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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Possibility of Evil Envy‚ greed‚ lust - all examples of "evil" things done by us all; nevertheless‚ what is evil? Can we stop it‚ and if so‚ are we obligated to? Before we speak about the obligation of the normal person to stop evil‚ we have to understand what evil is. Evil is what a person accepts it as true; this can be seen in the story inside Miss Strangeworth. She does not believe her letters create problems rather than solve them. And that in another person’s eyes‚ she can be perceived as
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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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The short story “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson is well-organized and it does follow the Freytag’s Arc. The author begins the story by explaining the setting‚ characters and background info which exposed the readers to important information. The story is set in a small town with population of three hundred people. The time of the day is in the morning and the time of the year is early summer. The author states that everyone is coming together for what seems enjoyable‚ festive and celebratory occasion
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In her short story‚ “The Lottery” Shirley Jackson‚ an American writer‚ tells a story of people gathering in a small town for an annual lottery‚ where children are playing with stones and adults are sharing stories about farming. Yet‚ the sunny and happy opening scene has a twisted shocking ending‚ as the lottery in the story does not involve winning a prize‚ but losing a life. Irony is an underlying theme that is used throughout the story. Irony is referring to a person‚ situation‚ or circumstance
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The Lottery opens with the details of the day of the lottery as s Sunny‚ warm‚ summers day. Summer thrives on having days described in the opening sentence and sunny day signifies how normal the lottery is in their society. Despite the fact someone is going to be killed and stoned to death that day. Children gathering stones and also participating in the stoning show that everyone can cast judgement on people. The old black box could represent conservative views government or religion. Mr. Summer
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Just before 10 a.m. on June 27th‚ the children came to the village square‚ where the boys began to make a mountain of smooth stones and the girls talked about school days that had just concluded. Husbands came and talked about taxes and wives gossiped about the town. In some towns‚ the Lottery could take two days‚ but in this town‚ there were no more than 100 residents and the Lottery only took two hours. If the Lottery began at 10 a.m.‚ families could be home for their noonday meals. Each
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Lottery" by Shirley Jackson: Cruelty or Human Nature? Shirley Jackson‚ the author of the short story‚ "The Lottery"‚ is the daughter of Beatrice and George Jackson. Jackson was born on August 5th‚ in 1946. Some background on Jackson is that she graduated college with a Bachelors of Science Degree in Physics from Massachusetts Institute of Technology. ("Shirley Ann Jackson") Jackson had many accomplishments in her lifetime. She received many awards‚ metals‚ and honors. Jackson was appointed
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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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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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