Shirley Phelps-Roper

Winning the lottery is something to be thankful for, but this town's lottery makes you thankful for not winning. On September 16th in the small town of Wellington, citizens were gathered to choose this year’s annual lottery winner, or in this case loser. This town uses a method of drawing names of people in the town, the winner is forced to be stoned to death by the townspeople. So, the people who were once your family, friends, and neighbors are now the people who put you to your death. This…

Familiar with the phrase, “calm before the storm?” In the short story titled “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson, this phrase holds true. It is a story of villagers in a small town and their annual tradition of having a lottery. Throughout the story, Jackson effectively uses story elements to set the “calm” and unexpectedly shock the readers with its “stormy” ending. In addition, the characters add to the plot to thicken the surprise. Therefore, “The Lottery,” with its misleading beginning and…

Today we live in a very different era than what we did 100 or maybe even 50 years ago. We have made plenty of changes to our daily lives to what we follow. It has not always been like this, as the story "the Lottery" by Shirley Jackson expresses. It starts with a positive scenario, but at the end, we learn about a horrible ancient tradition that is followed blindly by the inhabitants of a village, although they are unsure of why they have to commit such an inhumane act like stoning. However, the…

In the story “The Lottery,” written by Shirley Jackson, I was astonished by the outcome of Tessie being the winner, and yet she got stoned to death. The story was placed in 1948 in a small town where everybody knows everybody’s names. The theme of the story was that tradition isn’t always a good thing. The story shows that tradition should be questioned. This is my favorite story because it gets me thinking about my family’s traditions. The symbolism, foreshadowing, and irony in the story is…

Tesla Schmidt Mrs. Briscoe English 1 Honors 7 September 2017 Violence in “The Lottery” “The Lottery,” written by Shirley Jackson, features a small village with about 300 residents who anxiously wait for an event. At first the town seems to be cheerful, doing normal activities like children running around and adults talking to one another. As soon as the old man, Mr. Summer, enters with a box, an eerie feeling befalls the villagers. Replacing the before enthusiastic atmosphere. It just so happens…

In her short story, The Lottery, Shirley Jackson shows the reader that the basis of tradition stays consistent, but the minor details adapt to the new generations. Jackson uses strong examples of motifs of family and rules, symbolism of the tattered black box, and foreshadowing of how the story will end. Jackson uses all of these examples to help her reader figure out her mysterious meaning by the end of her short story. Shirley Jackson uses several motifs including family and rules in The…

The shifting of point of view in the story of “The Lottery” helps create the surprise ending for the reader by showing members of the village happily and excitedly getting ready for what seems to be a happy tradition when in actuality it’s a sacrifice. For example, the story starts out by describing it to be a beautiful summers day and the children of the village were out of school and happily playing with one another. The boys of the village were described to be playing a game of collecting and…

Traditions are found within every culture, every family, and every person. Many people fear breaking an outdated tradition although most people follow traditions out of habit without it having a significant meaning. “You must be in tune with the times and prepared to break with tradition.” This philosophical quote by James Agee, provokes the reader to contemplate their own traditions and question the reasonings behind them. The reluctance of people to reject outdated traditions and practices, is…

1. I think “The Lottery” takes place somewhere rural in the United States. As stated in the text, this story takes place in a small village with around 300 people. I think the writer Shirley Jackson made this setting appear familiar and ordinary because the people living in this village are normal people and they live in a normal village. I also think the writer tried to shock the readers at the end when we realize these people in this village aren’t so normal because they stoned Mrs.…

In the story, “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson the town’s people have a strange tradition. The tradition consists of a lottery, but it ends with the “winner” getting stoned by the rest of the town. Throughout the story, the reader finds out that in the end this tradition is pointless and does more harm than good. They should abandon the tradition of the lottery all together specifically because the lack of benefits from the tradition, the psychological affects it has on the participants and the…