Late Horror writer Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery” begins with a melancholy scene of children collecting stones while parents and older ones prepare for the town’s annual lottery.
After all are gathered for the lottery, the cheery feeling that the short story initially portrayed are soon replaced with gloom and a prickle of fear that strokes the reader’s back ever so gently whenever Bill Hutchinson’s family are selected as the “winners” of the lottery, his wife,
Tessie’s, objections to the fairness of the lottery, and the desperate pleas as the family is told to draw among themselves for the true “winner” of the lottery. Tessie Hutcherson’s cries for help and mercy after she is selected as the absolute “victor” of the lottery ushers the senses …show more content…
Throughout the short story,
Jackson invites the reader to use Historicism in order to analyze the method she used to criticize blind obedience to authority.
The infamous short story “The Lottery” was written shortly after the end of World War
II, which helped America escape the Great Depression and the world learned of one of the greatest atrocities ever committed by Germany; The Holocaust. With these events in mind, only then can the reader begin to properly analyze what Jackson was trying to accomplish with …show more content…
In both
“The Lottery” and world history, this blind obedience to a broken system resulted in the deaths of what seemed like a few for the betterment of the many.
As mentioned in “The Lottery” by the character Old Man Warner “‘Used to be a saying about ‘Lottery in June, corn be heavy soon’’”(308). This one sentence reveals the entire purpose behind the founding of the lottery; the people are hungry. One would hesitate to believe that any reasonable human being would ever be driven to kill their friend, neighbor, or even family member just for a bite to eat. However, if the reader considers what occurred during the Great
Depression, then this argument begins to take on some credibility. During those desperate times, there were accounts of family heads killing others, leaving their families behind, or even committing suicide just so that the rest of their family may be able to eat and survive at least another day. People blindly following the lead of those who panicked when the stocks began to
4 WOODS dip caused this entire crisis. Jackson did not hesitate to place such a vivid scenario in her
After all are gathered for the lottery, the cheery feeling that the short story initially portrayed are soon replaced with gloom and a prickle of fear that strokes the reader’s back ever so gently whenever Bill Hutchinson’s family are selected as the “winners” of the lottery, his wife,
Tessie’s, objections to the fairness of the lottery, and the desperate pleas as the family is told to draw among themselves for the true “winner” of the lottery. Tessie Hutcherson’s cries for help and mercy after she is selected as the absolute “victor” of the lottery ushers the senses …show more content…
Throughout the short story,
Jackson invites the reader to use Historicism in order to analyze the method she used to criticize blind obedience to authority.
The infamous short story “The Lottery” was written shortly after the end of World War
II, which helped America escape the Great Depression and the world learned of one of the greatest atrocities ever committed by Germany; The Holocaust. With these events in mind, only then can the reader begin to properly analyze what Jackson was trying to accomplish with …show more content…
In both
“The Lottery” and world history, this blind obedience to a broken system resulted in the deaths of what seemed like a few for the betterment of the many.
As mentioned in “The Lottery” by the character Old Man Warner “‘Used to be a saying about ‘Lottery in June, corn be heavy soon’’”(308). This one sentence reveals the entire purpose behind the founding of the lottery; the people are hungry. One would hesitate to believe that any reasonable human being would ever be driven to kill their friend, neighbor, or even family member just for a bite to eat. However, if the reader considers what occurred during the Great
Depression, then this argument begins to take on some credibility. During those desperate times, there were accounts of family heads killing others, leaving their families behind, or even committing suicide just so that the rest of their family may be able to eat and survive at least another day. People blindly following the lead of those who panicked when the stocks began to
4 WOODS dip caused this entire crisis. Jackson did not hesitate to place such a vivid scenario in her