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In the Short story “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson, the author uses symbolism in many ways. Symbolism is used to personify a meaning that is different than its literal in this story. Jackson uses symbols to show us that the lottery and its true traditions are falling apart. The utter disrepair of the black box, and stool, and the changing of the ballots symbolize the breakdown of the original tradition of the lottery.…
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In her story “The Lottery,” Shirley Jackson, utilizes symbolism to underline the importance of questioning tradition. Her story, “The Lottery,” begins in a small intimate village of about 300 people. In this little village, tradition is important because it must be practiced in order to help get better crops throughout the year. The way these crops are produce is by one person getting sacrificed via stoning once every year, and that is led by Mr. Summers. Though this tradition is practiced yearly, not everyone in this village is content about the sacrificial aspect of this tradition, creating conflict in the story when Mrs. Tessie Hutchinson, the one being sacrificed, chooses to rebel against this established institution tradition. Though she…
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Through her ability to display the grim reality of a small idealized town, Shirley Jackson unmasks the evil of tradition in “The Lottery.” She repeats that mindless rituals are unacceptable practices. Jackson begins her writing with, “The morning of June 27th was clear and sunny, with the fresh warmth of a full-summer day; the flowers were blossoming profusely and the grass was richly green” (715). This first sentence gives us clues that there is not an extreme amount of emotion; it hints that the style reflects the attitudes of the villagers. The townspeople picture the lottery as normal and have no more emotion towards it than they do the flowers or the warm sunny day. The children begin collecting rocks as they are playing, and the adults…
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In the short story “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson, the writer clearly brings out various symbols and aspects that later indicates the irony of what “The Lottery” in reality means. It is evident that what begins as a bright and peaceful summer day later transpires into a perverted stoning event. Each and every single part included in the short story points out the destiny. The story is presented in such a way, that the writer excellently illustrates how items, human beings, and people’s actions clearly stand out as symbols. As a matter of facts, I can say that Jackson uses the black box, the three-legged stool, and the stones to symbolize the various aspects of this particular society and its long rooted, clueless and astonishing tradition.…
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Shirley Jackson’s fictitious story entitled “The Lottery” is an allegorical examination into the underpinnings of societal rituals and traditions as well as how these rituals affect both social and political cultures. Although Jackson presents her literary work as a somewhat simplistic story about a village that holds an annual lottery every summer, the themes governing the story’s plot and underpinnings delve into a deeper analysis regarding the effects and consequences of a political oligarchy on its citizens. Rooted in long-standing tradition, the lottery is conducted in a way that illustrates the hierarchy of an organization of people controlled by [misguided] ideology—albeit somewhat lost in translation over the many years—and outcome.…
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One of the major themes of Shirley Jackson's “The Lottery” is the barbarity of human nature. The story depicts a seemingly average American town, where the people willingly participate in an annual tradition of killing one of their own. The person is chosen randomly by a lottery, which gives the people enough humanity to continue on with the ritual.…
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In modern times, the lottery is generally acknowledged as a set of fantastic prizes that people vie to win; however, in Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery,” the exact opposite is true. Jackson transforms this rather innocuous-sounding practice to a dark, perverse town ritual in a shocking twist that leaves the reader hungry for more details. Jackson conveys her message that tradition is not always best with her omission of details, use of foreshadowing and abrupt ending.…
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The short story by Shirley Jackson “The Lottery” serves as a mirror to see our own society and rituals at an extreme. Throughout the story the author normalizes the characters’ inhumane ritual so the reader would be able to understand the underlining meaning of the story. In our society there are rituals that we do not dare to question because they have been embedded into our lives. The character Old Man Warner justifies such rituals by saying, on page 142, “There’s always been a lottery.” he himself not entirely understanding why it is done. Shirley Jackson wants the reader to understand how oblivious society is to itself, and shows how it would be if it were to be looked upon in an outer perspective.…
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“ The Lottery”, written by Shirley Jackson, shows the corruption in a village whose people treat life with insignificance. Through the use of literary devices, Jackson portrays how practices in traditions can be barbaric;ultimately, resulting in persecution.…
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“The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson is nothing less than a powerful story about a society that gathers once per year and holds a lottery. But this is not a lottery with a winner; it is a lottery with a loser. “The Lottery” is a chilling story because it depicts a sense of normalcy among the towns’ people when they randomly decided to kill a neighbor by practically just drawing straws. This story really asks the question, are rituals always a good thing? If rituals are a good or bad thing do we even know why we do it half the time? “The Lottery”, shows us that even though tradition may have been happening for years doesn’t mean that the traditions we choose to follow are beneficial.…
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Shirley Jackson illustrates the struggle between choosing personal morals, versus blindly following the masses. When you stop questioning authority, you relinquish your individuality and the tools that you’ve been given to rationalize your decisions. Traditions and customs often lose their meaning and value once it becomes a game of follow the leader.…
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The symbol that is the strongest in “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson is the black box. This box represents the town’s tradition to the lottery even though they try to make it seem like it doesn’t really make sense to keep the tradition. This black box is not even the original black box that was used before, but rather made of pieces of the original box that had aged before it. The story says that “The black box grew shabbier each year: by now it was no longer completely black but splintered badly along one side to show the original wood color, and in some places faded or stained.”. However the town was unwilling to change the box due to some strange devotion to the tradition of the lottery even though they realize it’s not even the original box they still say things like “but no one liked to upset even as much tradition as was represented by the black box” and “Mr. Summers began talking again about a new box, but every year the subject was allowed to fade off without anything's being done.”. This black box was used by everyone in the town even the oldest man Mr. Warner which is another reason why they are so attached to it. The black box shows how much tradition means to this town because they are unwilling to even change the box even though they say some towns have even got rid of the lottery all together. Even though some things such as using paper instead of wood chips have changed they still maintain some kind of loyalty to the black box. The black box shows the ignorance of the town who are unwilling to give up old ways even though some have given up old traditions completely.…
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The Father, The Son, and The Holy Ghost! Let me reiterate that for you! The Father, The Son, and The Holy Ghost! How many innocent people have been killed in one God’s name or another? The three legged stool sits behind; both a praise and a nemesis. The intention of this paper is to explain the difference between the two, and decide if the author was using symbolism to relate this paper to the trials of women throughout the centuries, or just ritual amongst all human societies.…
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No matter who the people in the culture are or the era in which they live in, there has always been abusive customs that are accepted. To challenge these fired up mindsets would be going against the grain. A prime example of this is in the short story "The Lottery" by Shirley Jackson. In this story, an illustration draws out the brutal and villinious…
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In “The Lottery” the characteristics describe it as a comedy. Even though the ending is tragic, the story contains no hero, and does not really teach a lesson. Rather it shows a culture of a village and it’s villagers. That leaning in culture shows more realistic, and more common language. Such as when Joe Summers enters the scene he says “Little late today, folks.” And when he needs help with carrying the black box he asks the Martins “Some of you fellows want to give me a hand?” This shows that the way he communicates resonates within a common folk, and every other character can relate to his type of communication. He is not speaking words that don’t make sense.…
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