Essays on The Lottery

            Shirley Jackson’s story “The lottery” is a short story which aroused a controversy and was greatly criticized in 1948 due to its publication. The author uses irony and aspects of comedy to expose the underlying hypocrisy, evil and weakness of human beings. The lottery is a traditional yearly event where one person in town…

Literary Analysis of The Necklace and The Lottery             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…

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…

In 1971, the state of Massachusetts approved the state-sanctioned lottery.  It was argued back then that this was not the ideal way to increase revenue for the government but would instead lead to more financial problems and social disorder.  Recent economic data on this matter, however, show that the fears that the original detractors had…

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…

“The Lottery” may be somewhat deceiving from it’s title and can lead you in the wrong direction if you are not careful to notice the foreshadowing signs that is typical in Shirley Jackson’s stories. In “The Lottery” she gives two signs that are hidden deep into words that you, the reader, have to break up….

Symbolism in The Lottery Symbolism can help bring out true meaning in a story. It can describe information that may be hidden from the reader in the story. In The Lottery, the black box used to draw paper for the lottery is what best symbolizes the meaning of the story. The black box is the…

‘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…

On 27th of June,nice summer day, at 10 o’clock the villagers gathered In the square for town lottery. Some towns already quit lotteries, In other towns the lottery takes two days because of the big population but in this town, where the population doesn’t exceeds 300 people, the Whole lottery took less then two hours….

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…