Sweet, Sour, And Resentful In The Lottery, By Shirley Jackson

To many the fear of change in their lives can be terrifying. We all have a schedule, they whether we like it or not, lulls us into a false since of security we crave.” The Lottery” by Shirly Jackson shows just how far a community can be because of rigid backbone of tradition and repetitive life. The villagers fear of change is shown when during the lottery the topic of stopping it comes up.

In “The Lottery” a representative for every family in this small town is to pick a paper out of a large black box that is either blank or has a black dot on the center. When Mr. Hutchinson chooses the dreaded black dotted paper, his wife Tessie is quickly on his defense. But, as soon as the family has to each choose a paper themselves and it becomes clear that Tessie has chosen the black dotted paper, he is quick to pull her paper out of her hand and show the towns people that she had the paper of death. The “Lottery” is an age old tradition that doesn’t seem to have any real reasoning. If your family is so unlucky as to get the black dotted paper it doesn't matter if you are a man, women, or a child, if you yourself choose the black dotted

In Shirley Jacksons story, The Lottery, a small town is stuck in a deadly tradition. A tradition that was continued in the hopes that the towns crops will be plentiful. The character Old Man Warner even talking about the old saying “Lottery in June, corn be heavy soon“ when talking about the lottery to Mr. and Mrs. Adams. The story shows a small town stuck in old ways, and the victim of mob mentality.

Andrew Lansley once said “Peer pressure and social norms are powerful influences on behavior, and they are classic excuses.” Most people tend to follow cultural customs because they have grown with them or it has been forced onto them with factors such as parents or their environment. However, is it always right to follow these customs even if they are in fact considered wrong? Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery” is a short story about the cultural norms of a small community and its annual lottery ritual; a stoning. Jackson overthrows the story by making the lottery a corrupt occurrence rather than a victory. The reader would probably think that the “winner” of the lottery would be benefited but in this case the victory was not so delightful. In her short story “The Lottery” Jackson seemingly uses ordinary details about the setting and the townspeople to characterize her theme that although society claims to be civilized, and may appear so, it is inherently barbaric.

In the “Short story” “ The Lottery by Shirley Jackson the characters have different feelings about the lottery .I wish they’d hurry Mrs.Dunbar said. This shows that she doesn't enjoy the lottery. If the people were to enjoy the lottery they wouldn't rush it . This leads me to believe that Mrs.Dunbar doesn’t like the lottery because she wants it to be over already.

Leaving It All To Chance In the story “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson, the reader are shown different perspective of an event that can be seen from many other ways, confusing you. The hints she places in the story is purposely leading readers to see a certain way, so that by the end of the story she can catch everyone by surprise. There are many examples of her using small events in order to make people assume a certain thing, but in reality that is not what is actual going to happen.

Once upon a time there was a little village. In this village three hundred people happily farmed and played and went about their business. The children went to school while the men cut wood or farmed, and the women cooked and cleaned. Every summer in June each of villagers took part in the traditional lottery drawing and one villager was picked for the prize – a stoning. In 1948, Shirley Jackson published this short story known as “The Lottery,” in The New York Times. The story’s plot shocked readers all over America as they learned of the horror happening in such a quaint town. Jackson purposely set this tragic event in this innocent setting to emphasize humanity’s cruelty. Using her appalling short story, The Lottery,

The author of “The Lottery” Shirley Jackson decided it was important to write this short story in order to inform the readers about another dimension, where a certain common tradition gets prized with something obscure. Some readers can be shocked when reading this story, because they might be surprised and even shocked with the themes that play along in the storyline. This short story “The Lottery” was so controversial at the time, because in the date it was published in June 24, 1948 there were so many themes from the stories that could relate to past events or even event that were taking place at the time.

In some ways, “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson could be seen as controversial. Within the first paragraph, we are left with two main questions; “what is the lottery?” and “why does it happen?” A major theme that answers the first question is all about tradition. Yes, the lottery is a tradition in many towns. No one has ever questioned this tradition, even though it is quite inhumane. In all honesty, you could compare this story very well to The Hunger Games just because of what this tradition consists of. Imagine being in a town of around three hundred people and having your life put on the line. The lottery itself comes down to all of the townspeople meeting up, and each family name is read by Mr. Summers, and the head of the family

“The Lottery” was written in 1948 by Shirley Jackson. Mrs. Jackson, born in 1916, was known for her tales of horror and supernatural novels. She and her literary critic husband, Stanley Edgar Hyman lived in a little town called Bennington, Vermont. Mrs. Jackson was not accepted by the town. Her novels, especially “The Lottery”, revealed the dark side of human nature. Stephen King honored Shirley Jackson by dedicating his book Firestarter to her.

Winning isn’t always what it seems. Hearing the word “lottery” usually develops a positive connotation in the mind of the reader, associating it with pleasure, good fortune and happiness; however, in “The Lottery,” the winner is rewarded by being brutally stoned by her neighbors and believed friends. “The Lottery,” written by Shirley Jackson in 1948, highlights how complacently our society reacts to the pointless brutality and inhumanity towards others. To demonstrate this, Jackson examines social constructs, women’s place and how instead focusing too strongly on strict traditions, we need to reexamine these rituals to determine their necessity and if they are still beneficial to society. Jackson uses seemingly ordinary details about

“The Lottery” a short story by Shirley Jackson, features a small town during the time of their lottery. The lottery is an annual event, organized by Mr. Summers. It is a highly important time, as the whole town comes to the town square on the day of the lottery. The guidelines are quite simple: everyone takes a slip of paper out of the symbolic black box, and the slip of paper with the black mark carved on it, is the “lucky winner”. But their definition of the lottery is different一usually, a lottery is a valuable thing to win. But when Tessie Hutchinson, the “lucky winner” gets her reward by getting stoned to death by the rest of the villagers, it is clear that winning this lottery can't be a good affair... So what is the purpose of this lottery? Rather than discontinuing the lottery, the town continues with it because they don't want to upset an old tradition.

“The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson artfully uses foreshadowing in order to build suspense and create a shocking ending. Jackson’s success in “The Lottery” comes from her ability to keep the reader in the dark about the evils, until the very end. She has masterfully set up what the reader believes as a pleasant event. But, it is not until the ending, can the reader see the foreshadowing of the evils to come. Through the use of foreshadowing, Jackson is able to contribute to the story 's overall effect of suspense and a shocking ending.

In “The Lottery” Shirley Jackson writes about the game lottery, which makes the story very ironic. Unlike all of the other Lottery games, in this traditional version no one wants to be chosen, because that brings them the end of their life. Jackson explains how keeping up with some traditions that are part of people’s life, may not be the best choice to embrace a particular culture. Jackson uses the Lottery as an example to express her idea about the ethical issues such as; violent murder, harming people, forcefully following a tradition, and lying. All of these ethical issues are created by blindly following tradition in “The Lottery.”

In the lottery keeping traditions alive it makes me think that is an addiction to it. This story falls back to inheriting something.This story falls back to inheriting something.