After reading the short story The Lottery by Shirley Jackson‚ I think the most important theme was Traditions and Customs. In this short story‚ the village that the story takes place in has a tradition every year called the lottery. In this tradition‚ one person is picked out of the village and is given a stoning‚ a punishment where people take rocks and throw them at you until you die. This tradition has been going on so long that the villagers cannot remember when it started. Also in this tradition
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Comparative Essay “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson and “The Lottery Ticket” by Anton Chekhov Most people today would define Lottery as the drawing of lots in which prizes are distributed to the winners among persons buying a chance‚ however these two stories give us a different out look on the word lottery. The stories “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson and “The Lottery Ticket” by Anton Chekhov are both extremely powerful stories that leave you thinking. People turn on other people for self
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“The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson was a dark short story that had a slight twist to it. It was based in a village were citizens had a certain tradition passed on from generation to generation that they obeyed. The symbol of the lottery was a black box filled with slips of paper‚ in which one of those slips contains a black spot that decides the fate of the person picked. The scapegoat of the story was a mother and wife named Tessie Hutchinson. A scapegoat can be an animal or person that is unjustly
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Shirley Jackson’s short story‚ "The Lottery"‚ ironically gives the lottery a bad meaning. The lottery in this story is used for a public stoning‚ contrary to the first thing that comes to a reader’s mind when they think of winning the lottery; a big sum of money. The reader sees both literal and metaphorical meaning of this story because for one it shows for face value what the entire story is about‚ and hidden behind it is the notion of the scapegoat being picked like a lottery number. The setting
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Most of these groups have a variation of mob mentality often leading to violence. In Shirley Jackson’s short story “The Lottery”‚ the townspeople kill a member of the town each “lottery”. Many of the members don’t even know the reason they kill someone‚ but the slaughtering is a tradition‚ so the entire town stones one member. They seemingly moved as a single like- minded unit as “they were upon her” (Jackson 34). Because of these radically violent groups‚ groups must be extremely resilient to go
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short story “The Lottery‚” the author‚ Shirley Jackson uses aspects of time during the year and location to mislead the reader to improve the plot of the story. The story takes place in a small town that has a unique set of traditions. For each year‚ to have a successful harvest‚ one person from the town is drawn at random to be stoned and killed. The author begins this short story by giving the reader a happy warm sense with a bright time of year. “Full-summer day.” (Jackson 1) Generally‚ people
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THE LOTTERY People are like sheep and will obey other people’s laws or rules even if they are cruel and unjust. In Shirley Jackson’s fiction story‚ The Lottery‚ the story centers around a small town where they practice an unusual tradition every year known as “ The Lottery ”. The story mainly focuses around the Hutchinson family (which are the main protagonists of the story) and them being selected in The Lottery. The Lottery is held
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It’s just the simple act of picking one of the many pieces of paper from a black box‚ one of which contains the dot that speaks of its drawer’s destiny… Question is‚ is it an act or a choice—or‚ if it were possible‚ destiny itself? But if one would stop and think—and lay aside the ironies of a tragic death through a single tragic mistake—and look into—and‚ similarly‚ look through—the eyes of Tessie Hutchinson‚ her husband Bill‚ her son Davy‚ and all the other people in their town‚ one would stop
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Shirley Jackson’s story‚ “The Lottery”‚ is about a town tradition. One day in June‚ all he villagers have to go to the middle of the town so they can do the lottery. This has been a tradition for over 100 years. Whoever gets the black dot on a piece of paper‚ the get stoned. Ever villager has to throw stones at that one person. They do this so they will have enough food. Nobody really likes this tradition once it’s their turn to get stoned. Readers can learn to not follow traditions blindly. A
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Villagers are afraid to get rid of the black box. Customs and beliefs that are transmitted through different generation. In “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson ‚ the author show us the tradition takes influence in the actions of the villagers. The villagers have no reason in keeping the black box . “Mr. Summers spoke frequently to the villagers about making a new box‚ but no one liked to upset even as much tradition as was represented by the black box” (397).They have so much pride with the black
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