The Lottery Free Essays

The title of the story suggests a positive outcome. But upon reading the first couple of paragraphs, we see that a different plot is coming together. Outline 1. We will write a custom essay sample on The Lottery or any similar topic only for you Order Now Many people gathered. a. Three hundred people b. Small town. 2. Children a. Gathering Stones b. Summertime c. Talked of school and teachers 3. Adults gathering a. Men began to show up b. Women then came, stood by husbands 4. Black box a. What was it for? b. Why were slips of paper in the box? 5. Past Lotteries’ a. What were the Lotteries’ for? b. Lots of talk on how the Lotteries’ were in the past. 6. Mr. Summers a. Official over the Lottery b. Also the Postmaster 7. Drawing of the slips of paper a. Whispers through the crowd. b. No one wants it to be him or her. c. Claims of no fairness 8. Black dot on paper a. What does dot symbolize? b. What is the dot for? 9. Stoning of the person a. Why do they stone the person with the black dot? b. What is the purpose of this ritual? The Rocking Horse Winner As little boy overwhelmed with the financial situation within his family, turns to his rocking horse to get the winners of the horse races in the local town for luck. Outline 1. Mother a. No love for children b. No luck c. Seen as a great mother 2. Home a. Anxiety in the home b. Screamed out need more money 3. Paul a. Wondered why there was no luck? b. Asked mother about luck c. Searched for clues about luck himself d, Why did he die? What did he die from? 4. Bassett a. Who is Bassett? b. Friend, cousin, imaginary. 5. Uncle Oscar a. Genuine or deceitful b. Why is he interested in Paul’s comments? 6. Rocking Horse a. What was special about the rocking horse? b. Did it have magic powers? c. Did Paul have a disability that allowed him to think differently? d. How did Paul get the names of the Horses that would win from his rocking horse? How to cite The Lottery, Essay examples The Lottery Free Essays Lisa Marie Shade Prof. Dunn ENG 102-110 August 9, 2012 The Plot Thickens- In Shirley Jackson’s â€Å"The Lottery†. A good harvest has always been vital to civilizations. We will write a custom essay sample on The Lottery or any similar topic only for you Order Now After the fields have been prepared and the seeds sown, the farmer can only wait and hope that the proper balance of rain and sun will ensure a good harvest. From this hope springs ritual. Many ancient cultures believed that growing crops represented the life cycle, beginning with what one associates with the end–death. Seeds buried, apparently without hope of germination, represent death. But with the life forces of water and the sun, the seed grows, representing rebirth. Consequently, ancient peoples began sacrificial rituals to emulate this resurrection cycle. What began as a vegetation ritual developed into a cathartic cleansing of an entire tribe or village. By transferring one’s sins to persons or animals and then sacrificing them, people believed that their sins would be eliminated, a process that has been termed the â€Å"scapegoat† archetype. In her short story â€Å"The Lottery,† Shirley Jackson uses this archetype to build on man’s inherent need for such ritual. To visit upon the scapegoat the cruelties, that most of us seem to have dammed up within us and explores â€Å"the general psychological basis for such cruelty, showing how we tend to ignore misfortunes unless we ourselves are their victims. The Lottery’s [sic. ] then, deals indeed with live issues and with issues relevant to our time. Jackson’s realism makes the final terror and shock more effective and also reinforces our sense of the awful doubleness of the human spirit—a doubleness that expresses itself in the blended good neighborliness and cruelty of the community’s action. Evans, 112) Jackson weaves seasonal and life-death cycle archetypes, which coincide with vegetation rituals, into the story. The lottery takes place every year when the nature cycle peaks in midsummer, a time usually associated with cheerfulness. The villagers of a small town gather together in the square on June 27, a beautiful day, for the town lottery. In other towns, the lott ery takes longer, but there are only 300 people in this village, so the lottery takes only two hours. Village children, who have just finished school for the summer, run around collecting stones. They put the stones in their pockets and make a pile in the square. Men gather next, followed by the women. Parents call their children over, and families stand together. Mr. Summers, a jovial man, who conducts the lottery ceremony, sets the tone of the event with both his name and his mannerisms. But lurking behind him, Mr. Graves quietly assists, his name hinting at a dark undertone. The picnic type atmosphere betrays the serious consequence of the lottery, for like the seed, a sacrificial person must also be buried to bring forth life. Jackson creates balance by assembling Mr. Summers and Mr. Graves to share in the responsibilities of the ritual: Life brings death, and death recycles life. At one point in the village’s history, the lottery represented a grave experience, and all who participated understood the profound meaning of the tradition. But as time passed, the villagers began to take the ritual lightly. They endure it almost as automatons–â€Å"actors† anxious to return to their mundane, workaday lives. Old Man Warner, the only one who seems to recall the seriousness of the occasion, complains that Mr. Summers jokes with everybody. But, even if one does not understand the meaning, the experience provides the individual a place and a meaning in the life of the generations. Because there has â€Å"always been a lottery† (Jackson 216), the villagers feel compelled to continue this horrifying tradition. They do focus, however, on its gruesome rather than its symbolic nature for they still remembered to use stones even after they have forgotten the ritual and lost the original black box (Jackson 218). The reader may conclude that humanity’s inclination toward violence overshadows society’s need for civilized traditions. Mr. Summers asks whether anyone is absent, and the crowd responds that Dunbar isn’t there. Mr. Summers asks who will draw for Dunbar, and Mrs. Dunbar says she will because she doesn’t have a son who’s old enough to do it for her. Mr. Summers asks whether the Watson boy will draw, and he answers that he will. Mr. Summers then asks to make sure that Old Man Warner is there too. Mr. Summers reminds everyone about the lottery’s rules: he’ll read names, and the family heads come up and draw a slip of paper. No one should look at the paper until everyone has drawn. He calls all the names, greeting each person as they come up to draw a paper. Mr. Adams tells Old Man Warner that people in the north village might stop the lottery; he says that giving up the lottery could lead to a return to living in caves. Mrs. Adams says the lottery has already been given up in other villages, and Old Man Warner says that’s â€Å"nothing but trouble. † (Jackson, 216). The shock value of the long process and all the moments’ one character or another could have realized the nonsense of the ritual and spoke up. When Mr. Summers finishes calling names, and everyone opens his or her papers. Word quickly gets around that Bill Hutchinson has â€Å"got it. Tessie argues that it wasn’t fair because Bill didn’t have enough time to select a paper. Mr. Summers asks whether there are any other households in the Hutchinson family, and Bill says no, because his married daughter draws with her husband’s family. Mr. Summers asks how many kids Bill has, and he answers that he has three. Tess’s eagerness to see the lottery through is only paralleled by her desperation to get out of it once it turns out to be her turn. She goes so far as to try to substitute her daughter and son-in-law for herself, yelling, â€Å"There’s Don and Eva†¦ Make them take their chance! Her extreme moral compromise, as she tries to offer up her daughter for the slaughter instead of herself, underlines that this ritual has nothing to do with virtuous martyrdom; Tess is no saint. Her murder is exactly that: a vicious, group killing of a frightened, antiheroic woman. Tessie protests again that the lottery wasn’t fair. Mr. Graves dumps the papers out of the box onto the ground and then puts five papers in for the Hutchinsons. As Mr. Summers calls their names, each member of the family comes up and draws a paper. When they open their slips, they find that Tessie has drawn the paper with the black dot on it. Mr. Summers instructs everyone to hurry up. The villagers grab stones and run toward Tessie, who stands in a clearing in the middle of the crowd. Tessie says it’s not fair and is hit in the head with a stone. Everyone begins throwing stones at her, as even her own children. â€Å"Tessie may be selfish in her reaction, but her claim that the lottery is not fair may still be true. Whereas the common villagers are described as â€Å"taking† their slips, the businessmen â€Å"select† theirs—a subtle implication that the results have been rigged† (Evans, 112-113) Therefore, the base actions exhibited in groups (such as the stoning of Mrs. Hutchinson) do not take place on the individual level, for here such action would be deemed â€Å"murder. † On the group level people classify their heinous act simply as â€Å"ritual. † When Mrs. Hutchinson arrives at the ceremony late, flustered because she had forgotten that today was the day of the lottery. She chats sociably with Mrs. Delacroix. Nevertheless, after Mrs. Hutchinson falls victim to the lottery selection, Mrs. Delacroix chooses a â€Å"stone so large† that she must pick it up with both hands (Jackson 218). Whereas, on the individual level, the two women regard each other as friends, on the group level, they betray that relationship, satiating the mob mentality. The people of the town are caught up in the ritual to such an extent that they have given up any sense of logic. Mob psychology rules their actions. Though they appear to be sane, sensible individuals, when the time of the lottery comes, they abandon their rational nature and revert to the instincts of the herd. This psychological phenomenon is characteristic of humans throughout history. Although Jackson portrays it in its extreme form in this story, the idea that men and women in groups are willing to forgo personal responsibility and act with great cruelty toward others is evidenced in actions such as lynch mobs, racial confrontations, and similar incidents. â€Å"The willingness of people to act irrationally as members of the herd displays aspects that, while unpleasant, are still integral parts of their nature that they must recognize, if they are to keep them in check. † (Mazzeno) A first-time reader of â€Å"The Lottery† often finds the ending a surprise. The festive nature of the gathering and the camaraderie of the townspeople as the lottery is conducted belie the horror that occurs at the conclusion of the tale, is one of the tale’s strongest points. Another strength, however, is â€Å"the skillful way in which Jackson prepares the careful reader for the denouement by including key details so that, on a second reading, one is assured that there is no trick being played on the reader. † (Mazzeno) In comparison to the heavily symbolic figures of Mr. Graves (Death), Mr. Summers (Progress), or Old Man Warner (Tradition), Tess is resolutely anti-symbolic. She’s a woman in an apron with soapsuds on her hands, who cracks jokes and wants to join in her community – but, it turns out, they don’t want her back. She’s the sacrificial lamb for that year, an outsider that the village then violently excludes. Although civilized people may no longer hold lotteries, Jackson’s story illustrates that society’s tendency toward violence and its tendency to hold onto tradition, yet even meaningless, base tradition, reveal our need for both ritual and belonging. Work Cited Evans, Robert C. â€Å"The Lottery. † Short Fiction: A Critical Companion (1997): 112-119. Literary Reference Center. Web. 6 Aug. 2012. Hall, Joan Wylie. â€Å"Shirley Jackson (1916-1965). † Columbia Companion To The Twentieth- Century American Short Story (2000): 310-314. Literary Reference Center. Web. 6 Aug. 2012. Jackson, Shirley. â€Å"The Lottery†. Drama, and Writing Compact sixth ed. New York: Pearson Longman, 2011. 213-218. Print Mazzeno, Laurence W. â€Å"The Lottery. † Masterplots II: Short Story Series, Revised Edition (2004): 1-2. Literary Reference Center. Web. 6 Aug. 2012. Yarmove, Jay A. â€Å"Jackson’s The Lottery. † Explicator 52. 4 (1994): 242. Literary Reference Center. Web. 6 Aug. 2012. How to cite The Lottery, Papers The lottery Free Essays The Lottery Research Paper Shirley Jackson was a devoted mother and writer. Jackson didn’t fit in well in North Bennington, and the town likely served as the setting for the New England town portrayed in â€Å"The Lottery. † â€Å"The Lottery’ caused outrage and controversy when it appeared in the New Yorker in 1948, but many critics now consider it to be Jackson’s most famous work. We will write a custom essay sample on The lottery or any similar topic only for you Order Now Jackson was sometimes thought to be a witch because of her interested in witchcraft and black magic. Almost all of Jackson’s work is reflects horror, hauntings, witchcraft, or psychological unease. She also struggled with both mental and physical illnesses as an adult. Unlike other writers, she found the writing process pleasurable. â€Å"The Lottery’ starts off in a town on a normal day with children going around and collecting rocks. The men of the households are called forward to a wooden box to draw slips of paper. When one of the men sees that he has the black dot on his slip, his wife immediately starts to argue with how the drawing wasn’t fair. The family is brought to the stage where they are to draw their slips of paper. Tess (Mrs. Hutchinson) draws the paper with the black dot and is taken to the center of the town where the town’s people take their stones that the children collected earlier hat day. As the villagers close in to primarily take Tess’s life, all you can hear are her terrified shrilling screams. Shirley Jackson in her work â€Å"The Lottery’ reveals the corrosive factors that result in our blind acceptance of morally questionable traditions that cause social paralysis. â€Å"The Lottery’ starts off as a normal day in the village â€Å"it was clear and sunny with the fresh warmth of a full-summer day’ Oackson 1). This is ironic because it starts off with this allusion of an enjoyable day but really by the end they end up killing one of their own villagers. Jackson does this to create a less serious atmosphere and reflect he attitudes of the community. Instantly, the boys are collecting rocks used to kill the lottery winner at the end of the story. This is an annual thing that the kids do because they have been raised and taught to do so. Because the kids are gradually and systematically exposed to these series of provoking objects and situations, they have become familiar with their actions making it an annual â€Å"game† for the kids (Linz 1). It has become a â€Å"game† for the kids because in the story it states that, â€Å"they gather together quietly for a while before they broke out into boisterous play’ and that they find the smoothest and roundest rocks to stuff in their pockets. † Because the kids are repeatedly exposed to this violence it diminishes the negative affect that was once upon them. They can no longer see it as wrong or feel remorse. They blindly accept this task thats given to them every year and don’t question it. The constant exposure to violence results in less physiological reactivity to other violent actions going on around them (Linz 1). The killing of the villagers is the violence going on. Collecting stones has become a ritual that they believe is right, because it is what they have been raised to do, even though it is wrong. They are Just kids and haven’t been taught that it is morally wrong to be killing friends and family. An example is at the end of the story when Mrs. Hutchinson’s son was handed a few pebbles to throw at his own mother and didn’t hesitate. When they are repeatedly exposed to violence 2). â€Å"Both beamed and laughed Oackson 6). This shows how they still find Joy in the situation even though they are about to kill a member of their family. The story goes on to talk about the families that are attending this so called lottery. The women are described as â€Å"housewives that gossip† Oackson 1) and aren’t as authoritative as the men. While the boys are all collecting the stones, the women are â€Å"standing aside talking among themselves. † In the story â€Å"the women began to call their children, and the children came reluctantly, having called four or five times. † When their father calls to them â€Å"they came quickly’ Oackson 1). It is as if their mothers hadn’t even said anything. This shows how the men are portrayed as the head of the house and they women more as Just the â€Å"housekeeper. † Their voices are not heard in this part of the story and neither at the end when Mrs. Hutchinson claims that, â€Å"It wasn’t fair† and no one does anything about it but continues with the est of the lottery. Women have been known to rarely work outside the house and live their lives caring for their husbands and children while taking care of their home. Most males are prevailed as the dominant gender. The women are seen on a lower status (Gender Prejudice 1). The lottery seems to be run mostly by the men of the town. They are the ones that are in charge of the black box and most of the ceremony. In the story the women are more resistant to the lottery while the men are the ones in control of it. This results in social paralysis of the town because no one wants to change how the lottery is run or who it’s run by. When its time for the drawing, Mr. Dunbar is unable to draw so because he and his wife don’t have kids the â€Å"Wife draws for the husband† Oackson 3). This all goes back to the role of the men and women in the village. The women are to produce many children so that it gives their family a better chance of surviving if their spouse is chosen in the first round (Oehlschlaeger 1). Men are the ones that go out and prevail in the business world while their wives stay home all day. When Mrs. Hutchinson arrives late she makes the statement that she â€Å"Thought my old man was out back stacking wood† and that she Wouldn’t have me leave m’dishes in the sink Oackson 2),† implying that her husband was doing the hard labor out in the yard while she was inside doing dishes. They mention that most of the ritual has been forgotten over the years. â€Å"The original paraphernalia for the lottery had been lost long ago Oackson 1). It has become a habit that no one wants to stop. The lottery has become a social paralysis over time, not allowing anyone to step up and want to change or stop what the lottery is doing to their village. No one questions why they still do it and no one even really knows why they do it in the first place. It has lost its significance over the years and become a yearly act that no one has tried to stop. They don’t want to make a new box because â€Å"No one wanted to upset even as much tradition as was represented by the black box Oackson 1). Tradition is a belief that has been passes down from generations, Just like in â€Å"The Lottery. † Traditions are passes on to gain that sense of continuity and bonding through each other. They are supposed to create that special connection between the families and in this case the town. That’s not what it does though, No one knows the significants of the lottery anymore and no one questions ither. Old Man Warner says, â€Å"Pack of crazy fools† to the people that want to give up the lottery. They think that breaking this time-honored tradition would result in them (Tradition 1), such as drawing the paper from the box and having the men draw first then the family. Even though â€Å"So much of the ritual had been forgotten or discarded Oackson 2),† they still keep that cultural sense to it. The reverence regularly provided in tradition indicates that people follow it willingly even if they don’t know why. â€Å"The people had done it so many times that they only half listened to the directions. † People follow tradition unconsciously because it’s what they are taught to do. This is their blind acceptance of the lottery and social paralysis of not wanting to change what they have continued to do for numerous years. Traditions are invoked to preserve the sanctity of the past family rituals. Societies keep traditions for social connectedness and memories (Tradition 3). Throughout the story, â€Å"The Lottery,† Shirley Jackson uses harsh examples of how the village blindly accepts their morally questionable traditions resulting in social paralysis. They don’t want to change anything about the lottery even though most of he significance has been lost over the years. There is evidence throughout the story that shows how the people blindly accept what they are doing to their town and do it without question. This all demonstrates how society never changes or grows resulting in the social paralysis of the story. Their is social paralysis going on all around the world. Even in Pakistan there are people refusing to act upon the issue of suicide happening at large rates ( Poverty and Social Paralysis. ) The lottery is Just an example of how some societies refuse to change even though what they are doing needs to or should be stopped. How to cite The lottery, Papers The Lottery Free Essays The Lottery Conformity or Pure Selfishness â€Å"The opposite for courage is not cowardice, it is conformity. Even a dead fish can go with the flow†-Jim Hightower. Have you ever been in a situation to where you know a person or a group is doing something wrong, but you choose not to do anything about it? Have you ever done something wrong for so long that it suddenly became a lifestyle for you? Jackson’s story, â€Å"The Lottery†, when it comes to being in the wrong or not speaking up, reminds me of many situations that I have been in or situations that I have witnessed. We will write a custom essay sample on The Lottery or any similar topic only for you Order Now Jackson tries to create multiple thoughts that could go through the readers’ mind. You could think, maybe this event has been around for so long, that it seems normal to the community. You could also think that everyone knows it’s wrong, but is afraid to speak up. In the beginning of the paragraph, I put in a quote about conformity. The quote is saying conformity is a result of a cowardly act. Going with the flow of society when you know it’s wrong is just as bad as not existing in society. â€Å"The Lottery† to me is a selfish act by the society. The beginning of â€Å"The Lottery†, Jackson starts out the story by explaining the scenery. She explains where the town is gathering and continues to explain what the people are doing for the lottery draw. She draws you in from the beginning because as you’re reading, the story automatically starts out with a setting and the town taking action for the lottery draw. At this point, the readers don’t know what the purpose for the lottery draw is. Jackson comes in on the first page saying, â€Å"They stood together, away from the pile of stones in the corner, and their jokes were quiet and they smiled rather than laughed†(Jackson 1). In the beginning, readers wonder what the stones are for and why they are relevant to the story. I think that is how she really captured the readers, by giving details about the lottery draw and not explaining what it was from the beginning. She gradually leads us to the end of the story when she’s talking about the whole town gathering the stones, and on the very last page, it explains what that the stones are the weapons for the person of the draw. In â€Å"The Lottery†, I couldn’t help to think of the movie â€Å"The Hunger Games†. In the movie â€Å"The Hunger Games†, each district sacrifices a human to fight for their community. They are very similar but very different stories. To me, this story is about the town sacrificing a human every year for the rest of the town to survive. â€Å"Next thing you know, they’ll be wanting to go back to living in caves, nobody work anymore, live that way for a while. Used to be a saying about ‘Lottery in June, corn be heavy soon’†(Jackson 5). The town never realized they were in the wrong and to them; this was a normal thing to do. Having the lottery draw every year was a way for the town to survive. â€Å"The lottery was conducted–as were the square dances, the teen club, the Halloween program†¦Ã¢â‚¬ (Jackson 1). They treated this event as if it were a community tradition. The only one in the story who took a stand was, Mrs. Hutchinson, the one who was chosen from the lottery draw. Jackson makes the people in this town look selfish, in a way. In the beginning of the story, Mrs. Hutchinson was actually late to the lottery draw. She stood there confidently and started to make jokes about the draw. Once her name was called, she shouted that the drawings are not fair and that we shouldn’t even have a lottery anymore. I think that was a big part in the story. That scene in the story made the readers realize that in this town, people are only looking out for themselves. They will not stand up for something that is wrong, or they will not go out of there way to do what is right unless its to save themselves. Years ago, back in my high school days, I was in a situation where I just sat back and watched something happen, when in the beginning I knew it was wrong. It was in the middle of our Homecoming week, and during that week the senior girls and the junior girls have a Powderpuff game. During that entire week, the seniors and juniors pull little pranks on each other, for example; toilet papering their houses and making funny chants to each other. My senior year, the entire group of girls decided to do something really mean to one of the girls in the junior class that they didn’t like. Most of us girls thought this was normal for homecoming weekend, because there have been girls in the past who have done much worse. Our senior girls printed off pictures of this girl and put her face and her body all over the school. At the time, I just stood there and watched in worry. I knew it wasn’t right from the beginning, but I never did anything to stop it because all of my friends were going along it. The townspeople in â€Å"The Lottery† just went along with the stoning like it was okay, even though in their minds, they had a feeling it wasn’t okay. In this situation, I was considered a townsperson. I went along with it, knowing it was wrong. In the end, I think her argument in the story is that she is trying to make us think about our lives now. She wants to know what would we do if this were how society acted now. Would you be a townsperson, or a stone thrower? Would you sacrifice another human to save yourself? â€Å"The Lottery†, for me, was a reminder that I need to stand up for what is right and I shouldn’t just follow the crowd. Jackson, S. (1948, June 26). American literature. Retrieved from http://www. americanliterature. com/author/shirley-jackson/short-story/the-lottery How to cite The Lottery, Papers