Shirley Jackson‚ "The Lottery" – Discussion and Analysis Questions Answer the following questions in complete sentences on your own paper. Provide quotations (with page/line numbers) from the story to support your answers. 1. Why has Jackson chosen common people for her characters? Could she have chosen characters from other levels of sophistication with the same effect? What is the irony of the tone of this story? 2. What seems to have been the original purpose of the lottery
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The Lottery When you hear the word lottery‚ you probably think of winning a large sum of money before being stoned to death. "The Lottery" by Shirley Jackson brings this horrible idea to life. While the overall mood of the story depicts a typical day in a small rural town‚ through great use of imagery and irony the reader is set up for an unusual ending. Shirley Jackson uses a great deal of imagery to set the mood of the story. At first glance the reader gets a visual picture of a pristine‚ tranquil
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The lottery‚ many people are playing it all around the world. In the United States‚ people‚ who have a little bit of money in their pocket‚ will play the lottery. Now the lottery has changed from a tool for financing the public to a tool for making money for the merchant. In the article “ The Lottery is for Losers ” by Laurence Berkley‚ the author points out‚ people forgot the main point for lottery is financing the public‚ but now they only see the impossible benefit for their self. There are three
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ending of the story? If not‚ at what point did you know what was going to happen? How does Jackson start to foreshadow the ending in paragraph 2 and 3? Conversely‚ how does Jackson lull us into thinking that this is just an ordinary story with an ordinary town? A: I was quite shocked by the ending of the story‚ mainly because I did not know exactly what the people of the village were competing in the lottery for. I was not sure if the win was for money‚ better jobs in the neibourhood‚ higher status
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The different experiences of Ida and Tom Have you ever been the one to turn a bad situation good? Maybe considered the hero of a certain situation? In both stories‚ Ida and Tom can be thought of heroes because the both acted out on instincts to overturn a horrific incident. Moreover‚ both of their circumstances were different. Ida and Tom can be considered heroes‚ but there are experiences are different. The first difference in the two readings is that Ida and Tom were treated differently by their
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Approximately 14‚700‚000 people have died from the most famous genocides caused by man. The Lottery was written by Shirley Jackson. The story is about a town who has a tradition every year‚ one day in June the people of the town must gather around and play their chances of winning the lottery. At the end we find out who wins and we find out that the prize of the lottery is to be sacrificed. One of the main theme’s in this story is the violence and cruelty of humans. The author uses literary devices
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“The Lottery” is a short story by Shirley Jackson in which villagers in a small town participate in a barbaric tradition that involves killing one of their own. The story incorporates a large amount of symbolism‚ both through the use of objects as well as some names. These symbols tell us a few things about why this tradition continues on‚ primarily because of the fear of the unknown. Although to us‚ the lottery seems very morally wrong‚ the villagers consider the lottery just another normal part
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Week 11: “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson 1. 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. Discuss the purpose of the exposition. The exposition’s purpose could be to emphasize the fact that it’s a nice morning‚ because the lottery is suppose to be a wonderful and pleasant day for everyone. This exposition may want to underline the fact that it’s a very special day. The "blossoming"
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Blind Obedience in “The Lottery” “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson written and published in 1948‚ takes place on June 27th in a small town of three hundred people. Villagers gather together at around ten o’clock for one of the main rituals called ‘the lottery‘‚ which takes place in the central square. “The lottery was conducted as were the square dances” (Jackson 31) illustrating the timely scheduled event. It is a normal day with “the fresh warmth of a full summer day” (Jackson 1). The men arte having
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“The Lottery” is a short story written by Shirley Jackson that asks the same question. The narrator presents a small-town where a traditional lottery is held annually every summer on June 27th. The town’s people get together for a lottery (1). The reward is unknown at the beginning to reader‚ but increasingly becomes more apparent as the story continues to its climax. The reward is a sadistic random tradition in the form of murder by stoning. The killing‚ which is the purpose of the lottery‚ is foreshadowed
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