Traditional Gender Roles In Shirley Jackson's The Lottery

            As the story goes on, each the following paragraphs contains subtle clues as to what is going to unfold.  After all of the children have gathered around, the men began to fill the square, followed by the women.  "They stood together, away from the pile of stones in the corner" (p.422).  The fact that they stood away from the stones, again, informs the reader that the stones will play a significant role.  Nervousness amongst the people is manifested due to the children's reluctance to join their parents in the square.  At this particular moment, there is a feeling that this lottery is not going to have a pleasant outcome.

The short story “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson, published in 1948, took place following the second world war, and the author writes with the war’s aftermath in mind. In the story, a village that runs an annual lottery that one lucky person gets to win. The winner however, is granted death. By stoning of all things from the rest of the villagers. As this story takes place in the late 40s, a patriarchal society based theme is heavily present and the emphasis on women's rights and their freedom of speech is noticeable in nearly all aspects. From daily household chores that are stereotyped as a woman’s job, to the comfort of being alone and feeling out of place in public environments. One thing to note is that when Jackson wrote “The

Would you stone your neighborhood to death for the sake of tradition? Shirley Jackson wrote The Lottery in 1948 to tell a story about how savage people can be for tradition. The story is about a small town who has a yearly lottery and the winner gets stoned to death by their neighbors. The thought is that if you have a lottery, then you will have good crops that season. This short story tells the tale of poor Tessie Hutchinson who is stoned by her own town, her son helps too. In the short story The Lottery, Shirley Jackson argues that all people, regardless of how civilized they may seem, are capable of great evil by contrasting seemingly pleasant and relatable details of the town with the shocking barbarity of their tradition.

The Lottery by Shirley Jackson is a short fictional story that was published in 1948 and was in the magazine The New Yorker. The setting of the story is a small nice little village with green grass and flowers everywhere.The village was a farming village that mostly supported agriculture. The main characters are Joe Summers, Mr. Graves, and the Hutchison family. The conflict of the story was man versus tradition of the lottery. The lottery had little slips of paper that Mr. Summers and Mr. Graves made and one that had a black dot on it. The “winner” is the person with the black dot. The winner has his family draw again to see who is the real “winner”. When drawing, the heads of the households get to draw for the family and can’t look at the slips until everyone is done drawing. Most villages are giving it up. The oldest man in village says, “lottery in June, corn be heavy soon”, as that after the lottery is done crops grow better. When it was done Hutchinson got the “lucky” card and his wife Tessie was making a big deal about it, “it wasn’t fair’’ she said and, “they should redo the lottery, she thought.”Bill Hutchison tells Tessie to shut up and Mr. Graves starts setting up for the last round. Graves took the black dot piece of

In “‘The Lottery’ as Misogynist Parable”, author Gayle Whittier spells out how Shirley Jackson’s short story “The Lottery” exacerbates its definitive sexism by situating Tessie Hutchinson as the scapegoat while simultaneously implying how cruel scapegoating is to its audience. Initial reactions to “The Lottery”, according to Whittier, empowered its political interpretations, helping to disguise its underlying antifeminism. Whittier reveals how the patriarchal order of Jackson’s short story is compromised only when absolutely necessary (Mrs. Dunbar and the young Watson boy drawing for their respective families). She notes how male dominance throughout Jackson’s short story is not perceived as an advantage, but rather a solemn duty. The fact that a wife bearing many children has a better chance of survival, should her family’s surname be elected, than a childless wife is not a fact gone unnoticed by Whittier. She contends the criteria for Hutchinson’s sacrifice as if it were not by chance, but by her fate as a woman. Hutchinson’s frazzled arrival, emphasis on the importance of her domestic duties, nagging attitude toward her husband, and obvious willingness to sacrifice her kin deem her a prime target for sacrifice. However, Whittier argues how these criteria influence readers to subliminally accept Hutchinson’s fate without having to analyze the odds stacked against Hutchinson from the outset: the outcome of the lottery and Hutchinson’s portrayal agree with each other. Likewise, Whittier indicates how Hutchinson’s outcries towards Mr. Summers and her demeanor (compared to her husband) present her as a perfect candidate for sacrifice (in the reader’s eyes). The essayist emphasizes how the manner in which women respond to Hutchinson’s lottery winner status masks them as concerned justice advocates with respect to the formality of the lottery’s rules. The actual masking of these women highlights the patriarchal undertones of the short story, according to Whittier. In light of this, Whittier voices how Jackson’s particular presentation of these women inconspicuously (yet ominously) distorts them as not only subordinate to men, but submissive to them. According to Whittier, the implication that we are all capable of

Shirley Jackson?s insights and observations about society are reflected in her shocking and disturbing short story The Lottery. Jackson reveals two general attitudes in this story: first is the shocking tendency for societies to select a scapegoat and second is the idea that communities are victims of social tradition and rituals.

Modern criticism of Shirley Jackson’s The Lottery has focused almost exclusively on the issues of feminism and gender roles yet some recent reviews tend to classify the writing as feminist literature. They claim the story highlights the negative aspects of patriarchal societies through the telling of the lottery ritual. However many overlook the roles that the women play throughout this story. The purpose of this paper is to examine how Shirley Jackson uses feminism throughout her story and also to show the feminist attitude the women have towards the male-dominated society.

Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery" is an allegorical depiction of society's flaws and cruel principles and the effects they have on its citizens and more specifically, its women.

Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery" describes a little urban society where the residents meet for an annual lottery. In most cases the lottery is something everyone would like to win, I doubt if this type of lottery falls into the same category. In the story, Jackson pays close attentions to men and women from this community to exhibit the role of each gender. Gender role is the expectation the society have for an individual depending on their sex, particularly to the community culture and beliefs. Definite purpose or men and women are present in the society in the novel The Lottery, the actions of women and men expound the characters accomplishments and beliefs.

In the first round of the lottery, the head of each family will draw a small slip of paper. If someone gets the one slip with a black spot, meaning that his family has been chosen. In the second round, people in this family will draw a slip in turns, who gets the marked slip will be stoned to death by everyone. Unfortunately, Bill’s wife Tessie who had arrived late in the story was the one to be sacrificed.

In the short story “The Lottery,” Shirley Jackson shows apparent gender roles where women have little to no say with decisions and arrangements. The women in the story are portrayed as mediocre to the men of the village. This is mainly shown by there not being a single dominant female character throughout the story. Not only is the social standing of the women lower, they are not treated with the respect that women deserve. The women are shown as so insignificant that even the bond of marriage is broken by the gender socialism of the story. Not only do the adults of the small village show gender roles, but the children also show gender roles as well. Jackson uses some devices like imagery and symbols to show

This foreshadowed “The children had stones already. Tessie Hutchinson was in the center of a cleared space by now, and she held her hands out desperately as the villagers moved in on her. A stone hit her on the side of the head. Mrs. Hutchinson screamed, and then they were upon her. ”The second part of the story changes the mood and pacing as the dialogue shows how the villagers react to the overall lottery.

Gender inequality is the unfair view or treatment of someone due to their gender,or their classification. Gender Inequality goes back to the early civilizations in the world, more specifically Mesopotamia with women. Mesopotamian women were seen inferior compared to men, they weren’t allowed to have rights, they weren’t allowed to own land and choose their own husbands. This gender inequality can also be recognized in Shirley Jackson’s short story “The Lottery” by her usage of the black box to symbolize gender inequality. This can be express when Mr. Summers consulted his list and called up Clyde Dunbar, and realizes he broke his leg. “Who’s drawing for him?” “ Me, I guess,” a woman said, and Mr. Summers turned to look at her. “Wife draws for her husband,” Mr. Summers said, “Don’t you have a grown boy to do it for you, janey ( Shirley Jackson,line 134)?” Another line in which furthermore proves my point is when Mr. Summers makes a note and asks, “ Watson boy drawing this year?” A tall boy in the crowd raises his hand. “ Here,” he said. “I’m drawing for my mother and me.” He blinked his eyes nervously and ducked his head as several voices in the crowd said things like “Good fellow, Jack,” and “ Glad to see your mother’s got a man to do it( Jackson line 145).” From these two lines we can clearly see a major difference in which how a female is treated compared to a male. We can see how Mr. Summers questions a women for being the only one being able to draw

“The Lottery” is a short story written by Shirley Jackson and published in 1948. The title of the story initially leads readers to believe the story is going to be about someone winning some kind of prize. Even the opening of the story seems to protest any foul play or cruel behavior. What the reader is introduced to is a seemingly friendly gathering of a small village community, members all gathered around anxiously awaiting their drawing for the lottery. The village members all chatter amongst one another in a tone that kind neighbors would take with one another. To the surprise of the reader, the story provides a shocking twist. The story is not about someone winning a prize. Instead the story reveals

Throughout history women have struggled with having their equal rights met when it comes to men. Especially during the forties, women were not known for holding major responsibilities in the family. Women were expected to clean house and take care of the children. Not only did this occur during this time but even before that and after. Women were given the right to vote in the 1920’s, but that did not make them equal to men. Women for centuries have been fighting for their rights and to be treated with the same respect that men have been given since the beginning of time. In The Lottery it shows the flaws and cruel principles that not only a society has towards its citizens but more specifically on its women. I believe not only does it challenge women and their rights, but it also is degrading to women. Throughout this story it shows how society restricts women, places them with limitations and expectations, and treats them with insignificance.