The Lottery vs the Destructors Essay examples

Shirley Jackson is often regarded as one of the most brilliant authors of the twentieth century. Born in San Francisco in 1916, she spent the majority of her adolescence writing short stories and poetry (Allen). While she is known best for her supernatural stories, one of her most popular works is a short story called “The Lottery”. The lottery takes place in a small village in which once a year on June 24th, the town population is gathered. After the gathering, there is a drawing to see which family is chosen, after the family is chosen, another drawing takes place to see who is stoned to death. In the New Yorker's magazine book review hailed “The Lottery” as “one of the most haunting and shocking short stories of modern America and is one of the most frequently anthologized” (Jackson). This review stems heavily from Jackson’s brilliant use of irony, symbolism, and foreshadowing. However, perhaps what truly stands out is how Jackson is able to wrap all of those elements together as a way to show an overarching theme of the corruption that exists in human nature. While the real source of “The Lottery’s” inspiration is unclear, there has been heavy speculation that the roots lie heavily in the actions of the holocaust and the actions that took place during World War II. Regardless of the source material, a general consensus can be made that the plot of the lottery is a dark reflection of human actions.

Dystopian stories works depict a negative view of "the way the world is supposedly going in order to provide urgent propaganda for a change in direction”. Often these stories have many themes that can relate to the real world. In the dystopian story “The Lottery” written by Shirley Jackson, many themes such as false hopes,hypocrisy, ritual, and mob mentality are expressed throughout the story. In the story everyone in a small village gather in the town square for the lottery, whoever gets chosen gets stoned to death by everyone in the town including friends and loved ones. The use of different themes throughout the story relate to the literary devices and universal storytelling elements setting, verbal irony, symbolism, and social cohesion.

Within the first few lines of Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery" we are faced with such adjectives as clear, sunny, fresh and warmth. She goes on to paint a picture of small children just out of school for the summer, as the townspeople gather for the annual Lottery. This leads us to believe that the rest of the story is as cheery as the summer day initially described. We as the readers are virtually unaware of the horrible senseless events that lie ahead. Through the use of symbolism Shirley Jackson reveals the underlying decay of ethics that results from an empty ritual followed by narrow-minded people.

Shirley Jackson's “The Lottery” is a short story about the annual gathering of the villagers to conduct an ancient ritual. The ritual ends in the stoning of one of the residents of this small village. This murder functions under the guise of a sacrament that, at one time, served the purpose of ensuring a bountiful harvest. This original meaning, however, is lost over the years and generations of villagers. The loss of meaning has changed the nature and overall purpose of the lottery. This ritual is no longer a humble sacrifice that serves the purpose of securing the harvest but instead is a ceremony of violence and murder only existing for the pleasure found in this violence.

When a loving, caring, family oriented, women come in conflict with the horrible, despicable, inhumane lottery in a situation in which the town goes together, the results may be a terrible end in a young life. In “The Lottery” written by, Shirley Jackson, the main character Mrs. Tessie Hutchinson’s and the town folk are the main characters of this story. In “The Lottery” Shirley Jackson uses the use of characterization to portray the main ideas of the story. Shirley Jackson also uses the use of plot structure and the point of view in which the story is being told. The Lottery is a way to make a sacrifice for a good harvest in the upcoming season.

Comparing the two stories regarding regional writing, “The Destructors” setting was inspired by Greene’s own geographical location and his own experiences regarding World War II. In Jackson’s “The Lottery”, the location is vaguer. She paints a picture of a small rural farming type town and didn’t seem to draw inspiration from places she herself has lived. Jackson tells us in an interview that the story came to her rather quickly and tells how it came about. Jackson says, “I had the idea fairly clearly in my mind when I put my daughter in her playpen and the frozen vegetables in the refrigerator and, writing the story, I found that it went quickly and easily, moving from beginning to end without pause. As a matter of fact, when I read it over later I decided that except for one or two minor corrections, it needed no changes, and the story I finally typed up and sent off to my agent the next day was almost word for word the original draft.” Jackson’s main point was to shock its readers, “with a graphic dramatization of the

The Lottery is another story of a seemingly perfect town that sacrifices one for the sake of many, but in this instance, the sacrifice is in vain because it is just a superstitious tradition. The citizens of this town were blinded by tradition and rituals of the town even though many have forgotten why they do the lottery. Jackson shows this when she wrote, “The lottery was conducted--as were the square dances, the teen club, the Halloween program--by Mr. Summers. who had time and energy to devote to civic activities” (The Lottery 1). It likens these common and cheerful events such as dances and Halloween programs to the sacrificing of an innocent person to better their year. The village seemed so calm and peaceful, but they were still inclined to sin and did not feel much guilt when stoning. The Lotter depicts a dystopian society because a person is being immorally killed every year and no one is stopping it. The event has become dull and repetitive but is still being followed by the families in The Lottery. This theme is very common in dystopian societies and is shown in the evilness of the Lottery.

The short stories “The Most Dangerous Game” by Richard Connell and “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson are both very alike yet very different. Throughout the short stories “The Most Dangerous Game” and “The Lottery”, Connell and Jackson use a tone of casualness to develop the theme of senseless killings in an established society.

Imagine this; it is 9am, the sun is out and even though the children are playing , but before the day is done, someone will find themselves the winner of the lottery. However, it is not the lottery that most are familiar with. In 1988 author Judy Oppenheimer conducted an interview with author Shirley Jackson, the author of '' The Lottery'' . In this interview Shirley explained why she wrote the short story in the following excerpt ; " I hoped, by setting a particularly brutal ancient rite in the present and in my own village to shock the story's readers with a graphic dramatization of the pointless violence and general inhumanity in their own lives " (Oppenheimer 1988 ). In order to identify the key elements of the

In a dystopian village, “A stone hit her in the side of the head. It isn’t fair, it isn’t right, Mrs. Hutchinson screamed and then they were upon her” (7). Keeping the tradition of the lottery alive means that the members of Tessie’s family, her friends, and the villagers will stone her to death. Tessie Hutchinson is the unluckiest person this year, having won the lottery. The theme of “The Lottery” is that there are some traditions that should not be kept alive.

"The Lottery," is a cautionary tale about how blindly following traditions can lead to dire situations. Jackson presents a look into lampoons traditions, townsfolk, and the cruelty of others when allowed blindly following traditions.

In the two short stories, “The Destructors” by Graham Greene and “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson, are great conflict, a twisting and turning plot, symbolism, irony, and abrupt and unexpected endings of devastation leaving the characters is ruins and the readers in awe. From the beginning in both stories, the setting seemed to be of a normal manner for the characters. Their society around them has molded them into what they have become and help set their series of events that they act out. For “The Lottery” it is tradition that keeps the lottery going even though some other villages have abolished it, and with the “The Destructors” it is the conformity of the present situation that cause the adolescent boys act out in small town mischief.

“The Lottery” and “The Destructors” have different settings. “The Lottery” takes place on June 27th. The time of year is summer so the weather is hot, humid and sunny. “Flowers blossoming and grass is green” (Jackson). Also, all the village people gather together on June 27th so that the lottery may take place. Although Jackson wants the readers to seem like “The Lottery” is a friendly and cheerful story, the readers begin to read further and further into the story and being to understand in reality, the lottery is sorrowful. Jackson wanted the keep the readers intrigued, so she made the setting cheerful and positive until the end. “The Destructors” takes place on a Sunday morning. The sun is covered by stormy clouds. The ground is wet and the wind begins to make swirls of dust under the trees. Mr. Thomas’s house is beautiful and 200 years old. As the author relays detailed information to the readers, the readers begin to feel a sense of uncertainty and question. The setting affects the theme of the story because random destruction is often dark and gloomy. Greene created a great scene that lined up with the theme. When Green was explaining the setting, he was foreshadowing the destruction of Mr. Thomas’s house. Although “The Lottery” and “The Destructors” had

“The Lottery” introduces the reader to a cruel ritual of the village where people gather together to participate in the annual elimination of a random villager. Superficially friendly mood in the town at the beginning of the story was replaced by hostile and violent human behavior at the end. Warm and sunny summer morning did not represent happiness; instead, it represented death. The entire population of the village blindly follows existing tradition regardless of it horrifying purpose. Compliance with violent rituals leads to indifference and hidden aggression, which in turn cause immorality and society degradation.

In an attempt to portray the graphic realities of life during this time period, Shirley Jackson cleverly expresses the grim facts with her use of literary techniques. Though greatly criticized for its inhumane pictorial of callous brutality, Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery” illustrates through the characterization of Mrs. Tessie Hutchinson, the use of atmosphere, and allegorical writing that violence exists in all places and though viewed as a necessary evil by some, peace ought to be the sought after tradition in such a wicked world.