mainly utilizes names to stress the theme, although she … Read more
Over the years many critics have wrote articles on Shirley Jackson’s numerous works. Many critics had much to say about Jackson’s most famous short story, “The Lottery”. Her insights and observations about man and society are disturbing; and in the case of “The Lottery,” they are shocking. “The themes themselves are not new, evil cloaked … Read more
The short story ‘The Lottery’; by Shirley Jackson is very well known because of the tradition of the village. Tradition is a big point issued to the people throughout their lives. The title ‘The Lottery’; sounds as if something good is being given away. As you know after reading the story, that isn’t the case … Read more
Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery” talks about a community that follows a tradition. Every year the people take everyone’s name, put it in a black box, and pick the name of a person. This person they stone to death. Their reason range from an idea that having the lottery makes them civilized to an idea that … Read more
Shirley Jackson’s, ‘The Lottery’;, clearly expresses her feelings concerning traditional rituals through her story. It opens the eyes of readers to properly classify and question some of today’s traditions as cruel, and allows room to foretell the outcome of these unusual traditions. ‘The Lottery’; is a short story that records the annual sacrifice ceremony of … Read more
There are many stories in which the author purposely makes the story vague until the end, The Lottery, by Shirley Jackson is a great example of this. Around ten o’ clock, June 27th was a very vivid day in the lives of the villagers, It was a beautiful summer day, the wind was slight and … Read more
The Lottery, a short story by the nonconformist author Shirley Jackson, represents communities, America, the world, and conformist society as a whole by using setting and most importantly symbolism with her inventive, cryptic writing style. It was written in 1948, roughly three years after the liberation of a World War II concentration camp Auschwitz. Even … Read more
The word tradition can have a slue of different meanings. For people of diverse backgrounds, religions, and genders certain traditions are held dear to them. The Webster International dictionary had many definitions for tradition, but the one that applied best states that tradition is the oral transmission of beliefs, opinions, information or customs (Webster 2684). … Read more
Many authors use irony in their stories. There are different forms of irony, including verbal, situational, and dramatic irony. Irony adds a twist at the end of the story and leaves the readers a little confused. Irony plays a big part in Shirley Jacksons short story, “The Lottery. ” Throughout the story, the reader is … Read more
Psychologists, social scientists and writers have long been interested in the whys of obedience and disobedience; many experiments have been conducted to help in understanding these issues and the influences exerted by outside forces on individuals in their decision making processes. Unthinking obedience can be as dangerous as unthinking rebellion in any society, neither is … Read more
The differences between “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson and “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas” by Ursula K. Le Guin seem relatively minor when compared to the striking similarities they contain in setting, symbols, and theme. Each of the stories begin with a description of a beautiful summer day. “The flowers were blooming profusely … Read more
The story entitled “The Lottery,” written by Shirley Jackson is an intriguing and shocking parable. “The Lottery” is set in a small village on a clear summer day. Written in objective third person point of view, “The Lottery” keeps the reader in suspense as the story progresses. This story shows the cruelty of people and … Read more
People throughout the world do things for many different reasons. Religion, peer pressure, or tradition are some of the reasons the people do things. In the U. S. we have many traditions such as Christmas. Some people have strange or out of the ordinary traditions. The two short stories “The Lottery” and “A Rose for … Read more
The theme of violence and tradition is persuasive in the short story The Lottery written by Shirley Jackson. This theme is not a generalized theme of violence, but a theme of ritualistic violence. This violence is shown in the traditional town-wide lottery drawing that takes place on each June 27th. However, this lottery is not … Read more
In the days of Jesus through the mid 1900s, people had many different superstitions, or beliefs, about life. People believed if they were to do certain things, they would have good luck. Like Indians used to do a dance, called the Indian rain dance, when they wanted it to rain so it would help their … Read more
