Preview

Brutality In Shirley Jackson's The Lottery

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
596 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Brutality In Shirley Jackson's The Lottery
Humans mean Brutality
Brutality is a universal force in people’s lives that most have already gotten used to indirectly, yet people claim otherwise. But are their claims true or false? We become known to see news of people getting murdered or of cases of abuse in the home or somewhere else and claim right away that how horrible it is and that we as people would never do something this awful, but we prove these things false in our daily lives. So what makes us different than the town in “The Lottery” or the people behind the attacks in Paris? Nothing is different at all. “The Lottery” and the Paris attacks were acts of violence based on people's different beliefs. In Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery” the town where the story takes place,

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    The Lottery, a short story written by Shirley Jackson explains two of the most important aspects of humanity: traditions and rituals. The story takes place in a small town in New England where every year a lottery is held, most people would relate lottery to wining cash. In this lottery one person will be randomly choose to be stoned to death by the people in the village including their own family members. The lottery has been practiced for over seventy years by the townspeople and even though the villagers do not know the purpose of this tradition or the origin of it, they keep it to show respect to their ancestors ignoring the fact that is cruel and it is turning the whole village into murderers.…

    • 656 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    If you look back at our history, it is full of ordinary people who commit terrible acts of violence. Some people have done studies and are trying to understand why people commit these ‘’evil crimes’’. Stanley Milgram is one of those people. He was a Yale University professor, who conducted an experiment in 1961. In this experiment there were ‘’teachers’’ and there were ‘’learners. The teachers were given the power to administer a shock to the learners if they answered a question wrong. It was surprising how much the ‘’teachers’’ in the experiment would shock the ‘’learners’’ and the amount of volts that they would use without protest.…

    • 744 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Lastly, another theme in the story is persecution; the villagers persecute each other at random no matter if villagers are innocent or children are at stake. Whenever the lottery is played, each family is in danger. When Tessie Hutchison slip is unfolded, she is marked and no matter what, she is chosen to get stoned to death. Even her own husband prosecutes her and turns his back on her, “Bill Hutchinson went over to his wife and forced the slip out of her hand” (295). No one is safe in this tradition and everyone will point a finger, based on race, class and religion.…

    • 104 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Violence only instigates further hatred and fighting, thus it only digs the oppressed into a deeper hole while increasing the death toll of the innocent.…

    • 591 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Violence and tradition are the major themes in "The Lottery." Drenched in horror, the story focuses on the outdated ideas and rituals performed by villagers who gather once a year to decide who will be stoned to death in a ritualistic sacrifice. Old Man Warner states “Lottery in June, corn be heavy soon” meaning the village people sacrifice one of their own to ensure a fruitful corn harvest. If there is any real reason meant to be conveyed by the story for the stoning, I believe it is no doubt the casual cruelty of human beings and how they can blindly follow certain traditions without questioning them. Shirley Jackson does a brilliant job of deceiving her audience into believing that the lottery will be something fun; after all, everyone is…

    • 320 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    The story opens on a Sunny warm summers day with children gathering the stones that will be used for the stoning. The children would also participate in the lottery similar to G.R. Stephenson finding on monkey behavior. Generation would continue to grow and die and some would never know the origin nor reason for the lottery but continue to do it without any question. Destroying morals and humanity only seeing the good of the community in ways unexplainable even by the villagers. Deteriorating morals are shown in several cases throughout the story. Civilians wanting the stoning to be finished as if a life matters less than their need to get dinner ready, grabbing stones big and heavy enough to need both hands while screaming “let’s get this…

    • 222 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Better Essays

    Violence In Kingdom Come

    • 1402 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Violence has been taught since childhood, everywhere people go, everywhere people look, violence is surrounding us in daily life. Throughout the years violence has become a dangerous trend. People use violence everyday as a sense of protection and even because it seems like the thing to do. Violence is so widespread it has become normal, and society is slowly becoming numb to the idea that violence is making our world worse. Many innocent people are being killed and questions are not being asked as well as the right actions are not being taken for the people using violence illogically. When reports come in saying someone was murdered there is always an excuse for a criminal’s actions. Usually the person is mentally ill, had a rough childhood, or saw things as a child that made them use violence. Whether a person is in their right mind or not, violence is not acceptable. Violence is unsafe for our world and makes society live in fear because they worry about the possibility of dying each day. Living in a world where a culture of violence is accepted as the norm will always bring fear to the world. This violence makes us feel like the end is near, and as time goes on it will bring about an apocalypse.…

    • 1402 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the story "The Lottery," the community attitude toward this story is that you have some of the most loyal people out there that were once family turns their backs on one another all over a cruel tradition. On the other end you have some people just didn't feel it was right. It was like a no win situation. You must participate no matter how bad you feel. Family turn on one another and betrayal seek vengeance in this story. The characters that refused to question the tradition of the lottery in the story "The Lottery," were the main character Tessie Hutchinson, because she claimed the lottery drawing wasn't fair. Hutchinson has always been afraid, but this time she felt something wasn't going to go well as before. It was like she knew there…

    • 429 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The short stories, “The Lottery” and “Charles”, have notable differences in writing styles. “The Lottery”, is a story about chance. Will you be lucky enough to live for the day? “Charles” is about Laurie, who is starting Kindergarten and wants attention from his parents. In both short stories, the author, Shirley Jackson, described the characters, the themes, and the situations to create an illustration for the reader.…

    • 699 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Violence is experience all over the world in different types and form. Two types of…

    • 289 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Look around you, what do you see? Violence, it’s everywhere on the news, in articles, even in our conversations. People spread acts of violence through talking and writing. But without that act of violence in the beginning there wouldn’t be a story. “Through violence you may ‘Solve one problem’ but you sow the seeds for another,” -Dalai Lama. Acts of violence are like falling dominos, one act leads to another just like a chain of reaction.…

    • 494 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Why I Hate Violence

    • 445 Words
    • 2 Pages

    In the world we live in today, violence occurs much too frequently. Trivial arguments lead to fist fights, a wrong comment gets you a bruised jaw, and people minding their own business are sometimes beaten without reason. Violence is an unpleasant thing. It is dark and suffocating. People should never think of using violence as a solution to their problems because the suffering it causes is just not worth it.…

    • 445 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Violence has been around a very long time. The first record of violence is probably the story of Cain and Abel where Cain had become jealous of his brother Abel and murdered him, thus the first act of violence. No one really knows why people choose a violent road to go down and to commit crimes but there are many theories. Some say it is how they grew up in society and the people they hang around or on the other hand people say they are simply wired from birth to be that way. My paper is a reflection of my opinion on what I think the main cause of violence is and whether or not it is biological or social and what can be done to correct it.…

    • 842 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Communication Theories

    • 4154 Words
    • 17 Pages

    To explain the problem of violence in society, researchers should begin with that social problem and seek to explain it with reference, quite obviously, to those who engage in it: their background, lifestyles, character…

    • 4154 Words
    • 17 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Better Essays

    Violence is present everywhere. It can be between neighbours, countries, ethnic groups, social groups, government, factions, sectors, families, workplaces and so on. Violence can come in many forms: from intimidation to different kinds of abuses such as verbal, physical, social, emotional, economic and sexual abuse. Everyday people turn on the television set and see violent things happening all over the world. With the way violence is publicized over the news, television, Internet, radio, movies and games; violence becomes a commonplace.…

    • 4095 Words
    • 17 Pages
    Better Essays