Violence In Shirley Jackson's The Lottery

Words: 498

Pages: 2

Open Document

The lottery is a short story written by Shirley Jackson. It’s an event that happens every year and the community picks someone to get stoned each year. A man named Mr. Summers runs the lottery every year and it has been a long going tradition. However, the lottery needs to stop because it’s teaching kids that violence is ok, people are turning against each other, and all of the other villagers have stopped. It is a bad thing because it causes people to be nervous and to be anxious. For all of these reasons we need to stop the lottery.
Having this lottery teaches kids to be violent. For example, when Mrs. Hutchinson was stoned, there were younger children around and they are seeing all of this bad stuff happen. The people who stoned her are bad influences to them because they will think that it’s ok to do this. If we end the lottery, nobody will have to worry about this and the children will do the right thing instead. However, the kids joined in on the stoning but they got their pebbles and started throwing those instead. The lottery is giving people bad vibe and are showing children how to be evil.
Additionally, the lottery is …show more content…
Nobody wants to be picked because they know that they will suffer the consequences. For example, Mr. Summers put slips of paper into the black box and each member of the family draws a name. Mrs. Hutchinson’s name was picked and everyone approached her and she ended up getting stoned to death. The villagers realize that the prize is actually getting stoned. If the lottery continues every year, at one point there wouldn’t be anyone in the village because they would be dead. Some people think that we should keep the lottery because it’s a tradition but I think that it should end because there is no point in it because the “prize” isn’t an exciting

Essay on The Lottery vs the Destructors

Thesis In Shirley Jackson’s, “The Lottery”, and Graham Greene’s “The Destructors”, the author creates a story filled with symbolism, irony, grim reality, and a ritualized tradition that masks evil, which ultimately showcases how people blindly follow tradition. Outline I. Introduction II. Setting B. Time Period III. Plot A. What messages are seen in…

Words 1039 - Pages 5

Use Of Inhumanity In Shirley Jackson's The Lottery

In Shirley Jackson's short story “The Lottery,” the author uses subversive irony to accentuate the underlying brutality and inhumanity of the town and the townspeople. Jackson immediately establishes the setting to an idyllic town square on an early summer day, “The morning of June 27th was clear and sunny, with the fresh warmth of a full- summer day” (Jackson). Jackson then describes the normality of the behavior of the townspeople by depicting the eagerness of the children to play with one another…

Words 326 - Pages 2

Essay on TheLotteryDecember5th

a ladder. Oftentimes people follow superstitions so much that they become rituals. This idea is seen in “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson. Ms. Jackson develops her short story using symbols, such as names, objects, numbers and specific times in the setting to further the idea that superstitions overtime become rituals. Ms. Jackson uses a network of allegorical symbolism in “The Lottery” to build around a severe commentary of how tradition works in American culture. Tradition both as a means of…

Words 2280 - Pages 10

Shirley Jackson Bibliography

Shirley Jackson Bibliography Shirley Jackson was born on December 14, 1916, in San Francisco to a family with somewhat of a social position. She was not really the daughter that her parents wanted especially for her mother. Her mother thought of her as ugly, she wanted a daughter that was beautiful and a fool, unfortunately Shirley was neither of those things. It was said that she looked like her father with reddish-blonde hair, light eyes and fair complexion. Shirley was one that…

Words 1716 - Pages 7

The Lottery Argumentative Essay

Shirley Jackson’s controversial piece The Lottery has been described as one of the greatest works of the twentieth century. It has been regarded as both confusing by some and brilliant by others. At first glance the short story seems to be a simple take on how unchecked tradition and power can make people go blind to the injustices they commit. However, Jackson’s rich use of symbolism paints a clear picture that The Lottery is reflective of the Gospel. Every society needs a scapegoat, someone to…

Words 684 - Pages 3

Tradition In The Lottery By Shirley Jackson

traditions are useless and consist of unnecessary violence and evil. In “The Lottery,” by Shirley Jackson, explains the useless tradition that caused the death of Tessie, an innocent woman (Jackson 874). So why would individuals take part in such a violent tradition? Shirley Jackson wants to reveal that the pressure of the community, family teachings, and bloodlust to be the reasons why such traditions continue. Shirley Jackson, the author of “The Lottery,” created a text that resembles the ways of people…

Words 1768 - Pages 8

Literary Analysis Of The Lottery By Shirley Jackson

Literary Analysis “the Lottery” We have all seen everyday violence and the ignorance of the human race following tradition, since tradition is always being followed we always don´t want to be the ones to break it, leaving to the fact that tradition is always followed and changed and twisted but never completely disappears.One of the characters learns this in the story ¨The Lottery¨ by Shirley Jackson in which Tessie Hutchinson,a housewife, wins the town lottery, what she wins is a stoning killing…

Words 643 - Pages 3

The Lottery by Shirley Jackson: an Analysis Essay example

Kouyialis EN102: Composition II Professor Eklund The Lottery by Shirley Jackson: An Analysis The short story “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson was written in 1948 and takes place in a small town, on the 27th of June. In this story, the lottery occurs every year, around the summer solstice. All families gather together to draw slips of paper from a black box. When reading this story, it is unclear the full premise of the lottery until near the end. The heads of households are the first…

Words 1528 - Pages 7

Essay on The Lottery

“The Lottery” (1948) Why would a civilized and peaceful town would ever suggest the horrifying acts of violence can take place anywhere at any time and the most ordinary people can commit them. Jackson's fiction is noted for exploring incongruities in everyday life, and “The Lottery”, perhaps her most exemplary work in this respect, examines humanity's capacity for evil within a contemporary, familiar, American setting. Noting that the story’s characters, physical environment, and even its climactic…

Words 822 - Pages 4

Response To Shirley Jackson's The Lottery

The Lottery Dear Destiney, Today in class we read a short story called “the Lottery” by Shirley Jackson. First, in this story all the people in the village gather around. A guy named Joe came out with a big black box while everyone surrounded him. Next he called out one by one a person from each family to draw a piece of paper out of the box. Everyone calmy did as told. Tessie Hutcherson ran up to crown from home. She joked about how she forgot that the lottery was today. After everyone had drawn…

Words 368 - Pages 2