The New Yorker

People have a greater chance at getting struck by lightning than winning the lottery, in the stories “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson and The Hunger Games directed by Gary Ross people would much rather get struck by lightning. In “The Lottery” a small town of nearly three hundred people gather in the center of town on the beautiful morning on June twenty seventh. A tradition of the town where families draw paper slips from a black box sitting in the middle of town, whichever family draws the…

Growing Up: Conformity or Insurgency At any age in life, decisions are prominent. Whether it pertains to an adolescent choosing to rebel against his/her parents, or an adult choosing to conform into adult reality. In every situation or circumstance two choices persist, conformity or insurgency. In John Updike’s story “A & P,” the main character, Sammy, is faced with a decision that could potentially be life changing. When Sammy is close to being engulfed in the status represented by A&P, he is…

Cotton E. R. Evelyn R. Cotton Ms. Pittman English 102 February 21, 2017 The Fiction Analysis of the Story ?The Lottery? The suspense that Shirley Jackson writes about in the short story ?The Lottery? (rpt. in Greg Johnson and Thomas R. Arp, Perrine?s Literature: Structure, Sound, and Sense, 12th ed. [Boston: Wadsworth, 2015]259-266) takes an otherwise bizarre tradition that a small community?s conformist behavior participates in yearly. This story first…

When comparing “The Lottery,” and “Trifles,” some may begin to think about the running theme to both of these literature works, which is murder. Shirley Jackson creates a mysterious short story on how a town stones one person to death just for the sake of an old tradition. Susan Glaspell creates a play based on the feelings of one women who is so confined to her home, she eventually kills her husband without remorse. “The Lottery,” is insightful by showcasing what it is like to deal with a past…

In both “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson and "The Ones Who Walked Away from Omelas" by Ursula LeGuin, we see the downsides of society shown in similar ways. A scapegoat, someone who is arbitrarily chosen to take punishment for something, is used both of the stories; in these stories, the character acting as the scapegoat does so to take on blame for their entire town. In “The Lottery”, we are able to see a scapegoat that has some reason to blame. Tessie shows that she does not agree with the…

"The Lottery" and "The Rocking Horse Winner" are two different pieces of ligature written. “The Lottery” and “The Rocking Horse Winner” are both short stories written by different authors. "The Lottery" was written by Shirley Jackson and "The Rocking Horse Winner" was written by D.H. Lawrence. "The Lottery was originally written in 1948 and published a couple months later. “The Rocking Horse Winner" was written in 1926 and published that same year. Though these two work of art in ligature were…

In the short story “A&P” John Updike presents Sammy, a 19 year-old, checkout clerk, young who wants to make some money in a small store located in a vacation town with few residents, most old school belief and structures. But unlike some, he refuses to be stuck there until he retired. John Updike creates a combination of three literary techniques: Character, Setting, and Plot to reveal his meaning that sometimes the rules do not have to make sense in one’s eyes in order to be enforced. Updike…

anybody, especially not for Mrs.Mitty and society. Subsequently, in “The Prospector’s Trail” the protagonist finally accepts himself for his true self and not what he pretends to be to please others. Normal was able to find pleasure and enjoyment in his new profound profession which is prospecting and is not willing to let anyone try to change him. Norman had just had a successful first day prospecting with his mentor Roy. As he returned with old computers parts and an old red plaid shirt that…

In “The Lottery,” Shirley Jackson uses third person objective to tell a story without showing the characters feelings, or opinions, while still giving an objective view. She makes it very difficult to read a character and tell how they feel. This story would not have been as effective as it is to the reader if she had not used third person. The tradition and ritual in Shirley Jackson’s story seems to be as old as the town itself, so old no one truly knows why they even have the lottery to begin…

John Updike’s “A&P” is a short story that follows an encounter that a teenaged boy named Sammy has one day. On this unforgettable day, Sammy runs into some young ladies who are wearing nothing but bathing suits in the A&P grocery store. Being that this story is set in the 1950s, one can understand how this encounter could be considered surreal or unusual to the protagonist. John Updike utilizes his character Sammy’s age, physical appearance and personality in order to create a story about how…