The Lottery Literary analysis In the story titled “The Lottery’”, the author, Shirley Jackson, uses many literary devices to help get the theme of the story across. The story is about a town that comes together for a “lottery” that they do every year, but, it is no normal lottery. The theme in this story is portraying people blindly following tradition. Jackson expresses this through the use of symbolism, characterization, irony, and through the setting. Symbolism is a literary device that…
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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…
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How would you react if you won the lottery? In the short story "The Lottery" by Shirley Jackson winning the lottery means losing your life. Every one in the village has to pick a slip of paper out of the box. There is one slip that has a black dot on it. Then the family of the person who picked the black dot slip takes another slip. Whoever gets it on the second draw gets stones hurled at he or she until they are no longer living. This book has an irony mode of literature for many reasons. The…
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Shirley Jackson’s short story, “The Lottery,” uses the black box as a symbol to convey an underlying message that tradition should be questioned since the ideals followed may have illogical purpose and cause harm. For instance, in the short story, while the citizens were gathering around for the ritual, “Bobby Martin had already stuffed his pockets full of stones, and the other boys soon followed his example, selecting the smoothest and roundest stones.” (25, Lines 15-18) Basically, children start…
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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…
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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…
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Destinee Jones English 101 Barnard September 20, 2014 Blind Leading the Blind: The Lottery Literary Analysis When you hear the word lottery, what do you think of? Grand prizes, large sums of money or even a relaxing yet fun filled vacation? Shirley Jackson begins her story with it being an ordinary summer day. Children talking of school and men discussing farming as they wait for the event to begin. Names are called and slips are drawn as the anticipation builds wondering who will win. In the end…
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people claim, usually turning their backs on the agony caused by their tradition. In the short story, The Lottery, Shirley Jackson shows how gormless people can be to follow a tradition while they clearly see how excruciating it is. The village talked about in The Lottery appreciated and followed their tradition but no one ever dared to criticize it- it had always been practiced. The lottery, whose name appears to be good, was an act of extreme cruelty. It was conducted each year just to shed innocent…
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Literary Analysis “Sacrifice is a state of mind in which our thoughts turn towards heaven and our ancestors for something in return,”-Kungi. The Lottery is a short story about how a town has a lottery. Each person takes a sheet of paper out of a black box if you get the black dot you're going to be sacrificed because they think they think they will get better crops if they sacrifice a person. In the story The Hunger Games, about how because of what district 13 did, (trying to overthrow the Capital)…
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Critical Analysis: The Lottery, by Shirley Jackson Shirley Jackson’s short story, “The Lottery” is based on the principal theme that the will of the people overcomes individual power. The story clearly illuminates the ease with which people find group-decisions, due to the fact that group-decisions reduce the personal responsibility. Additionally, it illustrates the imminent culture in which tradition is viewed as the ‘security blanket’ of the community at the expense of reason. Jackson’ story vividly…
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