Phillip Warren Averett University 30 March 2014 Professor Buksar‚ MA It is very easy to understand why Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery” caused controversy at the time it was first published in 1948; which was shortly after World War II. The story may have been seen as an attempt to look at traditions that have become questionable. In “The Lottery” Jackson attempts to compare real world traditions that are no longer relevant‚ with those of the story by displaying what happens when
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the fabric of their lives. This one sentence really exemplifies how society fails to learn and understand why they repeat a pattern of behavior. In the story‚ one generation after another neglected to take care of the “paraphernalia” (138)‚ of the lottery and as the years passed “the ritual had been allowed to lapse.”(138) It also appears that over time the reasoning behind the annual gathering of the villagers was
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“The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson is a short story that depicts the blind following of tradition. Just because something has been done a certain way for as long as you can remember‚ does not mean that way is the best way. “The Lottery” also highlights the cruelty of human nature. The willingness of ritualistic murder of colleagues‚ friends or family. The tradition to stone someone in your community to death annually is truly cruel. It blows my mind how so many people can knowingly partake in the action
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“The Lottery” Response Paper Shirley Jackson’s very intriguing short story‚ “The Lottery‚” was evidently quite the controversy when it first appeared in The New Yorker (Jackson 208). One can easily guess that the reason for such mass unrest was the story’s violent content. However‚ humanity is not always extremely kind; humans can be brutal creatures. In Ms. Jackson’s story‚ this theme of violence and cruelty is revealed‚ and one cannot help but wonder if all those New Yorker reviewers gave her
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THE LOTTERY A short fictional story published by Shirley Jackson The Lottery was originally published in the magazine The New Yorker in 1948. On one clear sunny morning in a village of 300 it was the day of June 27‚ The Lottery Day. It was held at the town square by the post office and the bank. This village was a farming village. The time they held this was anytime they wanted. On this special day people gather around the town square and the kids collect rocks. During this day Graves and Summers
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done so why change it now? This is the way many people think and don’t see a problem with it. They go along with the status quo whether it is right or wrong. In “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson the townspeople are hesitant to refuse traditions that would be considered wrong and evil by most people. This story gives the lottery a bad reputation. The first thing that comes to mind is winning a sum of money or goods. In the beginning‚ the story suggests that the people are going to draw for a
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“Shirley Jackson was born on December 14th‚ 1916 in San Francisco‚ California. She grew up in Burlingame‚ California”. “At a young age living in California she wanted to pursue her career in writing poetry and short stories”. In Shirley’s teenage years she moved to the east coast where she attended university of Rochester.The following year Shirley attended Syracuse University where her writing became serious and finally wrote her first book. She then married a man named Stanley Hyman. Stanley was
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The story “The Lottery” has a theme just as any other great story. The author used many different aspects through the story to make one larger theme overall. The theme of this story‚ is about how the world is full on pointless violence that leads nowhere‚ as well as how current times seem to still follow the bible. These aspects include the characters‚ imagery‚ as well as various symbols. This story tends to refer to the bible quite often. One example of the story referring to the bible
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Response #2 “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson and “Eveline” by James Joyce were the pieces that appealed to me the most. This could be because they were the first two stories that I read and by the time I got to the poems my attention span was dwindling away or because both stories have similar writing approaches. I can’t figure that out. I found “The Lottery” to be very eerie and disturbing. After I read it‚ I pictured M. Night Shyamalan making a creepy‚ dramatic film based on it. I think it’d
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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. First‚ the condition of the black box emulates how the lottery is slowly becoming
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