The New Yorker

The short story “The Lottery,” written by Shirley Jackson, takes place on the morning of June 27th, in a small village. Mr. Summers, the town event coordinator, brought out a black box that contained slips of paper and called out the names of families. All of the slips of paper inside the box were blank, except one. On the back of the slip, there was a black dot and that is used to choose the family. The Hutchinson family was the chosen family; they each returned the slip and drew one more time.…

The box that holds the fate of the people in “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson represents death, the tradition of the townspeople, and alludes to the underlying theme that cautions against following tradition blindly. The short story involves a lottery that the people of the town participate in, where instead of winning money, they “win” death. It follows the Hutchinson family, specifically the matriarch, Tessie Hutchinson, who will end up “winning.” The box that holds the slips of paper that…

What is the lottery about?The story is about a small town which observes an annual ritual known as “the lottery”. To begin with,the villagers might participated because,they wanted their crops to grow. So that’s why they mostly did it,but they were nervous about it, because they didn’t know who was the one the was going to get stone at.But they will still do it because they wanted their crops to be blessed.And it was a small town so that’s why everybody did it.The whole town people wanted their…

Identity is a funny thing. It is like Lego blocks and it has many studs where additional bricks can be placed. Walter Mitty’s brick is bombarded and controlled by his wife. This changes how he lives his life making him both helpless and mentally weak. This leads Mitty to feel that fantasies are a way of transporting himself into a more manly and more desirable person. This is depicted through the use of symbolism to create a better understanding of the sequences found throughout the work. James…

“The Lottery” and “The ones Who Walk Away from Omelas” When comparing the "The Lottery" by Shirley Jackson and "The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas" by Ursula K. Le Guin, it is easy to see that there are only a few minor differences compared to the obvious similarities. Both stories are about suffering of one person for happiness of the others.The point with both stories is that it is morally wrong for the society to enjoy life as a consequence of the agony experienced by another person. Both…

The Old Tradition of the Lottery There are so many customs in the world today that people conduct without thinking. “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson is an example of this process. This story is about one town that performs a certain ritual amongst them annually. They hold a lottery each year, where the townspeople pick slips of paper out of a black box and they have a tradition of stoning whoever wins, a custom they continue, simply because they have always done so. Although the word “lottery”…

employee who works in the same company named Cheryl Milhoff (Kristen Wiig) and hope to find a way to date her. He tries several ways to get closer to her and steal her heart. However, he gets an opportunity to have a real adventure experience when Life's new owners send him on a mission to find that unique 25th picture which is going to be used for the final print issue. The film sparks an important aspect which is how the loss of the people who you love could shape your…

Following the crowd can have disastrous consequences this means if someone follow the crowd they might end up doing something they really do not want to do. In the short story “The Lottery” (By Shirley Jackson) they have a lottery and when someone wins they get stoned to death by their village, even their family has to throw rocks at them! Unfortunately when Tessie Hutchinson is picked her family has to throw rocks at her. One of her friends throws the biggest one she could barely hold it. In…

were to be stoned to death. In “The Lottery”, Jackson uses the the symbolism of the lottery, and the black box, to develop the theme of death. In the story it goes on to say “Every year, after the lottery, Mr. Summers began talking again about a new box, but every year the subject was allowed to fade off without anything’s being done”. The author displaces this technique so effectively although the story is set back from the late 1940’s a lot of what she wrote can be seen in today's…

In Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery” and Ursela Le Guin’s “The Ones Who Walk Away From Omela’s,” sacrifice is the main thing that keeps each town happy and comfortable. Both pieces revolve around the suffering of one person to improve the quality of lives to many in their towns. Each town finds it necessary to have a scapegoat to do harm to an innocent citizen as a sacrifice to benefit and ease all. The communities can continue on their traditions as long as the individual’s well-being is…