Preview

Conformity In Shirley Jackson's The Lottery

Satisfactory Essays
Open Document
Open Document
227 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Conformity In Shirley Jackson's The Lottery
Particularly, when the readers start reading Shirley Jackson's “The Lottery” all seems normal and conformed. The villagers start to gather in the town's square where most, if not all the village functions happen like teen dances, celebrating different holidays. The expectations of the reader would not be any different, As the lottery is recognized as “A competition based on chance, in which numbered tickets are sold and prizes are given to the holders of numbers drawn at random; esp. such a competition as a means of raising money for the state or a charity. Also occas. as a mass noun: the action of playing in or running a lottery.” (OED)For example, in this instance, their civic duty is not a vote, or village decision, but it a process of elimination
Continue Reading
View Writing Issues

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Symbolism In Shirley Jackson's The Lottery
    • 656 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Symbolism In Shirley Jackson's The Lottery

    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
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Blindly Following Traditions In The Lottery By Shirley Jackson
    • 440 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Blindly Following Traditions In The Lottery By Shirley Jackson

    Many authors usually incorporate a theme in their piece of writing. A theme is basically the subject of talk on what the author’s personal feelings are. In the short story The Lottery by Shirley Jackson the theme is the danger of blindly following traditions can eventually lead to you being cruel. The following theme with be supported through characterization and setting.…

    • 440 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Summary Of Shirley Jackson's The Lottery
    • 404 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Summary Of Shirley Jackson's The Lottery

    The horror that I felt when looking back upon this story, was only amplified by rereading it, knowing what the ceremony actually would entail. The unsuspecting reader begins the story thrown into a lovely summer seen in a quaint village. Details about children attending school, men and women chatting, lull the reader into contentment. Once the reveal is made, tiny, once insignificant details cast the story in completely new light, an awful one. This contrast between the relive happiness of the beginning, and the grimness at the end heightens the aspect of horror.…

    • 404 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Blind Obedience In Shirley Jackson's The Lottery
    • 327 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Blind Obedience In Shirley Jackson's The Lottery

    The story begins when the people of the village began to gather in the square. Some of…

    • 327 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    The Evil Of Tradition In Shirley Jackson's The Lottery
    • 201 Words
    • 1 Page

    The Evil Of Tradition In Shirley Jackson's The Lottery

    Through her ability to display the grim reality of a small idealized town, Shirley Jackson unmasks the evil of tradition in “The Lottery.” She repeats that mindless rituals are unacceptable practices. Jackson begins her writing with, “The morning of June 27th was clear and sunny, with the fresh warmth of a full-summer day; the flowers were blossoming profusely and the grass was richly green” (715). This first sentence gives us clues that there is not an extreme amount of emotion; it hints that the style reflects the attitudes of the villagers. The townspeople picture the lottery as normal and have no more emotion towards it than they do the flowers or the warm sunny day. The children begin collecting rocks as they are playing, and the adults…

    • 201 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Traditions In Shirley Jackson's The Lottery
    • 617 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Traditions In Shirley Jackson's The Lottery

    ““It isn’t fair, it isn’t right,” Mrs. Hutchinson screamed, and they were upon her.” (Jackson)Even though the community is following traditions that they happen every year. The traditions are still wrong. This book has a very dark theme, and things within the community that symbol many things. The short story is also very similar to the known movie The Hunger Games.…

    • 617 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Powerlessness In Shirley Jackson's The Lottery
    • 227 Words
    • 1 Page

    Powerlessness In Shirley Jackson's The Lottery

    Jackson through the cautionary tale The Lottery displays the powerlessness of an individual when up against stronger external power. Tessie Hutchinson immediately disassociates her from the rest of the villagers as she ‘forgot what day it was’. Her initial support for the lottery is only paralleled by her subsequent desperation to get out of it as she demanded ‘to start over’ in an anxious tone. Tessie’s repetition ‘It wasn’t fair’ highlights her as a rebellious figure as she was the only one who questioned the lottery, contrasting to her husband who followed the other villagers’ repudiation of the protest by telling her to ‘shut up’ out of fear of being ashamed by the community. However, Tessie’s later reaction to her family being chosen displays…

    • 227 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Dangers Of Blindly Following Tradition In The Lottery By Shirley Jackson
    • 672 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Dangers Of Blindly Following Tradition In The Lottery By Shirley Jackson

    The author of the short story, The Lottery, is Shirley Jackson. In the lottery, the villagers of a small town gather together on the 27th of June for the annual tradition of the town lottery, which is conducted by Mr. Summers. In which, every year they select a random person to be stoned to their death, as they are the winner of the lottery. Emphasizing the theme of the dangers of blindly following traditions. This is shown through characterization, tone and dialogue.…

    • 672 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Blindly Following Tradition In The Lottery By Shirley Jackson
    • 502 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Blindly Following Tradition In The Lottery By Shirley Jackson

    Does thoughtlessly obeying tradition justify senseless and violent murder? The setting of the story takes place in a small fictional village around the time an annual event dubbed “the lottery” is being conducted, garnering the attention of the entire community. Furthermore, the tone set in the beginning is that of a jovial and positive atmosphere sharply contrasting the disturbing ending and revelation of exactly what “the lottery” is; all the while exploring themes corresponding to the potentially harrowing effects of blindly following tradition, the fear of change and the stagnating effect it can have, and the impersonal randomness of prosecution. To summarize, due to the reasons listed above, society should be more mindful of the traditions that it faithfully upholds.…

    • 502 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Irony And Symbolism In Shirley Jackson's The Lottery
    • 1052 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Irony And Symbolism In Shirley Jackson's The Lottery

    “The crowd was quiet. A girl whispered, "I hope it's not Nancy"; not every winner of a contest receives a favorable prize (Backpack Literature 242). When reading the beginning of the fictional short story The Lottery, the title leads the reader to assume that one of the characters in the story will become lucky. The author reveals the hidden theme towards the ending when the story’ true meaning becomes apparent. The author Shirley Jackson gives the reader subtle symbolic hints that the small New England town has a ritualistic nature. When the reader reaches the ending of The Lottery; all of Shirley Jackson’s signals begin to come together similar to puzzle pieces. The reader realizes the irony in the story because the winner of the annual…

    • 1052 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Social Order In Shirley Jackson's The Lottery
    • 805 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Social Order In Shirley Jackson's The Lottery

    In Shirley Jackson 's short story "The Lottery" she represents an average society with seemingly common order and widely developed traditions which everybody is forced or even glad to follow whatever they are. First we see how everybody has traditionally defined roles within the community: men, women and even children know well how they are expected to behave. Men are the dominating part; they have the right to make decisions for their families. Women have a subordinate position: they are supposed to "walk shortly after their menfolk" (328) and to work only at home. Children are involved in the social life and supposed to learn its traditions from an early age. A surprising thing is that nobody finds anything bad in this or tries to rebel. Afterwards, we see that full obedience to the social order leads to the support of the main tradition - the annual ritual of choosing a "winner" in the…

    • 805 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Mortality And Tradition In Shirley Jackson's The Lottery
    • 1062 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Mortality And Tradition In Shirley Jackson's The Lottery

    “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson is nothing less than a powerful story about a society that gathers once per year and holds a lottery. But this is not a lottery with a winner; it is a lottery with a loser. “The Lottery” is a chilling story because it depicts a sense of normalcy among the towns’ people when they randomly decided to kill a neighbor by practically just drawing straws. This story really asks the question, are rituals always a good thing? If rituals are a good or bad thing do we even know why we do it half the time? “The Lottery”, shows us that even though tradition may have been happening for years doesn’t mean that the traditions we choose to follow are beneficial.…

    • 1062 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    The Country Setting In Shirley Jackson's The Lottery
    • 232 Words
    • 1 Page

    The Country Setting In Shirley Jackson's The Lottery

    In Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery,” the country setting isolates the villagers in the community from the outside world, making them reliant on their steadfast traditions. This small town “where there were only about three hundred people” (Jackson 693), is confined by the country setting, which stifles interaction between the residents and other villages. The minimal amount of civilians limits the exploration of new ideas regarding what could be changed to initiate a revision of their corrupt rituals. Although “over in the north village they’re talking of giving up the lottery” (696), the villagers in this town refrain from altering their customs because they have no models of a society that functions without the lottery. The residents are too…

    • 232 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    The Ritual Of Shirley Jackson's The Lottery
    • 566 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The Ritual Of Shirley Jackson's The Lottery

    It is often said that there is strength in numbers. While it is true that a large group of people has more power than an individual, a single person within a large group will almost always conform in some way. This weakens the individual and leads to fewer new ideas in order to maintain group status and agreement. Many times, rituals or ideas are allowed and accepted just because they are favored by a majority or have been part of that society for so long that they have become almost like a tradition. In "The Lottery", Shirley Jackson uses alarming images to guide the reader to understand the futility and foolishness of blind obedience to these rituals. The lottery “selection” emphasizes the importance of questioning what is right in front of you instead of just conforming mindlessly.…

    • 566 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    The Importance Of Tradition In Shirley Jackson's The Lottery
    • 437 Words
    • 2 Pages

    The Importance Of Tradition In Shirley Jackson's The Lottery

    Overall, The Lottery seems to truly become a burden on the lives of people. By drawing away from their personal liberties and causing a sense of fear and anxiety amongst many, it is demonstrated that tradition can trump morals and personal…

    • 437 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More

Related Topics