Share your literary essay with the rest of the students that chose this short story. Take some time to read 2 or 3 other essays. Comment on them. Your comment should be about something you noticed them doing well from our lessons. For example, "You did a really good job explaining your evidence."
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ReplyDeletePART 1
ReplyDeleteIn the short story, “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson, there is an ancient tradition that leaves the character’s lives in jeopardy based on a piece of paper. These characters in their village risk their lives and could die each year. Yet, with that threat looming over them, they choose to laugh it off or make fun on that day. This just goes to show that they don’t take life too seriously, and when one lady is set to be killed, the villagers all eagerly jump on her. Life is very important so don’t take it for granted.
This custom the town has, it’s very ancient. Some villagers say the Lottery will be around forever. Others disagree saying the other towns have stopped the Lottery altogether. The latter also think that change is possible because they think that it’s pointless to keep wasting lives. They are pointing out it’s important to live.
With the custom of someone being killed every year, there comes the question of; how do they kill this victim. Well, they throw stones and pebbles at the person until they die. This seems like a brutal way to be killed, but it’s a tradition in the Lottery. It’s very important to not take your life for granted knowing you could die this way.
In the Lottery, it is also custom for men to draw a paper for the families. What if there is no adult male? Then the eldest son is to draw. Then from the family who had the marked paper, each member would draw. The member who drew the marked card would have stones thrown at them.
The whole point of someone dying in this story is believing a sacrifice will bring a good harvest. As you can probably tell, a sacrifice in real life has hardly anything to do with a good harvest. This can also be interpreted as keeping traditions, but clearly it means that life is very important so don’t take it for granted because the story focuses more about the people talking and laughing about life and what it means.
PART 2
ReplyDeleteAt the beginning of the story, Jackson writes, “Bobby Martin had already stuffed his pockets full of stones and the other boys soon followed his example.” This just shows that even younger villagers don’t value life and don’t take it seriously. This is a big problem because they won’t live life to the fullest, instead they will live in anticipation and always expect someone other than them will be chosen and eagerly kill them.
The villagers in the story seem to take life way to casually and they don’t pay attention when the lottery finally comes. When the rules are read, most of them don’t give their full apt attention.
Jackson uses many types of figurative language in this story. Repetition is used when she writes, “Good humoredly…” and “...soft laughter ran through the crowd,” and others along those lines. One reason this goes back to the theme of “Life is very important so don’t take it for granted” is that these characters are laughing at the possibility of dying. They aren’t taking it seriously. Another reason would be the question: How much are these people willing to sacrifice until they learn that laughing about death isn’t good? They seem to laugh every time they know someone has to die. That isn’t right.
Another form of figurative language Jackson uses in the Lottery, is imagery. Now, this is used many times, but there is one instance that shows the theme. Jackson writes,”The black box grew shabbier each year; by now it was no longer completely black, but splintered badly along one side to show the original wood color, and in some places faded or stained” The black box is a box they use to hold all of the slips of paper each year and never gets replaced. Jackson shows this is very important to the story by giving it tons of detail. By showing how old the box is, it’s showing just how many people have died just for a belief. By showing how important the box is in people’s lives, it’s expected to play a role. A role, which, nobody seems to take seriously.
At the end of her story, the one chosen for murder protests when she is selected to be sacrificed. The Lottery ends with her dying asking why it had to be like that.She valued life and regretted she didn’t live hers to the fullest.
“The Lottery” is a short story by Shirley Jackson, that takes place in the past on a sunny July morning. What makes this story unique is that one day of every year a lottery must be held, due to the rising number of population. The people that live in this town have to attend the lottery every year no matter what. Every head of family must go up to the black box and draw a slip of paper from it, eventually singling out one marked paper. At the end of this particular lottery, a woman named Tessie has to have the unfortunate end of brutal death. The author uses this to teach us lessons about gratefulness; don’t take your life for-granted because it could end at any moment.
ReplyDeleteAt the beginning of the day, right before the lottery is due to take place, the villagers run around greedily trying to find the most smooth and round rocks for the killing that is supposed to take place later on. As said in the story “Bobby Martin had already stuffed his pockets full of stones, and other boys soon followed his example, selecting the smoothest and roundest stones; Dellacroy eventually made a great pile of stones in one corner of the square and guarded it against the raids of other boys.” This shows how ungrateful they are for their lives because all they are thinking about is killing someone else when those stones that they are gathering could end up killing themself. Although it could be argued that the theme of this story is traditions and customs, the text actually says that the theme of this story is don’t take your life for granted. It shows even though the tradition is a big part of their lives, how even that doesn't matter when you’re the one or family of the one that is going to get killed. As the story progresses, we find out that the people are ready to kill whoever the person is that is selected. But, this makes you think if they ever wonder if that person could perhaps be them.
Right before the lottery is about to start, Mrs. Hutchinson, a character in the story, came running in and said “Clean forgot what day it was. Thought my old man was out back stacking wood.” This goes to show how ungrateful the villagers are for the life that they have been given because even the adults don’t take this day seriously and they view it as not more important than any other day as they can just forget about it. Later on though, when one of their family member gets killed, I wonder whether they are regretting their decision to not take this event seriously and to not treasure the time that they had with their family members
Although the whole concept of the lottery sounds horrible and unnecessary, there are some reasons as to why it needs to happen. One, being how there is a continual rise of population and they can't provide for all of the people that are living in in their village. Also, the lottery has been a tradition of many years, it seems unnatural to stop doing it after so many years, because the people are so used to it that they don't pay any mind to it when another year rolls around. As Jackson states, “The whole lottery took less than two hours, so it could begin at ten o’clock in the morning and still be through in time to allow the villagers to get home for noon dinner.” This shows the details of the lottery, and how it is such a big part in the villagers lives, and also how they really can't just leave the tradition one year. As said, “the lottery is such a huge tradition and part of their culture that they don't know any other way to live.”
ReplyDeleteJackson also uses figurative language to teach us a lesson about gratefulness. She uses figurative language to bring this lesson into context. One of the major elements that she used to show this lesson was imagery. For example, “The black box grew shabbier each year, by now it was no longer completely black but splintered badly along one side to show the original wood color, and in some places faded or stained.” This really emphasizes the fact of how much this lottery, and this box, plays a huge role in their lives, and how it is the one thing that determines whether they die or not. She also uses this form of imagery to show how long this tradition has been going on, to show how many people have died unexpectedly, and how many people had more life to live. This also shows how the tradition has been going on for so long, and how it impacts their lives so much.
Jackson also uses repetition to show us how little the villagers are taking this event and how unthankful they are for the life that they have been given. For example, “The people separated good-humoredly to let her through,” and “soft laughter ran through the crowd as the people stirred back into position after Mrs. Hutchinson's arrival.” This shows how unthankful they are for their lives because they are laughing and being funny in inappropriate moments. This sentence is also a really good example of repetition and showing the theme of this story. It helps to show how these adults are not really taking any of this event seriously, and how any of them, or their children could be brutally killed in just a few minutes.
At the end of the story, when the end of the lottery was coming near, a family was singled out to continue on with the lottery. From there, they went on drawing names from that family until they were left with just one, Tessie. It wasn’t until then that the shock really set in about what was happening, and how that family, just the day before, was living a normal life, and how now they were losing a member of their family due to the lottery. It goes to show that any moment your life could end, and to not take your life for granted because not everyone is as lucky as you.
The Lottery
ReplyDeletePart 1
“The Lottery” is a short story by Shirley Jackson that takes place in a village. It takes place in June, when they do the lottery. In the village lottery, the man of each family in the entire village draws a piece of paper from a black box for their family. One of the families in the village is chosen by whoever has a mark on their paper. Then, each family member draws from the box and whoever gets the paper with the mark on it wins. After that, the villages pick up stones and start throwing and hits the winner with the stones until they die. The tradition of the lottery has been going on every since the village was founded. Nearby villages have started to stop the lottery because it took to long and because they had big populations. The author teaches us to question our traditions, that a tradition should not be kept solely to have a tradition.
The tradition of the lottery has been going on for a very long time. So long in fact, the black box that was created when the village did the lottery for the first time was gone. Even the villagers had forgotten most of the ritual and meaning of the lottery. But, the villagers still remembered one part and so they thought that was enough to keep doing the lottery and because the lottery had been going on for a very long time. For this reason, they wanted to hold on to a tradition that they really do not need to keep any longer. Jackson states, “Although the villagers had forgotten the ritual and lost the original black box, they still remembered to use stones.”
Because of the age of the lottery, it has begun to fade away because it takes some time to have each family draw, so that is why the lottery had begun to get dropped by villages. In the story, the village’s population has been growing, and they even had to change part of the tradition to deal with that. To put it another way, the village had to change part of the tradition to keep doing it, but you shouldn’t have to change a tradition, therefore the lottery has become unnecessary. Jackson says, “Chips of wood, Mr. Summers had argued, had been all very well when the village was tiny, but now that the population was more than three hundred… it was more necessary to use something that would fit more easily in the black box.”
The oldest man in town, Old Man Warner, is always trying to keep the lottery around. Since he has participated in the lottery his entire life, he does not want the tradition that he grew up with to be gone. When confronted with the idea of dropping the lottery, he gets defensive. To point out, he is the major person trying to keep the lottery alive. Because of this, the village does not want to get rid of tradition, even if it is pointless. He says, “Used to be a saying about lottery in June, corn be heavy soon. First thing you know, we’d all be eating chickweed and acorns.”
Near the end of story, Old Man Warner says “People ain’t the way they used to be.” Here, Old Man Warner points out that he thinks people’s ideas are changing about the lottery. Now more and more people are beginning to think about ending the tradition. For this reason, people are beginning to realize that they no longer need to have a tradition.
The Lottery
ReplyDeletePart 2
The black box is a central part of the lottery. The black box is described in detail too. Jackson stated, “The black box grew shabbier each year: by now it was no longer completely black but splintered badly along one side to show the original wood color, and in some places faded or stained.” This shines some light on how old the box is. The box also appears to be something that you do not need anymore; something unnecessary. To put it another way, the box is explained as unnecessary to show that the lottery is something unnecessary.
Tessie Hutchinson is an important character in the story. She constantly questions if the lottery should still be practiced. She also ends up as the winner and as she watches the villagers pick up stones to throw at her, she repeats the line, “It isn’t fair.” It is important to realize that she thinks that they do not need the tradition, saying that it is going over the top, but she ends up the one that dies. The author put this in here to show that she thinks they do not need the tradition. This could also be interpreted that the theme is about the value of a human life, however it shows someone thinking that the tradition should end. She tells them it isn’t fair to try to tell them that the tradition is unnecessary.
At the beginning of the story, it states that the original paraphernalia of the lottery was gone, but the villagers still wanted to do the tradition. This means that they still did the lottery without the original equipment. Mr. Summers, the one who conducted the lottery, suggested to have the tradition changed,but the villagers always shrugged off this idea. They still wanted the tradition intact. The author shines the lottery in a bad light to show that you do not need a tradition.
The Lottery Literary Analysis
ReplyDelete“The Lottery”, by Shirley Jackson is about a town in the past that has a sacrifice each year. When the lottery comes, each town member pulls out a slip out of the black box. Only one member will receive a slip with a black spot. That citizen is then killed, supposedly granting the town a better harvest. Some of the town are starting to believe this has gone on for too long.
A few members of the town spoke about how other villages have given up the tradition. “There’s always been a lottery.” “Some places have already quit the lottery.” Old Man Warner even says he’s done it for 77 years. The lottery has been with this town forever, but most don’t understand its meaning.
The black box has grown shabbier each year. It has become splintered and stained. The meaning for the tradition is like the black box. The original paraphernalia has been lost like the original black box.
At the end of the story Mrs. Hutchinson was picked. Her last words were, “this isn’t fair!” She finally saw how unnecessary the lottery is. The town would be significantly different without the lottery. Although it could be said the story is about the value of human life, it is clearly about traditions. The story said nothing about a citizens worth in the village.
The lottery has been with the town forever. The meaning it had has been lost and changed. Very little actually know its true purpose. The villagers follow the tradition blindly. It’s no longer a tradition, but a habit.
I like how it's really simple and easy to understand.
DeleteI like how you say that in the end that it's not a tradition, but a habit.
DeleteTheme of “The Lottery” Short Story
ReplyDelete“The Lottery”, is a story made by Shirley Jackson. It takes place in the present in a moderately well sized village somewhere in the world. The story is about people gathering together and killing unlucky people, despite the title being “The Lottery”, and stoning them to death. The theme of the story would be long known traditions can deceive people into making bad decisions. This is shown through the dialogue, the interaction between characters, and some figurative language.
One of the ways the theme is shown in the story is through the dialogue. The way it is shown is that most if not all of the village still believes in the lottery. As they talk to each other, they wonder who is going to be chosen, instead of showing fear that they might die on page one paragraph 3 , they show excitement to kill people for a better harvest.
Another way that they show the theme is the character interaction. In the beginning on the first page in the second paragraph, the little kids are picking up “good smooth stones” to throw later. They might think that it might be a game or that its ok to kill people. As well as at the end of the story when they wail rocks at the lady.
The finale way is through figurative language, like symbols and repetition. Through symbolism, we see that the black box can represent death in a sense. People who are chosen from the box, get killed, and the color black is often associated with unjust or impure things such as murder.
Another way is through repetition. The obvious form of repetition is the black box being repeated again and again. But if you look closer the Old Man on page four the last two sentences says he’s been in the lottery “77 years” which is a long time, proving that the tradition has been around awhile.
While this could just mean that for 77 years of his life, most of it contained the lottery, which would mean that the tradition wasn’t around for that long, but earlier in the story it said that this was around “since we were a small village” implying that it has been around since the villages birth.
To summarize the theme of the story with the evidence from it, it’s a long tradition, a popular one, and a , morally messed up one. So don’t follow traditions like lost sheep just to fill the slot where a tradition should be just because it’s a famous one.
I like how you used a lot of complex sentences, it spreads the meaning without splitting it up.
DeleteThe theme of “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson
ReplyDelete“The Lottery” is a short story by Shirley Jackson that focuses on a village that has a tradition that they do every year. They believe that this tradition brings rain to the crops, but the catch is that they have to kill. The author shows us that long known traditions can deceive people into making bad decisions by using dialogue, character interaction and figurative language.
The first sight of evidence that they believe so much in this tradition is dialogue. When it was the day of tradition, many people were talking about another village. Another village near them is thinking about quitting the lottery. Some villages already quit it. “Old man Warner snorted “Pack of crazy fools.”” This shows that many people still believe the tradition; they believe that if someone doesn't do the tradition, it’s wrong.
There’s even more evidence when they are grabbing the paper for the lottery. Since only guys can do the tradition, the ladies stay back and chatter. They chatter about who they think got selected. Instead of a scared tone for whoever got chosen, it’s more of an exciting tone. They talk like they can’t wait. “Suddenly, all the woman began to speak at once saying “Who is it?” “Who’s got it?”” Since they still believe in the tradition, that they don’t actually feel scared but excited for the tradition.
Later, near the end, the one that got picked yells ““It isn’t fair, it isn’t right,”” Maybe just now they are realizing this isn’t right. That they shouldn’t just follow a tradition without using common sense first. After all those years, they are just beginning to realize that this is wrong. They started the tradition when they started to make the village. And just now after years and decades, they are realizing that it isn’t the whole truth. They believed it a lot that it got rid of any judgment they had.
It’s also not just what they say, but what they do. Before the guys went up to get the paper, many kids were grabbing stones for the chosen. “Bobby Martin had already stuffed his pockets full of stones, and the other boys soon followed his example,” This shows that the children also join in since they don’t know what's bad or good is since they are still little. They are influenced by their parents, which strongly believe in the tradition.
However, the more unbelievable part is when they start killing the chosen. Everyone joins in, even the children. None of them hesitates for a second. This could be interpreted as murder among humans isn’t right, but clearly means traditions can influence peoples decisions because they don’t do it because they want to kill. They do it for the sake of tradition. “As the villagers moved in on her, a stone hit her on the side of the head. Old Man Warner was saying “Come one, come one, everyone.” And then they were upon her.” This shows that the villagers don’t listen, it’s just like of the tradition controlled them like puppets, They believe it’s fine, with no hint of awareness.
Part 2
ReplyDeleteThe author also uses symbolism to represent the theme. Earlier in the book, when they grab the paper, they get it from a black box. Whenever the black box is around or used, it could symbolize two things. It can symbolize death, or bad luck since the color black in many places is bad. It also symbolizes that this tradition has been going for so long that they don’t change the old box because it’s one of the things they know of the original tradition. “Mr.Summers spoke frequently to the villagers about making a new box, but no one liked to upset even as much tradition was represented by the black box.” This shows us that they don’t want to lose what's left of the tradition since it’s strongly tied to the village.
Another thing that the book repeats is this phase. “Seventy-seventh year I have been in the lottery. Seventy-seventh time.” The author states it twice to emphasize it how long it’s been going. Obviously, it’s been going longer than that but he wants us to know it's been longer than a couple of decades.
In the end, when the chosen is yelling that it isn’t right, no one listens. This leaves the reader wondering if they continued to use the tradition. Do they care? Well, no one knows what happens next. Shirley Jackson leaves us questioning about what happened next if the people are still mesmerized from the tradition.
I like how you used a lot of detail and made it very long.
Delete“The Lottery” is a short story written by Shirley Jackson. The story takes place in a village back in an older time. This village has an annual tradition of putting little slips of paper into an old black box. The person who pulls the slip with the black spot gets sacrificed, this is called the lottery. Originally they thought this would bring the harvest, but now they slowly realizing that they don’t need it. The author uses this to tells us that sometimes traditions can lose meaning over time.
ReplyDeleteOne of the most important lines in the text is “Although the villagers had forgotten the ritual and lost the original black box, they still remembered to use stones.” In other words, they only know the tool for the ritual, not the ritual itself. Kind of like playing a card game you lost the instructions too. You have the cards for it but you don’t know how to play it.
Sometimes characters mention what it was like when the village was younger. Old Man Warner says a saying from when he was younger: “Lottery in June corn be heavy soon.” He also states that if they don’t have a lottery they won’t have a harvest. This shows that they once believed the lottery had importance, but know they are starting to see that they don’t need it to survive. Another character brings up the fact that other villages have stopped doing the lottery and are doing fine without it. Old Man Warner says that the people who did stop are a “pack of crazy fools” This says that some people still believe the benefits of the sacrifice.
“The black box grew shabbier each year: by now it was no longer completely black but splintered badly on one side to show the original wood color, and in some places faded or stained.” The author describes the black box almost as if it meant something more than just being the box. In some places it almost sounds as if the author was describing the tradition: “and in some places faded or stained.” When it says faded it resembles the tradition being old and slowly being stopped. When it says stained it makes the tradition seem imperfect and stained with the blood of the sacrifices.
At the end of the book, Tessie Hutchinson pulls the slip of paper with the black mark. But before she dies she starts yelling it isn’t fair. This refers to the whole thing not being fair. The one sacrifice isn’t fair because someone dies for a belief of harvesting. It also means that it isn’t right because they still do it knowing that other places have stopped and are perfectly fine.
Overall traditions can be a fragile thing that can be lost with the right amount of time whether for a good reason or bad. This happens during the story when the author mentions that they forgot the ritual; the tradition is slowly being lost. A character says that some villages have stopped which means it is being slowly lost as more villages stop.
The final way the author portrays her lesson is in the final scene. While the lady who won the lottery is having stones pelted at her, she repeatedly cries out that “This isn’t right”. This is another way the author tries to indirectly tell us what she wants us to think.
ReplyDeleteWhat exactly does the author want us to think? I believe it goes deeper than the fact that the act of stoning someone is wrong. The author is more so implying that the tradition is not right. There is no reason to keep such a ridiculous tradition.
Let us return to the “wise” words of the old man. “There’s always been a lottery”. Does this statement make you want to continue a tradition that you may rather dislike? The lone fact that your tradition has been held for years before you before you, does it sway you in the direction of keeping that tradition? I would think not.