The Lottery, a Short Story by Shirley Jackson

If readers were to pay close attention to the events in The Lottery by Shirley Jackson; then, they might be able to infer what will happen before they come to the end. Jackson wrote this short story in a cryptic way by giving details that led readers to believe one thing over another. She foreshadowed the end of the story throughout the entire text by skillfully repeating the importance of the stones and other symbols. In The Lottery, Jackson makes use of many different literary devices such as irony and symbolism to depict how cruel and corrupt human nature is.

The Lottery is an event that happens once every year on June 27th. The day is described as, “clear and sunny, with the fresh warmth of a full-summer day; the flowers were blossoming profusely and the grass was richly green.” The irony in that sentence is the day is described as beautiful when only hours later the town will participate in a brutal and disgusting murder. Many aspects of the lottery tradition were lost or faded slowly as time moved forward, but the lottery itself has stayed. Why would the townspeople who believe the lottery will assure a good corn crop allow certain parts of the tradition to be lost over the years? Is it because they get off and find enjoyment from a sick act of violence and do not actually care about the tradition itself?

After reading the story for the first time, Tessie Hutchinson’s mood can be found ironic. She arrived at the town center in a cheerful mood and joked around with Mr. Summers. Some of her neighbors gave her and Mr. Hutchinson a hard time for her tardiness. Tessie was eager to be a part of the lottery until Bill chose the wrong slip of paper. She exclaimed, “You didn’t give him time enough to take any paper he wanted. I saw you. It wasn’t fair!” Her reaction shows how any other person would react in the same situation. All of the townspeople were completely okay with being a part of this cruel tradition, but when it is their turn to be stoned to death, they cry and complain about it. Along with irony, Jackson uses foreshadowing to clue in what is going to happen later on.

Tessie Hutchinson arrived late to the gathering in the town square, which is telling for her fate at the end of the story. Mr. Summers even makes a comment saying, “Thought we were going to have to get on without you.” What he says can also be interpreted as a sign that something is going to happen to her during the story. The schoolboys collecting stones foreshadows what the winner of the lottery is going to receive and how they will meet their death. The men gathered together before the lottery and spoke about things such as rain and taxes. Instead, of joking loudly and laughing hard, they spoke quietly and smiled. Although their actions are subtle it gives off an eerie vibe. Even the town’s unease and nervousness for the lottery beginning is another tell-tale sign that something is peculiar about what is going to happen.

The black box is a centerpiece of the lottery and most of the story revolves around it. The box itself is worn out and old. The villagers refuse to replace it because they feel it will upset the tradition that has been around longer than Old Man Warner has been alive even though it’s not the original. The black box is a symbol for the people because the wear and tear show how their tradition has been around long before any of them were born. Stones are mentioned often throughout the story with no explanation as to why. They can be seen as a symbol of the sadistic violence the townspeople are so eager to commit.

A statement further drives in the importance of the stones by saying, “the villagers had forgotten the ritual and lost the black box, they still remembered to use stones.” Chips of wood used to be used in lieu of pieces of paper when the lottery first started. That detail shows the importance of the lottery to the villagers. As time passed and traditions were forgotten, pieces of paper were substituted for the wooden chips. It shows how pointless this “important” event is because the fate of someone’s life rests in a slip of paper marked with a pencil the night before June 27th. This detail also demonstrates the power the villagers have and how the piece of paper holds no power at all.

This story does not tell the tale of one village but mentions there are more that conduct their own lottery. It was shown these people do not care too much about human life because they were eager to participate in a cruel and corrupt activity. Tessie Hutchinson was the voice for the people on the other side of the stone. She wanted to show that it was not fair to be stoned to death for picking the short straw, or in this case, the marked slip of paper. If The Lottery is read carefully, Jackson’s genius use of different literary devices truly makes the conclusion of the story a surprise. She led readers to believe winning the lottery was going to be an exciting and fun experience, but completely turned it around and made it horrifying and grotesque.

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The Lottery by Shirley Jackson

‘The Lottery’ by Shirley Jackson is a short story that uses plot. characterisation and suspense to develop several themes. In doing so Jackson deepens our understanding of people and the nature of society. The story begins in a growing village which holds an annual lottery, but instead of being rewarded the person who receives the marked paper gets stoned to death. This itself demonstrates one of the main themes of man’s inhumanity to man. Jackson also shows this by telling the reader that it is a small community that murders one of its own members which shows the shocking and cruel nature achieved by humans.

We can see this by looking at the start of the story when a group of boys play at the lake: “Bobby Martin had already stuffed his pockets full of stones, and the other boys soon followed his example” This shows inhumanity in an unclear way because the reader doesn’t know why they are doing collecting stones but soon realise at the end that it was so they could throw them at the person who was about to get stoned. Another aspect which shows that the civilisation is inhumane is that the village barely conceal the savagery of killing a member of its own community.

Jackson shows this by telling us that the killings are done by ‘decent’ people who are show themselves to be kind generous people, but a family realises that it is no their family they proceed with an unsympathetic disinterest for the family that does receive the marked paper. Also, the village does not attempt to hide their actions from other villages, which tells us that they think that their actions are the right actions to take. This story also makes the reader question: “Is life expandable? It may make us think of this because good innocent people still suffer, and that it was all down to chance that decides what happens to whom. Characterisation adds something to our understanding of nature and society because the author does not focus on one character alone or tell anything about them; instead Jackson focuses on a group of people united by a common objective, which is to avoid receiving the marked paper which will conclude in the person being stoned to death.

When looking at the characterisation of the characters, it is important to know that Jackson does not give any detail about any of the characters. We can see this when Tessie Hutchison first arrives at the lottery ceremony: “Mrs Hutchison came hurriedly along the path to the square, her sweater thrown over her shoulders, and slid into place. ” This proves that Jackson doesn’t go into any detail when it comes to the characters, because when we first see Mrs Hutchison, it tells us that she has a jumper over her shoulders, yet does not tell us what she looks like or what else she is wearing.

This does not happen to just one character but all characters throughout the story. `Although all the characters aren’t given in any detail, there are a few characters that stand out through the story. The main person who stands out is the character who gets stoned to death, which happens to be Tessie Hutchison who was also late for the lottery ceremony. When it was Mrs Hutchison who received the marked paper and was chosen to be stoned to death she exclaims: ““It isn’t fair, it isn’t right! ” Mrs Hutchison screamed, and then they were upon her. This shows Tessie’s selfish nature because she hasn’t objected to any of the stoning’s before, even though it is wrong and cruel. In this context ‘fair’ and ‘right’ mean the same thing to Tessie because it was her who received the marked paper and not someone else, and if it was someone else she would’ve took part in the stoning. This also reflects the cruel nature of the whole community because they are happy to murder one of their own members as long as it is not themselves that gets stoned.

Another character which stands out is Mr Summers, the organiser of the lottery. Mr Summers is perceived as a cold hearted person near the end of the story even though at the start he is saw as a person who “had time and energy to devote to civic activities” which tells us that he is saw as a nice kind person. We can see that he is actually a cold hearted person after Tessie receives the marked paper. ““That was done pretty fast, now we’ve got to be hurrying a little more to get done I time. ””

This shows that he is cold hearted because he says that sentence as if he has better things to do. It also tells us that he is a very organised person because he talks like he is sticking to a specific timetable. Another important group of characters are at the very beginning of the story. They are the children. The children are important because they create suspense in the beginning of the story and also show how the savagery of the parents is transferred onto the children and they will then grow up believing in the same things as their parents.

It also shows that the nature of people and society are cruel because they are only children and no one thinks that children playing by a lake are evil. We can see that the children are related to the savagery of man towards man when we look at the children by the lake. “Bobby Martin had already stuffed his pockets full of stones, and the other boys soon followed his example” This shows the barbaric nature of the village because it is only the start of the story and already children are preparing for the stoning of a person in their village. The Lottery’ is quite different from other short stories, because short stories are usually made up of three main things: * A normal beginning * Some sort of adventure occurs and the main character gets dragged into the plot * And some sort of twist at the end. ‘The Lottery’ is not like most short stories because it has the same story line all the way throughout, and doesn’t involve any action or adventure.

However there is a twist at the end because the reader doesn’t suspect that the person is going to be stoned to death, and it is only until we re-read the story that we realise that everything was connected to each other in some way. For example the boys picking up the stones at the beginning and then throwing them at Tessie at the end. Jackson also creates suspense to add something to our understanding of people and the nature of society. Jackson creates suspense by giving full details of the preparation of the lottery to stall for a while before actually talking about the lottery.

She also creates suspense by creating lots of conversations among the villagers, which also shows the barbarity of the village because they all talk to each other like normal neighbours would, and makes the reader unaware of what is about to happen. In conclusion, Shirley Jackson has made me aware that people may think that they are civilised, but we also have the potential to be barbaric savages who all follow one leader. It has also made me aware that society can turn against you if people think it is for the right reasons.

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Shirley Jackson`s The Lottery

In “The Lottery”, displays how far people have strayed from the face of humanity through corrupt faddism. The author begins by describing June 27th as a perfectly normal summer day in a small village of only a few hundred people. Mr. Summers, the head in charge of the lottery, goes through a great deal of preparation before the lottery event. He must write up the names of each head member of the family and the family’s members some time before the faithful day and place them in a worn, shabby black box.

Although the ritual has become old in its years, the villagers still remember the process and to gather small stones and throwing rocks for the end of the event. The lottery begins with Mr. Summers calling the head of the families to come and pick out a slip of paper from the black box. As each head of the family opens their paper simultaneously, opens his to see that his family has received the marked paper.

, Bill Hutchinson’s wife, becomes slightly hysteric as she begins to claim that her husband has been cheated in this unfair ritual. This bout of hysteria is quickly hushed, and the Hutchinson family individually draws out papers to find the lucky winner. Mrs. Hutchinson is found with the black dot marring her paper. She is then drawn into a circle as the town villagers prepare for the end of their annual lottery.

In the short story, Mrs. Delacroix shows how her support and resolution makes her a positive role model. Mrs. Delacroix is portrayed as one of Tessie Hutchinson’s friends of the village, they speak as if there are no horrors to come in only moments after their conversation. The small exchange between the two women shows their close relationship and comfortability around each other. Later, after the Bill Hutchinson receives his marked paper, Mrs. Delacroix tries to sedate Tessie’s whimsical exclamations by telling her to remain calm.

Mrs. Delacroix knows all too well that one must not protest or act against this sacramental process. She attempted to diffuse a situation before it got out of hand and disrupted the process of the lottery’s typical ritual. In conclusion, Mrs. Delacroix is one of the most positive role models, in Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery”, which is shown through her support and resolute thoughts.

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The Lottery by Shirley Jackson Critique Essay

The Lottery by Shirley Jackson tells an intriguing, thought-provoking and disturbing story, by using conventions of symbolism, dialogue and foreshadowing. The conventions used help bring together, emphasize and create meaning for the reader, that people blindly follow traditions that have lost meaning . Jackson has cleverly used symbolism in the short story to form a multifaceted meaning that challenges the readers to broaden their thoughts in regards to the tradition. The convention of dialogue misleads the reader at the beginning to think that the community spirit is strong but toward the end it reveals dispute and injustice.

Foreshadowing subtly and progressively gives the reader captivating clues to the unfolding event. “The Lottery” tells a fascinating story about an unrevealed village which blindly follows an annual tradition passed down from long ago. This tradition involves the whole community of about 300 people, one of which is stoned to death. Shirley Jackson has combined the convention of symbolism into ‘The Lottery’ to create a deep and more profound meaning. The black box a symbol/ icon used in the story is an old, worn, well used box. This box is an important feature of the villagers’ annual tradition.

For example, “Mr Summers spoke frequently to the villagers about making a new box, but no one liked to upset even as much tradition as was represented by the black box”. The box is so important that the people are too frightened to renew the box in case the tradition is lost, even though the meaning has already gone. The reader infers that the colour of the box, which is black, is to allow them to easily depict the idea of death, as the colour black usually correlates with death. The black box is symbolic of a coffin as they both are a form of a box.

The black box is described in detail. “The black box grew shabbier each year, by now it was no longer completely black but splintered badly along one side to show the original wood colour, and in some places faded or stained” A coffin in the ground is there for many years and in that time it becomes dilapidated, this gives an impression of an end to a life, death. The dialogue leads the reader to believe there is a real sense of community spirit among everyone, people converse easily in a friendly and matter of fact manner. Even laughing and joking. Clean forgot what day it was,” she said to Mrs Delacroix, who stood next to her and they both laughed softly. “Thought my old man was out back stacking wood…. and then I looked the window…. and then I remembered it was the 27th and came a running. ” The community act and talk so casually about such a disgusting tradition because they have forgotten the meaning of why they are doing it. The continuing dialogue hints to the reader an idea that something is about to take place, it may be exciting but not unpleasant or disturbing.

Until towards the end when the characters dialogue change from casual to disagreements, anger and unfairness, this then alerts the reader to an uneasy feeling that something is wrong all is not what is seems. A climax is about to take place, ending with desperation in Tessie’s voice. “It isn’t fair” she said. But they don’t realize what harm they are actually doing to the communities well being. The title ‘The Lottery’ foreshadows of what is to come. This convention is used to imply winning whether it is money or a material prize.

The word lottery is usually associated with winning. The story begins with the gathering together in expectation of something that will take place as the story unfolds. “a sudden hush fell on the crowd as Mr. summers cleared his throat and looked at the list. “All ready? ” he called “now, I’ll read the names…. and the men come up and take a paper out of the box. Keep the paper folded in your hand” the reader still is unaware of the winner as no hints have been aroused.

The villagers do not even know the meaning as to why they are coming up and receiving a slip to maybe be the one to die. The event is important to the villagers but no one knows why, as in the end the winner is actually not a winner but a loser. “It’s Tessie,” Mr. Summers said, his voice was hushed” this quote gives the hint that whoever is the so called winner is not such a good thing. This normal calendar event actually has no meaning it is senseless tradition carried out by the village people who have not stopped to question ‘why are we doing this’.

Shirley Jackson has effectively used narrative conventions such as symbolism, dialogue and foreshadowing to create meaning of a meaningless tradition in the short story ‘The Lottery’. Symbolism is used in the story to create a meaningful plot, dialogue was combined into the ‘the lottery’ to fool the reader into thinking the climax would be civilized and humane when it was not and foreshadowing hints to the reader the climax but keeps it unknown. ‘The Lottery’ is a captivating, sickening and unpredictable story with a clever meaning about it, telling the reader of meaningless traditions being held by a small community.

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Comparing The Lottery and Hills Like White Elephants

“The Lottery” written by Shirley Jackson is a story based off of its point of view, the story would not be told or understood in the same way if it was written in a different point of view. This story keeps the interest of it’s readers because it has a point of view where only the people in the story know whats going to happen and know more information than the readers do. If this story was written in first person the readers would know what the lottery was from the beginning of the story and that would make the story not have the surprise ending that confuses the audience.

“Hills Like White Elephants” written by Ernest Hemingway is also written in third person point of view. This story is written in a different way then “The Lottery” is written because in “The Lottery” everyone knows whats going on besides the audience, and in “Hills Like White Elephants” only the two main characters know what is going on and what the main conversation contains. Another main difference in these two stories is that Jackson tricks her audience and Hemingway never even demonstrated the reason for the conflict in the story.

Although both stories are related by using the same point of view they are completely different with the plot and the amount of information they with hold from their audience. Both authors use third person in their own ways and it makes different but related effects to the ending of the stories. One of the effects that are different in each story are the amount of people who know whats going on and what the conflict is. Also, the ending of each story, there is a main effect on the point of view factor. Hemingway does not resolve the conflict that the characters in the story know but the audience does not know. Jackson on the other hand reveals to his audience the conflict and the information he has been with holding from the beginning of the story.

The point of view in the stories has a dramatic effect on how they are interpreted from the audience, and what information is known by the audience in any point of the story. If either of these stories were written in first person point of view the entire plot and conflict of the story would change and the audience would have a different outlook on the overall story. In “The Lottery”, if the audience would have known it was a negative lottery it would have changed the effect the ending had on the audience. However, “Hills Like White Elephants”, would have more of an effect on the audience if it was written in first person point of view. This way the audience would be able to know the main conflict the couple is arguing about throughout the entire story, but the conclusion of the story would change the effect on the readers.

Although both stories are wrote in the same point of view, each author interrupts their own personal effects to the stories in which they wrote. Jackson gives her audience clues and hints about the ending, such as the boys piling rocks in the corner of the room, that could be the first signs that the lottery was not what the audience expected it to be. Hemingway however does not take the same approach that Jackson did and did not give his readers clues in the actual text about the information that is being with held from them.

The titles of these two stories differ as well, “The Lottery” is a basic title for the overall story plot, but “Hills Like White Elephants” is a more complicated title that does not give a general over view of the story. The title is supposed to indicate important information about the story, and Hemingway took the third person point of view in the actual text and keep the conflict from his audience but he gave his audience some information in the title. When he used this phrase as his title, he opened his reader’s mind to interpret many different ideas and conclusions about this conflict in which they are with held from knowing.

“The Lottery” and “Hills Like White Elephants” are both written in third person but Jackson and Hemingway took this point of view and put their own personal effects into it. Jackson includes clues through out the text that about the actual lottery. Hemingway interprets his clues to the audience through the title of the story. These two stories are similar in the point of view but they differ in how the authors applied what the audience should and should not know through clues in the text and title.

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Essay Summary of The Lottery by Shirley Jackson

“The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson opens on a warm June day in a town of about three hundred people, and describes an annual event in the town, a tradition that is apparently widespread among surrounding villages as well. While the townspeople, more than 300, await the arrival of Mr. Summers, and the black wooden box from which everyone is to draw a folded slip of paper, adults chat while children play a game in which they gather stones.

The event for which they gather is a lottery conducted by Mr. Summers, a neatly dressed, jovial business man with a wife, but no children. Although many traditional customs associated with the lottery seemed to have been lost over time, Mr. Summers still has ”a great deal of fussing to be done” before he declares the lottery open. He has created lists of households, including the heads of households in each family, and members of each household in each family.

Just as Mr. Summers turned to the assembled villagers, Mrs. Tessie Hutchinson, a house wife, arrives late just then, telling Mrs. Delacroix that she “Clean forgot what day it was” until she noticed that her children had left her house, and remembered it was the day of the lottery. Mrs. Tessie Hutchinson than makes her way through the crowd to her husband, while the villagers comment on her arrival.

Mr. Summers begins the necessity of confirming everyone’s attendance, and clarifying whom will represent the family. When everything is finalized , each representative is called up one after another, and nervously draws a folded slip of paper from the black box. While people are called up, one of the villagers presents the idea of other towns giving up the lottery. Old Man Warner snorts in reply, “Pack of crazy fools, Listening to young folks, nothing’s good enough for them. Next thing you know, they’ll be wanting to go back to living in caves, nobody work anymore, live that way for awhile. Used to be a saying about ‘Lottery in June, corn be heavy soon.’ First thing you know, we’d all be eating stewed chickweed and acorns. There’s always been a lottery.” This statement sets the importance of this annual event, and the strong beliefs of the town.

When the big moment arrives, everyone is silent until the name of Bill Hutchinson rapidly spreads throughout the crowd. Tessie Hutchinson, Bill’s wife, shouts out to Mr. Summers that he didn’t give Bill enough time, and that its not fair. Tessie is silenced, and Mr. summers recons for the family of Bill Hutchinson to come forward. Bill, Tessie, and their three children than proceed as every family of the lottery ever has, and draws a new folded piece of paper from the black box. One by one the family unfolds their piece of paper to determine the sacrificed. Tessie Hutchinson , the declared winner, was led to the center of a cleared space, and with her hands desperately held out in front of her she was hit with the first stone. Everyone then closed in on her, picked up the rocks, the “proceeds” of the lottery, and stones her to death. “Although the villagers had forgotten the ritual, and lost the original black box, they still remembered to use stones.”

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Does Winning the Lottery Cause Happiness?

Does winning the lottery cause happiness? Playing the lottery is easy- but winning is more of a challenge. Playing the lottery is all about luck- How lucky are you? Money is a fundamental part of our everyday lives. We need money to support ourselves and our families. The lottery has been a popular way for people to “get rich quick” for many years. Buying a lotto ticket is cheap and easy- hoping that you are the lucky winner is a great form of entertainment for people who have big hopes and dreams.

The lottery is played by every economic and social class, from the lower class to the upper class. The lower class often play the lottery in order to win money so they can provide more for themselves, a lot of the time these people don’t win a lot of money or win no money at all, this will cause unhappiness and a feeling of regret for wasting money on playing the lottery; instead could have used that money to buy their essentials needs for example food. Winning the lottery is everyone’s wish.

From winning a couple of thousand rands to millions- is everyone’s biggest wish. Winning the lottery is definitely a blessing but there are those who don’t have the financial management skills to make their money grow and they often end up blowing away all their money in bad decisions. At first people often splurge on expensive and luxurious assets such buying a home, their dream car, go on a vacation or even open up a business that they have always wanted.

This makes these people very happy. People often spend all the money they have won and then in the end they do not have the money to maintain these expensive assets. These people then start going into debt and start taking out loans that they will never be able to repay and therefore get into a crisis- causing unhappiness. These people in turn then have to start selling off the assets that they have bought in order to pay off these debts, in the end, left with no money and no assets.

Playing the lottery is a form of gambling- people who play a lot, often become addicted and spend most of their days playing, hoping that they will win money – but excessive gamblers can lose all of their possessions if they do not have a lot of money and start selling their possessions in order to gain money to play. I believe that money can’t buy happiness unless you know how to manage your money. Many people are content when they win money as they can now please themselves with what they have always wanted- if people do not know to grow their money, save money and manage their money- this will cause misery and stress.

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