Jackson's The Lottery essay topics

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  • Piece Of Paper From The Box
    324 words
    "The Lottery" written by Shirley Jackson is a classic tale about society's aversion to change from tradition. On June 27th each year, a small town gathers together religiously for an annual lottery drawing. Jackson cleverly uses many symbolic events to foreshadow what the winner of the lottery actually wins. The story opens with the gathering of the townsfolk in a place where "square dances, the teen-age club, [and] the Halloween program" were held, demonstrating that the townspeople seem very k...
  • Lottery And Mr Summers
    1,857 words
    When "The Lottery" was first published in 1948, it created an enormous controversy and great interest in its author, Shirley Jackson. Shirley Jackson was born in San Francisco, California on December 14, 1919. When she was two years old, her family moved her to Burlingame, California, where Jackson attended high school. After high school Jackson moved away to attend college at Rochester University in upstate New York but after only a short time at Rochester and, after taking off a year from scho...
  • Tradition As The Main Theme
    542 words
    In Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery", the theme of the story is dramatically illustrated by Jackson's unique tone. Once a year the villagers gather together in the central square for the lottery. The villagers await the arrival of Mr. Summers and the black box. Within the black box are folded slips of paper, one piece having a black dot on it. All the villagers then draw a piece of paper out of the box. Whoever gets the paper with the black dot wins. Tessie Hutchinson wins the lottery! Everyone th...
  • Jackson's Allusion To Anne Hutchinson
    553 words
    Over the years many critics have wrote articles on Shirley Jackson's numerous works. Many critics had much to say about Jackson's most famous short story, 'The Lottery'. Her insights and observations about man and society are disturbing; and in the case of 'The Lottery,' they are shocking. 'The themes themselves are not new, evil cloaked in seeming good, prejudice and hypocrisy, loneliness and frustration, psychological studies of minds that have slipped the bonds of reality' (Friedman). Literar...
  • Jackson's Last Novel
    4,556 words
    Life and Work Shirley Jackson was born on December 14, 1919 to Leslie and Geraldine Jackson. Her surroundings were comfortable and friendly. Two years after Shirley was born, her family with her newborn brother moved from San Francisco to Burlingame, California, about thirty miles away. "According to her mother, Shirley began to compose verse almost as soon as she could write it" (Friedman, 18). As a child, Shirley was interested in sports and literature. In 1930, a year before she attended Burl...
  • Jacksons Novels And Short Stories Violence
    1,775 words
    Shirley Jackson was born in San Francisco, California on December 14, 1916. Jackson began writing in journals at a very young age. She took an interest in the supernatural at as a child as this 1933 New Years Resolution shows; seek out the good in others rather than explore the evil (Ragland). Jackson started college at the University of Rochester. She dropped out of school, and transferred to Syracuse University, in the fall. At Syracuse University, she met her husband Stanley Edgar Hyman. Afte...
  • Next Lottery
    620 words
    Repressing Challenges to Order The rigid structure of society reinforces order and promotes conformity of all classes, but an individual contradicting established customs poses a threat. Shirley Jackson, the author of The Lottery, conveys that rebellious impulses of humans are repressed by society to maintain a rigid social order. The lottery enforces an unfair distinction in class status between men and women. Women are subordinate in the social power structure of the village, as shown when Mrs...
  • Lottery By Shirley Jackson
    706 words
    "The Lottery" by Shirley Jackson was written in 1948. The story takes place in a village square of a town on June 27th. The author does not use much emotion in the writing to show how the barbaric act that is going on is look at as normal. This story is about a town that has a lottery once a year to choose who should be sacrificed, so that the town will have a plentiful year for growing crops. Jackson has many messages about human nature in this short story. The most important message she convey...
  • Jackson's The Lottery
    944 words
    Shirley Jackson's The Lottery: An Exposition of Conformity in Society The Lottery, a short story by the nonconformist author Shirley Jackson, represents communities, America, the world, and conformist society as a whole by using setting and most importantly symbolism with her inventive, cryptic writing style. It was written in 1948, roughly three years after the liberation of a World War II concentration camp Auschwitz. Even today, some people deny that the Holocaust ever happened. Jackson shows...
  • Lottery In A Very Practical Way
    420 words
    8 March 2000"The Lottery " Shirley Jackson wrote "The Lottery" in 1948, not long after the second World War. The horror of the Holocaust was still fresh in everyone's mind's. Jackson wrote this story to remind everyone that we are not so far from this world of sadistic human sacrifice. She created a town, very much like any American town, with the gathering of the towns people to celebrate some annual event. She wanted to shine a mirror on contemporary society, a reflection of humanity, or rathe...
  • Jackson's Work As Metaphors For Individuals
    2,589 words
    The Irrepressible Individual in the Works of Shirley Jackson Throughout her life, Shirley Jackson struggled with a conflict between her dogged individuality and society's requirement that she adhere to its norms and standards. Jackson saw a second level of human nature, an inner identity lurking beneath the one which outwardly conforms with society's expectations. Society's repression of her individuality haunted Jackson in her personal life and expressed itself in her writing through the opposi...
  • Lottery The Theme Of Violence And Tradition
    604 words
    THE LOTTERY The theme of violence and tradition is persuasive in the short story The Lottery written by Shirley Jackson. This theme is not a generalized theme of violence, but a theme of ritualistic violence. This violence is shown in the traditional town-wide lottery drawing that takes place on each June 27th. However, this lottery is not to draw a winner of some great prize, but seeks to draw a loser whose life will be taken. This ritual has been practiced for so long that the townspeople are ...
  • Old Man Warner A Sense Of Authority
    1,321 words
    Old Man Warner I was watching an episode of The Simpsons on TV the other day, and there was a craze around town because the Springfield Lottery was up to 130 million dollars. Bookstores were selling out of Shirley Jacksons The Lottery. Homer quickly threw the book into the fireplace when he realized that the book could not tell him how to win the lottery, that it was a book about time old traditions, barbaric, but still practiced nonetheless. If Homer had read the book, he would have discovered ...
  • Mr Summers Name
    466 words
    Shakespeare once wrote, "The common curse of mankind, -- folly and ignorance" (Tro. 2.3; Shakespeare). In "The Lottery" Shirley Jackson uses symbolism to point out the folly and ignorance associated with mankind's ability to justify their actions with superstition and tradition. "The Lottery" is a short story that without the symbolism of its characters would amount to little more than an odd tale about a stoning. The setting is an almost festive day in the town square. Jackson describes the chi...
  • Lottery By Shirley Jackson Historical Analysis
    1,509 words
    When analyzing Shirley Jackson's short story "The Lottery" from a new historical prospective, many factors must be considered. "The Lottery" was published in The New Yorker on the morning of June 28, 1948. Shirley Jackson had written this short story just three weeks before this day. This date is important when understanding the society in which Shirley Jackson was living and the impact that this historical period had on "The #Lottery."The Lottery" by Shirley Jackson was found to be objectionabl...
  • Mr Summers And Mr Graves
    1,823 words
    " 'It isn't fair, it isn't right,' Mrs. Hutchinson screamed, and then they were upon her". (About Jackson 2) When a writer composes a short story, some may have a meaning and others may not. With the ones that have a purpose, it is usually a very profound, easily understood meaning that is developed within them. The quote is taken from Shirley Jackson's, The Lottery, which is one short story the has a very difficult meaning to be understood. From this one quote alone, a person should be able to ...
  • Very Normal Activity For The Community
    835 words
    The story of "The Lottery", written by Shirley Jackson is very different in terms of the ways you and me may see the lottery today. The lottery today is looked at as fun, entertaining and almost as a type of recreation for many Americans, but not in this short story. The lottery in this story is the total opposite of the way we view it today. It does not deal with entertainment but it deals with your life literally, almost as if they are playing Russian rul let. But this all seems like a normal ...

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