Shirley Ardell Mason

Utility and the Survival Lottery In his 1975 paper 'The Survival Lottery', Harris proposed a scheme referred to as the 'survival lottery', which, roughly speaking, consists of individuals who have volunteered to be part of the program, agreeing to the possibility of having their named drawn in a type of lottery. The person whose name is called is then sacrificed for their organs, which are transplanted into four or five others who will die without receiving healthy organs. For Harris, the point…

centuries past, and centuries to come. If you challenge rituals and have no evidence that they are wrong, then you were deemed an alienated member of the society ruled by an obscured judgement of the government. In the short stories The Lottery by Shirley Jackson and The Watchers by Florence Engel Randall, two women who did not follow the accustomed lifestyle of the rest of society, eventually paid for their actions with their lives. Societies whose citizens blindly follow what they believe is…

Traditions and Small-Town Values Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery” is a shocking tale of tradition and the horrifying results when are taken to the extreme. The author’s word choice, setting, and overall tone used in conveying the story sends a powerful message to the reader. The style and diction used by Jackson to create a familiar and comforting setting and tone in her tale of senseless violence both brings the violence of human nature closer to home and reveals the darker nature of tradition,…

Symbolism and Irony, “The Lottery” The Lottery is a classic short story written in 1948 by Shirley Jackson. The story describes a small village that partakes in an annual lottery with a brutal, unexpected twist. Several literary elements are used throughout the short story to revel its symbolic meaning. In The Lottery, Shirley Jackson uses situational irony, as well as symbolism to convey a symbolic message to the reader. A major literary element found throughout The Lottery is the use of…

if he or she were actually present in the story. A setting of a story must be colorful, descriptive and inquisitive. Shirley Jackson did a tremendous job of creating such a setting in the story “The Lottery.” The setting of the village is that of what a reader might see in an old British film Starting the story as if the reader was already present within the village, Shirley Jackson began to play with the readers imaginations. For example the author gave a vibrant…

Though tattered and splintered, old and worn, the black box remains. Year after year the same old black box, with some possible minimal repairs if needed, is used in the lottery. No one wants to upset tradition by altering it in any major way or make a new one. It is not exactly the original black box but it contains pieces that were part of the original, small pieces that survived its storage and use throughout time. The villagers have no absolute knowledge of how the lottery began, yet…

short story has its own style, form and content although authors tend to add their own little touches to them, which makes each one somewhat different to the others. A good example of an authors touch within a short story would be "The Lottery" by Shirley Jackson, since she uses a fair amount of symbolism in order to relate the contents of the story to the story itself, such as the names of the characters, objects as well as certain events. Symbolism is used a lot in many different writings, but…

The stories “The Lottery” by Jackson and “A Rose for Emily” by Faulkner were also written in the 20th century. By reading these two stories, one can find the central conflict in both is individual versus society theme. It’s drawing the individual struggle against collectively accepted rules. Both also characterized the struggles one goes through to avoid the loss of family traditions during these changing times, in “The Lottery”, Tess Hutchinson is a victim while Emily is a victim in “A Rose for…

These can be simple, from certain recipes to the way children are raised. However traditions can change overtime. “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson follows one such tradition. One that with time, loses aspects and meaning. Jackson 's short story written in 1948 follows this theme throughout the exposition to the resolution of the story. In “The Lottery” written by Shirley Jackson a diminutive farm town follows an important tradition. Each year a “lottery” is held in order to bring fruitful…

Authors often use their stories as commentaries to convey the societal shortcomings of their societies. Hence, they also promote an alteration in social and or personal values. Evidently the commentary revealed throughout the works of Ambrose Bierce, Shirley Jackson, and Tim O’Brien is the fear of being a social outcast, which then alters the values within the characters present in the stories. In the short story On the Rainy River the protagonist of the story Tim O’Brien is faced with…