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
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Alvin D. Parnell Jr. August 26, 2014 2nd Block 1. Were you surprised by the ending of the story? If not, at what point did you know what was going to happen? How does Jackson foreshadow the ending? Conversely, how does Jackson lull us into thinking that this is just an ordinary story with an ordinary town? I wasn’t really surprised by the ending of the story. I really didn’t know what was going to happen but I had a feeling that something bad was about to when Jackson wrote about the stones
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The Lottery The Lottery by Shirley Jackson, is a short story about an annual lottery draw in a small town. The story sets place in a small town in New England. Every year a lottery is held, in which one person is to be randomly chosen to be stoned to death by the people in the village. The lottery has been practiced for seventy-seven years by the townspeople. By using symbolism, Shirley uses names, objects, and the setting to conceal the true meaning and intention of the lottery. The names
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back to living in caves” (5). This is ironic because he is the one stuck on old and outdated traditions while the other villagers are the ones that are thinking clearly. Also, he refers to them wanting to go back to living in caves when the act of stoning others is very barbaric and ruthless like cavemen. The last time irony is used is when Tessie Hutchinson joins the group with a very cheerful mood and begins cracking jokes with the other villagers. However, as the lottery results were revealed and
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entire day, the tradition keeps going. The villagers kill someone each year, and they are totally fine with it. They believe that people who say that they should stop the tradition is a “pack of crazy fools” (5). They are loyal to the lottery and to stoning a person to death each year. It shows of what can happen if a tradition goes unchecked and unquestioned by new generations. That’s how the lottery itself shows symbolism. The box and the lottery have shown symbolism in the story “The Lottery”. These
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chickweed and acorns,” (342/32) summing up the villagers belief in the continued need of this tradition. The lighthearted setting begins to decline as the lottery progresses, but returns to its casual atmosphere at the lotteries climax. Once the stoning of Tessie Hutchinson is to begin, Mr. Summers says, “All right, folks. Let’s finish quickly,” (345/73) reminding us of the
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Thomas Foster’s How to Read Literature like a College Professor relates to a lot the of key ideas in the short story “The Lottery”, with violence being the main topic. Violence has various meanings, symbols, functions, and types. The lottery can also be summarized using violence in many ways. The Lottery,” starts on a peaceful summer afternoon in July, gathered around in the community, everyone was anxious yet ready to get over what’s to come. Mr. Summers and Mr. Graves, both spent the night before
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was taking place on a clear, warm day. The children had just recently started summer vacation from school. It seemed that they knew what the lottery was all about because the boys were collecting the rocks that they would eventually need for the stoning. The girls hung out in groups talking while the boys were energetic and loud like it was any other summer morning. The seemingly normal behavior of the children did not prepare me for the public death scene of Mrs. Hutchinson. The men are described
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Colby Madray 4/26/12 ENGL 1102 Lacy Hodges Jackson and Dickinson Show 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
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and the prize of getting stoned to death. Even though this sounds dramatic and brutal in our ears, it is not far from what is happening right now, in other countries in the world. But we don’t see it as a tradition, as they do in the story. The stoning of the “winner” is an annual tradition for the villagers; “Every year, after the lottery, Mr. Summers began talking again about a new box, but every year the subject was allowed to fade off without anything's being done.” What is noticeable about
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