Amina Lawal

The dictionary defines the word “blind” as the lack of perception, awareness, or discernment. Symbolism, irony, and foreshadowing is used in many ways by the author in her short story called “The Lottery”. Shirley Jackson uses these literary devices to emphasize the idea that people will follow traditions blindly if that was how they were raised. “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson is a short story about a strange tradition. Once a year, the town gathers together and one member from each household’s name is put into a drawing. When a person’s name is drawn, their entire family has to come forward to draw a slip of paper from the black box. The family member that gets the paper with the black dot becomes the village’s target for stoning to death; children are no exception. After the ritual is completed villagers return home as if nothing out of the ordinary has occurred. Every person in the village has participated in this tradition. They all started at a very young age, and because everyone has always been a part of it, nobody sees the problem. It’s considered normal in their small town. Some examples of symbolism that are shown throughout the story are the characters names. Although names aren’t a huge part of the story, they are very important. For example the name Mr. Graves was used as a symbol. Mr Graves was the postmaster. He carried the three legged stool to the center of the square and people kept their distance purposely, leaving a space between themselves and the…

In the short story, “The Lottery”, Shirley Jackson uses imagery and symbolism to show that evil can be present in the most innocent environment, resulting in society being tainted with dark illusion. Superstitious tradition symbolized an important role to the people in this village. Mr. Summers a man that was in charge of the majority of the events in the town, always spoke about making a new black box but never did. (134) The people of the village would rather keep the same box rather than…

“The Lottery” is a short story written by Shirley Jackson. This story takes place in a small town on a clear sunny day on the 27th day of June. The children of the town arrive first and begin collecting stones and piling them together until their parents call them to order. Mr. Summers calls each head of the household to come forward to a black old wooden box, where each select a slip of paper. Once the men of the house have chosen a paper slip, Mr. Summers allows everyone to open the paper and…

In Alison Jaggar’s essay “Saving Amina,” she attempts to detail the inadequacies with which Western feminists often approach foreign women’s rights issues. A large portion of her essay is a crusade against essentialism, which she defines as a characteristically Western view of women’s rights which is “crucially incomplete” due to a lack of cultural relativism (Rosenthal 207). The problem is that Jaggar denies this cross cultural accountability to feminist philosophers and then later makes claims…

who is not known to be married is clear evidence of extramarital sex.”(“Will She Be Stoned to Death” 1) In Nigeria, Amina Lawal was convicted of adultery according to the Islamic court. The Muslim law states that she will be buried to the neck and stoned “until life leaves her body.” Similar to Hester, Amina, a woman, is taking full punishment for a crime committed by both man and woman. “Villagers see her as a kind of Islamic Hester Prynne. ‘Anyone who commits a crime against our religion…