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Essays on Shirley Jackson

Shirley Jackson Page 5

We found 14 free papers on Shirley Jackson

Essay Examples

Overview

The Sheepish Nature of Humans and the Absolute Power of the Government in The Lottery by Shirley Jackson and Harrison Bergeron by Kurt Vonnegut

Culture

Harrison Bergeron

Politics

The Lottery

Words: 1173 (5 pages)

Government is the manner in which a class, group, state or nation is ruled or controlled. Some governing groups serve to help the people they govern, while others exist simply to suppress the common man and feed those in power. Governments have been the reason that some civilizations have thrived and others have perished. All…

Comparison between The lottery and movie

Movie

The Lottery

Words: 861 (4 pages)

Shirley Jackson’s story The Lottery” is a short story that caused controversy and received significant criticism upon its publication in 1948. The author uses irony and comedic elements to expose the underlying hypocrisy, evil, and weakness of human beings. The lottery is a traditional yearly event where one person in town is randomly chosen and…

The Happiest Day of My Life Analysis

Life

The Lottery

Words: 752 (4 pages)

Life is truly unpredictable. Some days are very good, some days are ok, some are bad, some days are boring and full of irritation and some days are truly magical and mesmerizing. These beautiful and magical days of our life make life worth living. Even the remembrance of those beautiful and happy days brings a…

Symbolism in the Lottery

Symbolism

The Lottery

Words: 485 (2 pages)

Symbolism in The Lottery: The use of symbolism is imperative in revealing the deeper meaning behind a story and shedding light on concealed information. In The Lottery, the primary symbol that epitomizes the essence of the story is the black box. Serving as a significant symbol, the black box represents the unyielding tradition of the…

Literary Analysis of The Necklace and The Lottery

The Lottery

The Necklace

Words: 1309 (6 pages)

            Guy de Maupassant’s The Necklace and Shirley Jackson’s The Lottery both reveal different thematic elements to establish a particular theme which is apparent in the time of their writing. Themes which are related to moral and social issues are illustrated by means of different literary elements Guy de Maupassant’s short story The Necklace is…

Irony and Symbolism in “The Lottery”

Symbolism

The Lottery

Words: 608 (3 pages)

In “The Lottery,” the author employs various literary devices, with irony and symbolism being the most prominent. Jackson utilizes these devices to convey the hidden dark theme that is not apparent at the beginning of the story. Irony permeates nearly every paragraph, even extending to the ironic title of the story, which initially suggests something…

“The Lottery” Traditions and Legends

Fiction

The Lottery

Tradition

Words: 754 (4 pages)

The main theme of “The Lottery,” by Shirley Jackson, is tradition. Traditions are beliefs, legends, customs, information and other things that are passed down from generation to generation. This theme is shown in many different ways throughout the story. The first way tradition is shown in the story is with the ritual that the town…

Argument on the Lottery by Shirley Jackson with Works Cited Page Argumentative Essay

Book Review

Books

The Lottery

Words: 1584 (7 pages)

“The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson is about Symbolism “The Lottery,” a short story written by Shirley Jackson, is a tale about an inhumane and horrific tradition that a community celebrates every year between 10 a. m. and noon on June 27, a sunny day, in a New England village (“Cummings Study Guide”). Not only is…

Irony and Symbolism of Violence in The Lottery Literary Analysis

Symbolism

The Lottery

Violence

Words: 1870 (8 pages)

Pointless Violence Under a Veil of Tradition in “The Lottery”: A Discovery Via the Tools of Irony and Symbolism Within the Framework of Formalism The approach to literary criticism known as Formalism focuses on the literary text itself as the source for meaning, and deems the text as the only context a critic should turn…

Value in Tradition: a Character Analysis on Old Man Warner from ‘the Lottery’

Character Analysis

The Lottery

Tradition

Words: 413 (2 pages)

‘The Lottery’ tells the story of a tradition that has been upheld by a small town for many years: casting of stones as form of sacrifice. This is to guarantee good harvest throughout the year, and has been done through drawing lots. For many years, this tradition was upheld by the townspeople until slowly, as…

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born December 14, 1916, San Francisco, CA
died August 8, 1965, North Bennington, VT
description Shirley Hardie Jackson was an American writer, known primarily for her works of horror and mystery. Over the duration of her writing career, which spanned over two decades, she composed six novels, two memoirs, and more than 200 short stories.
books The Lottery 1948, The Haunting of Hill House 1959, We Have Always Lived in the Castle 1962
children Sarah Hyman DeWitt, Laurence Jackson Hyman, Barry Hyman, Joanne Hyman
quotations

No live organism can continue for long to exist sanely under conditions of absolute reality. My name is Mary Katherine Blackwood. Although the villagers had forgotten the ritual and lost the original black box, they still remembered to use stones.,No live organism can continue for long to exist sanely under conditions of absolute reality. The sight of one’s own heart is degrading; people are not meant to look inward – that’s why they’ve been given bodies, to hide their souls.

information

Short biography of Shirley Jackson

Shirley Jackson was born in San Francisco, California, on December 14, 1916. Jackson began writing at an early age, and her first published story, “Janice,” appeared in a children’s magazine when she was eighteen. Jackson attended Syracuse University, where she met her future husband, Stanley Edgar Hyman. The couple married in 1940, and Jackson’s first novel, The Road Through the Wall, was published the same year. Jackson’s short story “The Lottery” was published in The New Yorker in 1948 and caused a sensation. The story was reprinted in Jackson’s first collection of short stories, The Lottery; or, The Adventures of James Harris, which was published in 1949. Jackson’s second novel, Hangsaman, was published in 1951. Jackson’s third novel, The Bird’s Nest, was published in 1954, and Jackson’s fourth novel, The Haunting of Hill House, was published in 1959. Jackson’s fifth novel, We Have Always Lived in the Castle, was published in 1962. Jackson’s final novel, The Sundial, was published in 1958. Jackson died of heart failure on August 8, 1965, at the age of forty-eight.

General Essay Structure for this Topic

  1. Thesis statement: Shirley Jackson’s The Lottery is a story about the dangers of blindly following tradition.
  2. The Lottery as a critique of tradition
  3. The Lottery as a cautionary tale
  4. The dangers of conformity
  5. The power of tradition
  6. The role of chance in The Lottery
  7. The Lottery as a study of human nature
  8. The dark side of human nature
  9. The hypocrisy of the lottery
  10. The Lottery as a metaphor for life

Important information

Spouse: Stanley Edgar Hyman (m. 1940–1965)

Short stories: The Lottery, Charles, The Possibility of Evil, The Lovely House, Louisa, Please

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