...Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery” was published in a 1948 issue of The New Yorker and this horror story, written about a annual tradition of heinously stoning someone to death, quickly lead to a mass controversy to all who read it. The simple text was quickly and easily written in one afternoon, after Jackson got home from pushing her daughter up the hill in a stroller (Coulthard 227). The normalcy in which “The Lottery was written created a mixed menagerie of reactions from confusion to the extremity of outrage and even hatred. “The Lottery” single handedly turned the entire subscription base against her, which happen to include her own mother. Perhaps because there is no known origin of this ritual in “The Lottery”, there is no character to...
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...Purpose in Relation to Theme APA An Analysis of Author’s Purpose in Relation to Theme Thesis: “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson and “The Rocking-Horse Winner” by D.H. Lawrence differ in author’s purpose in that Jackson satirizes a society that blindly follows tradition, while Lawrence realistically portrays life’s problems; however, both share the theme of family. I. Jackson’s purpose for writing “The Lottery” is to satirize a society that blindly follows tradition. A. Jackson uses the graphic story to show the audience the brutality in society. B. Jackson’s short story also shows how society victimizes those randomly. II. Lawrence uses “The Rocking-Horse Winner” to highlight life’s problems. A. Paul’s mother, Hester, neglects to give her children the attention that they need and deserve to become healthy adults. B. Lawrence grew up in town where coal-mining was the livelihood. Lawrence’s father worked as a coal miner his whole life and expected his sons to do the same. Lawrence knew from an early age that he would not be a miner. C. Lawrence did not do well in school and was often alone and considered different. III. Both Jackson and Lawrence use their purpose for writing to portray theme. A. The lottery is based on family. Each member of every family are listed and must be present during the lottery. B. In “The Lottery” the unlucky person will experience their family turn against him or her. C. Lawrence uses Paul...
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...The Lottery vs the Destructors Thesis In Shirley Jackson’s, “The Lottery”, and Graham Greene’s “The Destructors”, the author creates a story filled with symbolism, irony, grim reality, and a ritualized tradition that masks evil, which ultimately showcases how people blindly follow tradition. Outline I. Introduction II. Setting B. Time Period III. Plot A. What messages are seen in both stories IV. Characters A. Main Characters B. Traits of Characters V. Tone of Stories VI. Conclusion Comparison and Contrast of The Lottery and The Destructors W. Goode English102 Liberty University Comparison and Contrast of The Lottery and The Destructors The Lottery and The Destructors are two remarkable representatives of the world literature. The authors of these two literary pieces are Shirley Jackson, and Graham Greene, in accordance, who hide the true meaning of their stories behind ironic depictions and comic pictures. Although The Lottery, as well as The Destructors transports the reader into a particularly different from each other fictional world, characters in these short stories equally undergo influence of their surroundings or society. Shirley Jackson and Graham Greene portrayed a clear picture as to how society might easily and sorely impacted the people that live in it. Thus, heroes of The Lottery and The Destructors remain under the influence of what has taken place around them, and their attitude towards everyday life is...
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...Control and Oppression After reading Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery" and Emily Dickinson's "My Life Had Stood, a Loaded Gun," one major theme stands out. In my opinion, both show structures of control and oppression. Control is the influence of others' behavior and oppression is unjust treatment. Both literary works are an accurate display of both control and oppression. "The Lottery" shows control through its leadership and tradition. "My Life Had Stood, A Loaded Gun" shows control and oppression through the fusing of identities and death. Both passages also share many similarities. Some of the similarities include the relationship between the ruler, the titles of the controllers, and the use of violence to portray their messages. Jackson's "The Lottery" shows control through the village's leaders and headship. "Mr. Graves, Mr. Summers, and Mr. Martin are characters Jackson has chosen to represent the power and authority within the community. Peter Kosenko (1985) suggests that the village exhibits the same socio-economic stratification that most people take for granted in a modern capitalist society" (Shields 415). The lottery is an annual event in the village. It is usually a two day process, but since this village is so small it can be completed within two hours. A representative from each family, typically the head of the household, draws a slip of paper from the old black box. It is mandatory for each family to participate in the lottery even though they are all terrified...
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...Excitement lingers through the air when the lottery rolls around in the U.S. Millions of dollars are won and almost no one wants to miss out on the lottery. In most people's minds, the lottery is associated with pride, wealth, and fame, but what if the lottery was associated with execution? In Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery,” the lottery takes place in the middle of town in every year. One by one, families step up when their names are called and pull a single slip of paper from the infamous black box- in which the slips of paper lay. As each slip of paper is pulled, people cross their fingers, hoping that they will not be the winner. The lottery may seem like a positive game in which the winner receives riches, but dark secrets await in the black box. In “The Lottery,” Shirley Jackson uses the black box, stones, and the character's names to symbolize a dark somber mood....
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...“The Destructors” and “The Lottery” Fiction Essay Introduction Some may say that we are, as human beings, a violent people by nature. We see it in our own history of wars and genocide that the violence in us can grow to extreme proportions. These two stories, “The Destructors” by Graham Greene, and “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson, show us that some of the violence can be brought on by people simply following blindly. Whether we look at the past or the present, these two short stories, show us the mob mentality can be very dangerous. The long dead tradition of “The Lottery” tells of the town people forgetting most of the different parts of the tradition because it takes too long, or is not feasible. The one part they never forgot was the violent murder of one of their own people because of an old tradition that sacrifices a scapegoat each year. In “The Destructors”, a grand home still standing in a war-torn England would never have been torn down by a gang of teens if they weren’t following blindly, the one person leading the group, and succumbing to peer pressure. This shows that all it takes is a single person, or an old tradition that can convince a group to commit unnecessary violence. Greene’s book “The Destructors”, and Jacksons “The Lottery”, both show pointless acts of violence brought on by an individual that has people following them or a group of people following a long dead tradition. These acts of senseless violence could have been avoided if...
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...death is inevitable. Authors Shirley Jackson of “The Lottery,” and Flannery O’Connor of “A Good Man Is Hard to Find,” strike chords in the reader’s humanity. These short stories portray grotesque, sadistic violence, committed with no “apparent reason or preparation.”(Page 146). As readers begin their journey through these two short stories, they realize the frustration will take a toll on them soon. In the beginning of “The Lottery,” Shirley Jackson gives the readers a detailed picture of a beautiful, warm, sunny summer day. The readers interpret this as the short story contains happy and inspiring events. Soon this will be seen as a misleading factor by Shirley Jackson. As the readers continue to read “The Lottery,” they come to find that the short story develops questions for the reader midway through, catching most readers off guard. Having to review what they just read to make sure the short story makes sense. In some parts of this short story, the way Shirley Jackson portrayed certain things, makes it difficult for readers to understand if they do not have an open mind to begin reading the story with. In “The Lottery,” the conclusion bewilders the readers, in the sense that lotteries correspond with winning. In retrospect the conclusion does not quite come as a surprise, due to the foreshadowing throughout the short story. Whereas, it seems in “A Good Man Is Hard to Find,” readers find the change refreshing from the unfortunate ending in “The Lottery.” The turning point in that...
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...The Lottery: Tradition and Cruelty Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery" features a supposedly civilized village with barbaric traditions. At the beginning of the story, the townsfolk appear to be fairly civilized and seem to carry on modern lifestyles. This is assumed by the men at work and the children playing as if it were just an average day. The lottery was outdated to such a degree that some seen it as a cruel tradition no one could escape. On the other hand, some had believed that carrying on the tradition was necessary. Not long after "The Lottery" was published in The New Yorker, "a flood of mail - hundreds of letters-deluged both the editorial offices in New York and the post office in Bennington" (Friedman 63). Shirley Jackson said that out of all the letters sent, there were only thirteen that were positive responses, and those were from her friends (63). The letters consisted of "bewilderment, speculation, and old-fashioned abuse" (63). The public's initial reaction to the story was extremely negative. The fact that the tradition itself is scheduled for 10:00 and it took only two hours shows that there is no concern for the "winner" of the lottery, only for themselves. The villagers had a convenient amount of time so they were able to eat their lunch afterwards and continue their day. The children collected stones, competing against the other children, and tried to keep other friends from stealing rocks from their piles. This most definitely shows that the tradition...
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...A Critical Assessment of “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson Shirley Jackson, author of “The Lottery”, was born in San Francisco in 1919, but moved to Rochester, New York when she was a teenager. She later attended the University of Rochester, but due to a bought severe depression, which would plague her throughout her entire life, she had to drop out of school. Jackson later graduated from Syracuse University, and soon moved with her husband. Stanley Edgar Hyman, to Bennington, Vermont. While there she devoted herself to writing a fixed amount of words each day. Pieces she wrote varied from novels, The Road Through the Wall, various psychological thrillers such as Hangsaman, The Haunting of Hill House, and We Have Always Lived in the Castle, and many articles for various magazines including Good House Keeping, generally about the difficulty of housekeeping and raising 4 children. Jackson claims that her motivation for writing the magazine articles was for the money they provided. “The Lottery” was published in The New Yorker in 1948, and that specific issue of the magazine was very quickly sold out. When Jackson first sent the story to the publisher, Harold Ross, he wasn’t exactly sure what the story was about nor what the meaning was. He called Jackson and asked if she had anything to tell the readers if they were to call up to the magazine asking questions about the story, and she simply responded with “No.” To her it was simply a story that she has written. When asked about...
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...Fisher 1 Stacey Fisher Professor Bailey English 1302 10 FEB 2014 “The Lottery” Shirley Jackson's “The Lottery” is a compelling story about rituals, symbolism, scapegoats, and the use of unnecessary violence to portray the cruelty of human nature. The story takes place on a warm June 27th day at 10am, the weather is clear and sunny. The townspeople of a small village of more than 300 gather for a yearly ritual, the lottery. The townspeople talk and joke as the children run and play. A black box is introduced and the people start the process of choosing the scapegoat this year, the one to be stoned to death. The turn of events in this story just goes to show you the rituals, symbolism, and the unnecessary violence in human society. Every year the lottery serves as a ritual and the black box is introduced. The black box symbolizes death to one of the villagers who will be the scapegoat for all. Mr. Summers, the lottery official follows some of these rituals by asking questions they all know the answers to. He did so, in my opinion, to keep it official and fair or uniform to all. Another ritual Mr. Summers and Mr. Graves performed was to fill the box the night before with the slips of paper to be used the next morning. They performed this year after year. The ritual itself involved the heads of the households to draw from the box and the one who drew the black dot would return his dot to the black box. They would count his family members and that many...
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...people’s hands while at the same time getting pushed and shoved by crazy amounts of people on the same hunt. We call a tradition; a belief or behavior passed down within a group or society with symbolic meaning or special significance that has origin from the past. Black Friday is the one tradition that I thought was the worst until reading “The Lottery,” by Shirley Jackson. Jackson uses irony to suggest an underlying evil, hypocrisy, and weakness of human kind. Jackson shows many important lessons about human nature in this short story including barbaric traditions in a supposedly civilized village, the community’s hypocrisy, and how violence and cruelty take place. "The Lottery" tells the story of an annual tradition in a small village, where the people are close and tradition is paramount. The Lottery is a yearly event in which one person in the town is randomly chosen, by a drawing, to be violently stoned by friends and family. The villagers don’t really know much about the lottery’s origin but try to preserve the tradition nevertheless; they believed that someone had to be sacrificed to insure a good crop. "Lottery in June, corn be heavy soon," said Old Man Warner. The villagers allow an outdated tradition to run...
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...ultimately, no one values human life or anything except themselves. Not only is it wrong but the question looms, will it ever changes? The two fictional short stories, “The Lottery” and “The Most Dangerous Game” both exhibit characteristics of selfishness, cruelty and violence toward ones fellowman. These writings hold great truths because they present what could be real life situations today. In comparing and contrasting the two we find how each of these fictional works displays the aforementioned themes and so much more. It is quite interesting to read about such behaviors and actually witness them now. The news stories we see, the people we encounter, the lives we live. What is their value? What about one of God’s Ten Commandments, “Thou shalt not kill?” Life is by far the most precious gift that we have been given. The ability to feel emotions and empathize with our brothers and sisters has diminished, and it is my opinion that it will get worse. These are the times we should all stand together as God’s children, rather than turning on one another for selfish and evil reasons. “The Lottery” and “The Most Dangerous Game” show how quickly, how easily, we as humans devalue the live of another; how one person can turn on another in the blink of an eye. Outline Thesis Statement I. “The Lottery & “The Most Dangerous Game” II. What Does the Bible Say and Killing? III. Conclusion In comparing and...
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...FICTION ESSAY Robert Martinez ENGL 102-D14 April 7, 2014 By reading Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery” and Graham Greene’s “The Destructors,” the reader is transported into two different stories where the characters are affected by their surroundings or society in a negative and horrific fashion. The authors paint a clear picture as to how society (the way it was, it is or could be), easily and harshly affects the people that live in it. They are marked, impacted and forever affected by what has taken place around them, and their character and attitude towards everyday life is created by the very circumstances they find themselves. The setting, tone, and overall theme, found in these two short stories expose the reader to these unfortunate transitions of attitudes (or lack thereof) over generations. The setting of Graham’s “The Destructors” takes place in a war torn England at the end of World War II, “on the eve of August Bank Holiday.” A group or “gang” of young boys meet in an impromptu car park. They are known as the Wormsley Common Gang and are led by their new gang leader “T”. Mr. Thomas’ (or Old Misery as the gang calls him) house is the focus of the gang’s disapproval of anything valuable in their society. Their mind can only fathom destruction, ruin and rubble and so to save Mr. Thomas from his “misery” they make plans to destroy anything that is beautiful, starting with his house. Unlike their parents, who perhaps had the opportunity to experience the beauty of...
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...April 12, 2012 Eng 1102 The Lottery In Amy A. Griffin’s article “Jackson’s THE LOTTERY,” Shirley Jackson’s short story “The Lottery” is studied with key focus on reasoning behind actions, traditions and rituals. The article identifies cultures and societies reasoning behind certain tradition, ceremonies and practices in order to help better understand the true reason behind the stoning in the short story. Griffin does an excellent job of supporting her reasons with historical facts, symbolism, social behavioral observations and detailed opinions about how time will change some things but ultimately, the desire of thrill, violence and opportunity to belong amongst some groups will render heinous acts passed down through generations a never ending tradition. Griffin begins by giving details about the summer and harvesting seasons. She tells about the beliefs that death of one thing will bring about a greater birth of a newer thing. Before the scapegoat concept came in to play, people simply planted seeds and hoped for enough sunlight and water to help it grow. However, over time people began to think if they sacrificed life, then those killed would cause a “rebirth’ (Griffin) of healthy crops. This leads into the reasoning behind the lottery in the story. The character Old Man Warner, the only person left of an older generation, is the only person who really holds the significance of the lottery, which is to bring in a plentiful harvest while the others have lost sight of...
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...THE LOTTERY - SUMMARY In A Nutshell "The Lottery" caused major controversy when it was first published in the June 26, 1948 issue of The New Yorker. Shirley Jackson's implicit critique of the brutality underlying the rituals and values of America's small towns outraged magazine readers, many of whom cancelled their subscriptions (see the Encyclopedia Britannica for more on the tale's publication history). As a side note – Jackson based "The Lottery" on her life in North Bennington, Vermont (source). Some of us here at Shmoop happen to be from that fine state, and we'd like to assure all potential tourists that despite what you may read in "The Lottery," you don't have to worry about sudden stoning in the Green Mountain State. Anyway, back to the matter at hand. The anonymous, generic village in which "The Lottery" is set, in addition to the vicious twist the story gives to a common American ritual, enhance the contemporary reader's uneasy sense that the group violence in the story could be taking place anywhere and everywhere, right now. Jackson's skillful warping of a popular pastime has become an American classic, establishing her position as one of the great American horror writers. Why Should I Care? So, if you've ever been hanging out with a group of friends and done something truly stupid, you may have heard the refrain, "If your friends jumped off a bridge, would you jump, too?" Your answer is probably "no," but Shirley Jackson disagrees. She thinks you – and...
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