The Lottery Rhetorical Analysis

Figurative language is a strategy that authors have used over the years to give the reader different perspectives on the piece that they are reading about. In her short Story, “The Lottery”, Shirley Jackson writes about a small town that has a tradition known as the lottery. The way that the lottery works, is that there is black box with pieces of paper in it. The pieces of paper have the family names of every family in town. The last name standing then has to go into an elimination round with the people within the family. Each family member draws out of the black box, and the family member that pulls the slip of paper with the black dot gets stoned to death. In her short story, Jackson utilizes symbolism in the form of Old Man Warren, the black box and the pile of stones to demonstrate how tradition can be blinding without even knowing it.

Participation trophies send a dangerous message. I have many trophies,but i worked hard for these trophies. Everyone on my team deserves my team. For the people who think giving out the same award at the end of the year to all the children; i am  sorry to inform you that your hurting the child more than not giving the child the trophy at all. Children need to know the importance of working hard than someone else. In life you do not make the same amount as your boss makes just because you show up on time everyday. Why would the kids who just show up to practice everyday vs the kids the more elite kids get the same reward. Life does not work like that.

Shirley Jackson is often regarded as one of the most brilliant authors of the twentieth century. Born in San Francisco in 1916, she spent the majority of her adolescence writing short stories and poetry (Allen). While she is known best for her supernatural stories, one of her most popular works is a short story called “The Lottery”. The lottery takes place in a small village in which once a year on June 24th, the town population is gathered. After the gathering, there is a drawing to see which family is chosen, after the family is chosen, another drawing takes place to see who is stoned to death. In the New Yorker's magazine book review hailed “The Lottery” as “one of the most haunting and shocking short stories of modern America and is one of the most frequently anthologized” (Jackson). This review stems heavily from Jackson’s brilliant use of irony, symbolism, and foreshadowing. However, perhaps what truly stands out is how Jackson is able to wrap all of those elements together as a way to show an overarching theme of the corruption that exists in human nature. While the real source of “The Lottery’s” inspiration is unclear, there has been heavy speculation that the roots lie heavily in the actions of the holocaust and the actions that took place during World War II. Regardless of the source material, a general consensus can be made that the plot of the lottery is a dark reflection of human actions.

            As the story goes on, each the following paragraphs contains subtle clues as to what is going to unfold.  After all of the children have gathered around, the men began to fill the square, followed by the women.  "They stood together, away from the pile of stones in the corner" (p.422).  The fact that they stood away from the stones, again, informs the reader that the stones will play a significant role.  Nervousness amongst the people is manifested due to the children's reluctance to join their parents in the square.  At this particular moment, there is a feeling that this lottery is not going to have a pleasant outcome.

In light of Georgia’s lottery, which is supposed to help minorities to fulfill the American dream, it has been manipulated to help those who don’t need the help. By raising requirements such as increasing the number of honors and AP courses students need to take, altering its purpose of helping minorities in education, furthering my belief that using the lottery is unethical.

The reader is once again put on the wrong scent through clever use of seemingly useless details when she reveals the strong impact it has on the community, it promotes unavoidable barbarism. Jackson overloads the reader with even more innocence by including the children playing in the background while they wait for the lottery to start. The kids had just started their summer break and they “broke into boisterous play,” they played with rocks till made “a great pile of stones.” Children are the prime suspects of innocence, they lack the intellect to know what’s right or wrong and they are simply too young to be thought of as devilish creatures. However, the same pile of stones they made is used to kill Tessie Hutchinson and the “innocent” children participate in the murder. Jackson includes the fact that the villagers converse to show the calmness of the villagers themselves. The men got together and talked of “planting and rain, tractors and taxes,” they also joked quietly where they “smiled rather than laughed.” The whole ordeal is well executed and shows that the villagers know how to converse formally, it gives the impression that they are worry-free of the lottery. When time comes the reader can see that their calm impression is fake and that they are actually very nervous about the consequences of

Hutchinson is complaining how her being chosen to be sacrificed is unfair and is a tradition that shouldn’t be carried on. She believes that the box system is unfair because she was chosen from her family to be stoned to death by the village. Because of this, Ms. Hutchinson believes that the lottery is unfair that she is chosen to die. During the beginning of the Lottery, Mrs. Hutchinson is neutral and doesn’t show any expression of the choosing. Her attitude change when she finds out that her family is chosen and is later narrowed down to her. This is shown to be a hypocritical reaction because when others are chosen she doesn't care but, when her family is chosen, she becomes angered. When she was chosen, she is expected by the village to

The box I checked was “It was difficult to read.” I chose that box because the short story had very little information on its back story, location and date. The short story had more of western language and old traditions that I can’t really understand or relate to.

“The Lottery” also depicts a wonderful and pleasing New England village. The day is depicted to be bright, with fragrant flowers and green lawns. The children are fidgety and boisterous do to the ending of school for the summer. The story talks about the children and what they’re doing while they wait for the adults to gather, “Bobby Martin had already stuffed his pockets full of stones, and the other boys soon followed his example, selecting the smoothest and roundest stones,” the act of gathering stones seems like

The Lottery by Shirley Jackson is about a town of 300 people who have an annual lottery to decide who is stoned to death (stones thrown at them until they die). The purpose of the lottery is for good luck with the harvest and crops. The townspeople only remember the purpose and tidbits of the traditional lottery. Because it is a long-standing tradition, the town is too afraid to change anything or give up the lottery entirely.

In "The Lottery" the fact that the Expostion id missing is add on the supenese of the story. Without the background knoweledge of the lottery it creates a misleading endung. hen we think of the lottery we think of winning a large sum of money. So when the story started off on a seemimgly perfect day and we the readers ouldnt expect that it will not expect the evil motives of that day. If the expostion was present the ending would not be as surprising or heart wretching as it is and the lottery they were partipcating in was to figure out which one of the citzens would be killed. But the absense of the expostion made us egar to read the story so that we could figure out why no one wanted to draw the lottery. Also not knowing why the wife was

When society decides that they would rather follow others, no more leaders are left to follow and society breaks down. When people follow, they lose beliefs, choose deception over honesty, and lose what they love the most. As someone begins to follow they start believing what they follow, instead of their own beliefs. Thinking that they have to be like another person forces people to lie about themselves. Losing someone or something they love the most doesn’t seem important to a person who allows other people to control them. People should not allow others to lead their lives when they could have their own.

Lastly, Shirley Jackson incorporates various instances of irony, a technique that involves surprising, interesting, or amusing contradictions or contrasts, in her short story. For instance, the short story takes place in the morning, and the day was “clear and sunny...fresh warmth of a full-summer day; the flowers were blossoming profusely and the grass was richly green” (Jackson 1). This illustrates that “the day is beautiful and everything seems right with the world, and yet before the day is over, someone will be stoned to death” (enotes 1). This is an example of dramatic irony because we think of a lottery as something harmless and there being a pleasant surprise, however, it results in something completely different. In “The Lottery”,

Introduction: In, “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson, the use of a death “lottery” was used in the spoken town while other towns around it had stopped the deadly tradition. Jackson subtly uses the idea that there is more strength in numbers and social throughout the text. I chose to write about this topic to how show the power of numbers and social norms affect reform because the short story portrays valuable information of the target. Statement of Purpose:

“The Lottery”, by Shirley Jackson, is set in the summer of 1984. It focuses on how social pressure of being a man cause individuals to blindly follow society’s expectations. This in turn causes them to have a low self esteem and develops fear. On the other hand, when leaders of a society are close-minded it leads to the oppression of individuals’ ideas. It leaves the individual no other option but to follow the tradition laid out and feel rejected. Overall, if individuals follow society’s expectations blindly, without seeing the reality, they will experience emotional pain.