Summary Of The Lottery By Shirley Jackson

Shirley Jackson is one of the most brilliant authors in the 20th century. She wrote several novels and some excellent short stories. She composes literature mainly focusing on horror and mystery. She has been nominated and have won various awards, including the Edgar award for Best Short Story. The story that put Shirley Jackson on the map is The Lottery.
The Lottery written by Shirley Jackson is a short story about a small village that has a tradition of gathering everyone in town, once a year, to see who gets stoned to death. There are a multitude of characters but none truly become the focus of the story. In fact, it is the way Jackson uses third person to demonstrate how the community has their voice. However, everyone's doubtful voice is overshadowed by the eldest voice in the village and the male dominance in the village helps the tradition thrive through blind intellect and leadership.
Shirley Jackson related the nuclear family by using a small town where, at the time, seem to be the safest place to live, since it was not a crime riddled city. The short story clearly demonstrated that the men were in charge and that the women were the ones getting the worst of it. For instance, The ending of the story portrayed the man making the mistake of choosing the spotted paper, yet his wife ended paying the price for his unfortunate luck. The author went after the prejudice of women in the 1940’s and 1950’s to demonstrate how their culture was shaming