The Lottery By Shirley Jackson Literary Analysis

In the short story The Lottery (1948), Shirley Jackson asserts that tradition and obedience inevitably triumph over fundamental ethics and morality. The exposition takes place in a small American town with a population of three hundred villagers all gathering together on a pleasant, sunny day for the lottery—a tradition that had been implemented for decades. Although Jackson reveals little details about the lottery, the overarching tension portrayed through the characters’ subtle actions cannot be neglected. While young children were enthralled and oblivious to their surroundings, the adults, in contrast, were reserved and cautious—hinting towards the menacing atmosphere surrounding the lottery. The citizens’ reluctance when Mr. Summers, the conductor of the lottery, requested for a hand in setting up the black lottery box further alludes to the fact that the lottery possesses alternate meanings. Jackson also intentionally calls attention to the various alterations of the lottery from its initial procedure: the original lottery apparatus replaced by a wooden box, the wooden chips inside the device substituted by slips of paper, and the official salute to each of the citizens eradicated entirely. Despite these modifications, however, the guidelines of the cryptic lottery still remains intact and unaffected. While each head of the household draws a slip of paper from the box for his family’s fate, a man on the side discloses that neighboring villages are giving up on the

Does a beautiful sunny morning in an average little town sound like a setting fit for a stoning occurring later that day? The setting of a story is very important to the storyline and gives meaning to each element and theme of the story. The setting of “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson has extremely significant meaning to the plot of this story. The setting represents elements of irony, tradition, and unity.

Jackson followed up the playful gathering and describes how the boys scramble around to gather smooth stones before the lottery commences. The Author describes the little girls talking amongst themselves while glancing over their shoulder as the boys gather stones. Bobby Martin is portrayed as an innocent child collecting rocks, playing, and getting dirty just in time to fall in line between his father and his brother in line for the lottery.

Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery” is told with the narrator in a third person's perspective. While the narrator goes on to tell a story about a small village that celebrates and unusual event. He or she, drops important details about the lottery and why nobody wants to win, but they are easily overlooked. The story starts out with a crowd of people getting ready to draw a piece of paper out of an old black box, and wishing that they did not receive the one paper with a dot on it. Since the narrator is very stingy with the information he gives the reader about how the villagers feel about the lottery, it builds up the suspense throughout the story. If this story was told in any other perspective the narrator would not be able to give the readers a suspenseful ending. Due to the fact if it was told in first person the narrator would need to reveal the person's thoughts and emotions which would give away the true meaning of the lottery.

Mr. Summers conducts the lottery because he had the energy and time to hold civic events.

Shirley Jackson’s The Lottery, is a realism story that was written for the main purpose of entertainment. Jackson writes about a small village that gathers every year for an event they call “The Lottery”. Every head of households comes up and draws a slip of paper from the box. Bill Hutchinson draws the first slip of paper with the black dot but Tessie Hutchinson quickly exclaims the lottery is not fair. Mr. Summers then puts five slips of paper back into the box, one for each of the family members, and has them all draw out a single sheet. To determine who will be stoned. When they open their slips, they find that Tessie has the slip with the black dot. Everyone in the village then begins to stone her to death. Throughout the story,

This is a literary analysis essay about a short story “The Lottery” By Shirley Jackson. Jackson’s writing style is considered to be a “gothic fiction” that refers to a style of writing that is characterized by “elements of fear, horror, death, and gloom, as well as romantic elements, such as nature, individuality, and very high emotion.” (www.study.com) In this essay, I will be analyzing a short story “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson based on these areas: setting, tone, foreshadowing, and characterization.

In the aim of portraying a specific message or analogy through their writing, authors include analogies and historical background to speak on an issue or topic prevalent in their communities or societies as a whole. Authors decide on literary concepts and elements that they believe allows them relay their message to their audience. This is the case for Shirley Jacksons “The Lottery.” Through implied criticism of tradition and society Shirley Jackson is able to speak on her society.

Initially, Jackson’s twisted plot reveals the infinite, vicious cycle that a tradition can become. In the exposition of the story a boy by the name of Bobby Martin collects rocks and “other boys soon followed his example” (Jackson 1). In the

Shirley Jackson is a renowned author known for her horror stories, mainly The Haunting of Hill, which has influenced various works of Stephen King. In the short story, “The Lottery,” Jackson demonstrates how the role of tradition and the patriarchal system entrap people in a collective idea and prohibit individuals from questioning or opposing the ideology in place. The intertwining of all the various elements of this story makes it easy to observe the entanglement of the town with the traditions that are shared amongst them. With the inclusion of the horrific scene in the end, she puts the nail in the coffin of getting her point across to the reader that speaking out against the normal is iconoclastic and usually suppressed by society.

Imagine playing "The lottery" till you're called out for death. The Lottery by: Shirley Jackson The lottery is about a small village in the summer of June 27th. In the small village there were a small amount of people and a game was played every year once; The lottery was a tradition and the game was called, "The Lottery".

Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery” is likely to be one of the most commonly read short stories in academia, as well as it is likely to be one of the most controversial stories. In order to understand why the short story was initially so controversial and even still turns heads today, many aspects of life and varying perspectives must be viewed. To fully understand the story and the reader’s reactions, a number of items must be understood- Shirley Jackson’s life, her writing style, and the overall climate of the world around the time the story was published.

The short story "The Lottery" by American writer Shirley Jackson uses a number of elements the are typical of narratives. "The Lottery" makes use of suspense; Jackson shows the entire town through the process of the lottery drawing and then focuses on the process for the Hutchinson family. Jackson also makes use of foreshadowing; at the beginning of the story she gives details about children collecting stones. The symbolism that Jackson was trying to suggest within the story was that when there is a corrupt or unfair way of being people will willfully follow and accept it without question if it has been around long enough. The suggested themes within the story could be violence; having a small town that stones its people for tradition is not

Society can have a great effect on one’s actions and thoughts of truth. Some believe there is an idea of an unassailable truth, which is a truth that cannot be deemed false. This ideology is brought to the forefront in Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery” (1948), a short story in which a small village of about 300 people stone one of their own each year as part of a cultural tradition. In this story the focus is on a woman named Tess Hutchinson, or “Tessie” is the victim of the stoning. To demonstrate the villager’s mentality towards the ottery a quote by the towns elder, Old Man Warner, gives his opinion on the lottery “Used to be a saying ‘Lottery in June, corn be heavy soon’ First thing you know, we’d all be eating chickweed and acorns. There’s always been a lottery.” (Jackson 262). There is another village addressed in this story, however it is briefly touched on and it is made aware to the reader that the other village has stopped participating in the lottery. The villagers have this mentality that the lottery should not be questioned, showing ignorance to all other alternatives and ending the lottery all together.

Surprise captures people’s attention. The more unexpected and surprised someone is, the more likely people are to notice as well as Shirley Jackson expresses in "The Lottery". It is a story of an extraordinary urban town of people practicing tradition when they are least interested. There are important themes that symbolizes throughout the story and they all are connected to each other. To help the reader understand the main concept of the story. This story symbolizes setting, tone, and symbols of the general theme of the whole story that she explains with two main different themes of old man Warner and the black box.