The New Yorker

The short story, “The Lottery” has a very interesting title. What makes the title so confusing yet appealing is its comparison to the substance of the story. The events leading up to the “lottery” contradicts the title and the actual meaning of a lottery. The connotation that comes with the term ‘lottery’ is mostly positive. The first impression of a lottery is success. Winning a lottery comes with money or a prize and the idea of living a comfortable life. Many spend thousands of dollars on…

full of restaurants filled with people both small and big. Late in the night people were out dancing and actually living life. The sky was always crystal clear and blue as the lake they had in the border of the city. The lake was a happy place in New Renmas. That's where all the families went. The children were swimming while the dads played soccer on the beach. While the moms sat happily on the beach, sunbathing. All male citizens over 20 had a job. The children had schools like in the past…

In life there will be times where some people may feel that quitting is the best thing to do for themselves or possibly for others. “A&P”, a short story written by John Updike, is based on a nineteen year old boy, Sammy, who works as a cashier at the A&P supermarket. Updike portrays Sammy as a young man who lacks enthusiasm towards his job and wants to figure out what the real purpose is working at A&P with his miserable manager Mr. Lengel and dealing with “sheep’s”. John Updike strongly…

Analysis of “The Lottery” Shirley Jackson’s short story “The Lottery” encases the ruthlessness of human interaction in a merely 3,738 words (Cellania). “The Lottery” starts by showing you a small town in America, in which the townspeople are gathering for their annual “Lottery” tradition, in which the story is named after. As the story continues the mood changes from seemingly positive and welcoming to a more suspicious and sinister motive. The story takes a disturbing turn and reveals that…

In Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery” (1948), she conveys through her character’s actions the morbid reality of what people are willing to do in order to survive. Jackson created the image of a cheerful small village where everyone knows everyone to make the reader realize that surviving is human nature. And the actions needed for survival can be anywhere and at any time. By using ‘the lottery’ to choose a human sacrifice, Jackson is able to directly convey a theme of survival. Each character in…

I have read your short story, The Lottery, and I find it to be well written. I especially enjoyed your use of foreshadowing, and irony in the story. Furthermore, I would like to also suggest one revision in the story. The Lottery uses many examples of literary techniques. One example that I thought you used well was foreshadowing. For example, in the story the children gather piles of stones before the lottery begins. Later in the story the winner of the lottery gets stoned to death. Another…

When you win the lottery, it is supposed to be a good thing. Imagine a place where winning the lottery is not. Well, in the story “The Lottery” winning means getting stoned to death by friends and family. This leads to the theme of “The Lottery” which is that things are not always as they seem. Some of the narrative elements that give to this theme are setting, tone, and symbolism. One of the largest contributors to the theme of “The Lottery” is setting. The setting of the story contributes to…

As a species, we possess an innate selfish human nature with which we are wired to focus solely on our own self preservation before we offer compassion to others. When it comes to life or death situations, all individuals will choose a route that helps themselves, before extending a helping hand to other people in the same situation. The idea of self preservation is not only viewed all throughout the history of different cultures, but it is clearly outlined as a prominent theme in the short…

When it comes to stories there is usually characters that we follow and get to know along the way, sometimes we only get to meet a character briefly and then there gone, and other times characters can mean more than who they are in a story. Shirley Jackson does just this in the short story “The Lottery” written in 1948. In this short story where the village has an annual lottery that is taken place in the summer to decide who will be stoned to death as a sacrifice for a tradition that might have…

The man calls out the numbers. All the numbers are exactly the same as the numbers on the ticket. Some family member scream, while others cry tears of joy. This is usually the experience an individual will have if he/she wins the lottery. However, winning the lottery in “The Lottery” is quite a different situation. In “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson, a seemingly ordinary village conducts a traditional lottery where the “winner” is stoned to death. While the events that take place in this story…