Shirley Phelps-Roper

Although Shirley Jackson wrote a few novels and quite a lot of short stories, she is noted for her writing, “The Lottery”. Jackson was quite famous for her shocking and horror ends in her fiction writing that are quite opposing to her appearance and manner. She was noted for exploring oddness in everyday life, and The Lottery, perhaps her most classic work in this respect, studies humankind's capacity for evil within a modern, accustomed, American scenery. The title “The Lottery”, tells you…

Civilization People are only as good as where they come from; they are only as good as what society can tell them to be. Humans derived from cave men and, as some people may argue, monkeys. The animals and people which we view as savage, we came from. Shirley Jackson argues in “The Lottery” that this savage behavior is still embedded in human nature. In this short story, a seemingly ordinary village holds an annual lottery that takes a turn for the dark side. “The Lottery,” portrays society…

inherit our tradition from our ancestor, therefore, it is our responsibility to continue it. However, would you follow a tradition without questioning it? Would you be willing to sacrifice a person to benefit your lifestyle? “The Lottery” written by Shirley Jackson and “The Village” directed by M. Night Shyamalan will show you how life would be in a society where people are loyal blindly to their tradition. Although each of them tells a different story, they both depict the danger of following…

“The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson is a short story full of dramatic twists and turns. It begins with a sweet day, and continues onto making the readers believe there is an exciting and pleasurable tradition going on. After reading deeper, we discover this tradition is something people seem to be wary about, but don’t discover why until the ending. Shock is everything we experience once the short story is over because all along, the so called lottery, wasn’t a chance these people wanted to get or…

Similarities of symbols in “The Masque of the Red Death” and “The Lottery” There is always an inevitability of an outcome at ones point of life. Poe’s story about “The Masque of the Red Death” shows how the partygoers becomes folly and avoid death at all cost. Jackson’s story about “The Lottery” shows how Tessie mentioning the fact that the lottery was unjust lead to her own death. Both authors present vividly in their stories, the inevitability of each characters own death. Poe paints a picture…

What is her claim? • Tradition, with its rituals, can continue mindlessly, regardless of reality. o For the village people, the lottery is something to win.  The lottery is tradition and is just accepted.  The lottery brings a full corn harvest (i.e., feeds the village). o The reality: winning is death by stoning to cause an unknown change. What does she use to support her decisions? • The village’s common acceptance of, expectations in, and nostalgia for the lottery and the change it brings…

Traditions have an impact on our lives, influencing our relationships with friends and family in either positive or negative ways. As many probably know on events like christmas or birthdays friends and family come together to give each other presents and spend time together as a form of annual tradition. It is mostly a positive tradition strengthening relationships and lay fights beside. The Lottery also starts in a positiv way. The weather is nice and everybody seems to have fun. But unlike…

Taking the Same Chance: A Formal Approach to “The Lottery” How would one handle the knowledge that today was the day in which someone amongst the community, including oneself, would undoubtedly die? In Shirley Jackson’s, “The Lottery” tradition calls for an annual sacrifice in order to keep a town’s crops plentiful. While this may seem extreme, the idea of allowing such things to continue based on the notion that it is the way things have always been done is none too absent in most areas of the…

“To an Athlete Dying Young” & “Ex-Basketball Player” In Both, “To an Athlete dying Young” and “Ex basketball player”, We experience several poetic devices that compare and contrast eachother in these fairly similar poems. In the poem written by John Updike, “Ex-Basketball Player”, Flick a fictional character is stuck in a loop and his daunting past wrecks his current future. In this poem flicks past shows a young basketball player is praised for setting several records and being a country…

In the short story “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson, a peculiar ritual occurs every year. Rather than what mundanely the connotation of the lottery, which is conventionally a positive acquiring victory, this type of lottery will have detrimental consequences. By normalizing the lottery, Jackson edifications most of the citizen’s fear. To plenarily understand “The Lottery,” it avails to analyze the elements of theme, characterization, and symbolism. A reoccurring theme in “The Lottery” is the…