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  • Essay / Decoding the Symbolism in The Lottery by Shirley Jackson

    Shirley Jackson, author of “The Lottery,” writes about the possible negative consequences of blindly following and not questioning tradition, and how acts of violence can occur at any unexpected time or place. She presents these ideas and several others by discussing a "lottery" that takes place every year on June 27, where names are drawn for this lottery and narrowed down to one individual, and that person is stoned to death in order to reimburse the price. wrongdoing by the entire town, even though that person is completely innocent. Jackson writes to show the insanity behind the mentality of killing someone based on something they have absolutely no control over, in order to abolish the belief that women and people of color were inferior during his lifetime, from 1919 to 1965. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay that Jackson writes for an audience of middle school and college students because there is a lesson for people to take away. of all ages in “The Lottery”. Jackson begins a happy setting where everyone is gathered together to draw people into the story, then exposes them to the harsh reality once they are already drawn in. She uses adjectives such as "clear and sunny", "warmth" and describes the "flowers bloomed profusely" and "the grass was richly green". These descriptive terms are used to set a cheerful tone to encourage people to listen to what she has to say. She uses this strategy to show how these social problems can appear to outsiders until it is too late. Often when it comes to social issues, especially during Jackson's lifetime, including discrimination against gender and race, nothing was done to address these issues until the damage was virtually irreversible. Once the initial tone of happiness and well-being is established, Jackson turns to the intensity of the drawing for the lottery and piques the reader's curiosity as to what will happen to the "winner." It uses our curiosity to keep us engaged in reading and to introduce the negative consequences of not questioning tradition. On page 180, starting at line 30, the town men discuss how many other towns are doing away with "the lottery." They say how ridiculous it is that these other towns even dare to question tradition. They think that since it has always been this way, it should always remain this way, even if it is unethical. This is very similar to the mentality on civil rights during Jackson's era. People believed that since people of color had always been treated this way, they should continue to be treated this way, even though they had no control over the color of their skin. To conclude the story, Jackson lets us infer that the "winner" of the "lottery" is stoned to death for no other reason than that they randomly drew the piece of paper with the black dot on it from the black box. The passage talks about the townspeople and how each of them carried at least one stone to hit the woman, even the children. This reinforces the idea that people are hurt or discriminated against just because they are. are born with a certain quality or, in this case, that they are the only person to have drawn that marked piece of paper. This also introduces the idea that unnecessary violence against a person or group of people can occur at. anytime, anywhere and for any reason: this is just one..