The Lottery Literary Analysis Paragra
Shadow Satre
Lang, and Lit,
Mrs. Lannen
4, December 2014
The Lotteries
The word lottery can have different meanings that pertain to different subjects. In the
“Lottery” by Chris Abani, someone gets punished for thievery, but you as the reader does not know if he was a thief or not. Chris put a special paragraph into the middle of the story to made you stop and think; “was this guy really guilty of stealing?” Or could it be a huge misunderstanding, and an innocent man lost his life in a terrible way? An anonymous person in a crowd of people started to plead, “Thief! Thief! Thief!” (page 1 paragraph 2) This person could have been lying and he or she was just trying to get the man caught. In the end the accused man was burnt alive in front of a whole village for all the children to see so they, didn’t make the same mistake. “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson had similarities to Albani’s story. Shirley told of an old town of people who had an odd tradition, one person would be randomly picked for a stoning. It was a tradition that has been around for longer than some of the elders to remember.
No one rebelled against it, they didn’t know better. This is an example of thinking that you are right because it has been done for so long. It isn’t right to kill someone in front of kids just because tradition, and some traditions may not be right but we still do them because do not know any better.
Lang, and Lit,
Mrs. Lannen
4, December 2014
The Lotteries
The word lottery can have different meanings that pertain to different subjects. In the
“Lottery” by Chris Abani, someone gets punished for thievery, but you as the reader does not know if he was a thief or not. Chris put a special paragraph into the middle of the story to made you stop and think; “was this guy really guilty of stealing?” Or could it be a huge misunderstanding, and an innocent man lost his life in a terrible way? An anonymous person in a crowd of people started to plead, “Thief! Thief! Thief!” (page 1 paragraph 2) This person could have been lying and he or she was just trying to get the man caught. In the end the accused man was burnt alive in front of a whole village for all the children to see so they, didn’t make the same mistake. “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson had similarities to Albani’s story. Shirley told of an old town of people who had an odd tradition, one person would be randomly picked for a stoning. It was a tradition that has been around for longer than some of the elders to remember.
No one rebelled against it, they didn’t know better. This is an example of thinking that you are right because it has been done for so long. It isn’t right to kill someone in front of kids just because tradition, and some traditions may not be right but we still do them because do not know any better.