Research Paper on The Lottery
Despite its title, Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery" leads us to think of winning money, but instead it portrays an innocent person denied life's chances, a victim of violence and cruelty by the community. On the morning of June 27th, a sunny pleasant summer day, the villagers are gathered in the village square as they did every year. They are carrying on normal conversations as if nothing of importance is going to happen. It is not very clear where this village is located. Mr. Summers, the lottery organizer, arrives with a black box containing slips of paper. One of the papers has a black dot marked on it. The fact that Mr. Summers is conducting the lottery, and runs the coal business; it is the only clue we have with which to date the story. In "The lottery", a human being is stoned to death in the name of a good crop. There is no explanation provided where the guarantee of a good crop is coming from.
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A theme of "The Lottery" is the blind following of tradition and customs without looking at the consequences of such actions. The villagers believe in old customs that someone has to be sacrificed for the common good. They continue to take part in the lottery even though they cannot remember some of the customs of the ritual, such as the "tuneless chant" and the "ritual salute" (Jackson, 337). There are slips of paper to be made. There is the calling of family names in the alphabetical order during the drawing of the lottery. The black box from which the slips of paper are drawn symbolizes the villagers not able to change their tradition.
Mrs. Adams is having a conversation with the oldest member of the community, Old Man Warner about giving up the lottery. In this conversation we notice a sense of guilt in Mr. and Mrs. Adams because of what they are about to do. In the foreshadowing, Mr. Warner is explaining to the villagers the importance of having the lottery for the survival of the village. He is against the idea and says; "There's always been the lottery" (339). Mr. Warner symbolizes resistance to change because he has no other way of living except that of the lottery as we can see how many times he has drawn the lottery and has no intentions of giving it up. The irony of it is that Mr. and Mrs. Adams could have stood up for themselves and refuse to participate in the lottery.
During the drawing of the lottery the villagers are overcome with fear because they do not know who among them is going to pick the marked paper. They breathe a sigh of relief when they find out that Mrs. Hutchinson is the winner of the lottery. Her husband and children are glad that they did not win the lottery. She complains about the manner in which the lottery is conducted but it really does not matter; someone has to win it. Mr. summers tells the villagers, "let's finish quickly" (341). At this point we are hoping that Mr. Summers is going to announce the cash prize for the winning lottery ticket, but instead the community sets upon Mrs. Hutchinson with a pile of stones collected earlier by the boys. It is at this point that we realize the lottery is not winning money but the villagers are engaged in a brutal act of stoning to death of an innocent human being victimized by means of a public lottery. Mrs. Hutchinson is in shock and disbelief on realizing that not only her friends and neighbors are going to kill her, but also her family is willing to take part. Although children have joy in making a pile of stones, they certainly do not have joy in stoning people to death. They learn from their parents whom they imitate in their play. We see that Davy Hutchinson being given a few pebbles to stone his mom and thus he learns what to do before he knows why he is doing it. Why is it that Davy picks his own paper but has help in stoning his mother?
Violence is a major theme in "The Lottery". While the stoning is cruel and brutal, we realize that horrifying acts of violence can happen anywhere at any time and committed by ordinary people. The fact that the villagers kill one person a year does not change the fact that they are murderers. We do not have many details about the villagers, which makes it hard to to tell their emotional feelings during and after the stoning. We do not have details of Mrs. Hutchison's death and we do not see a sense of guilt and remorse, but instead as the French moralist Rochefoucald "observes that we obtain a certain pleasure from news of misfortune to friends". (Short Story-criticism Vol. 9, Ed. Thomas Botteler, 251). The villagers must have returned to their homes thanking their gods that they did not win the lottery. Therefore life is not always fair when denied life's chances.
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A theme of "The Lottery" is the blind following of tradition and customs without looking at the consequences of such actions. The villagers believe in old customs that someone has to be sacrificed for the common good. They continue to take part in the lottery even though they cannot remember some of the customs of the ritual, such as the "tuneless chant" and the "ritual salute" (Jackson, 337). There are slips of paper to be made. There is the calling of family names in the alphabetical order during the drawing of the lottery. The black box from which the slips of paper are drawn symbolizes the villagers not able to change their tradition.
Mrs. Adams is having a conversation with the oldest member of the community, Old Man Warner about giving up the lottery. In this conversation we notice a sense of guilt in Mr. and Mrs. Adams because of what they are about to do. In the foreshadowing, Mr. Warner is explaining to the villagers the importance of having the lottery for the survival of the village. He is against the idea and says; "There's always been the lottery" (339). Mr. Warner symbolizes resistance to change because he has no other way of living except that of the lottery as we can see how many times he has drawn the lottery and has no intentions of giving it up. The irony of it is that Mr. and Mrs. Adams could have stood up for themselves and refuse to participate in the lottery.
During the drawing of the lottery the villagers are overcome with fear because they do not know who among them is going to pick the marked paper. They breathe a sigh of relief when they find out that Mrs. Hutchinson is the winner of the lottery. Her husband and children are glad that they did not win the lottery. She complains about the manner in which the lottery is conducted but it really does not matter; someone has to win it. Mr. summers tells the villagers, "let's finish quickly" (341). At this point we are hoping that Mr. Summers is going to announce the cash prize for the winning lottery ticket, but instead the community sets upon Mrs. Hutchinson with a pile of stones collected earlier by the boys. It is at this point that we realize the lottery is not winning money but the villagers are engaged in a brutal act of stoning to death of an innocent human being victimized by means of a public lottery. Mrs. Hutchinson is in shock and disbelief on realizing that not only her friends and neighbors are going to kill her, but also her family is willing to take part. Although children have joy in making a pile of stones, they certainly do not have joy in stoning people to death. They learn from their parents whom they imitate in their play. We see that Davy Hutchinson being given a few pebbles to stone his mom and thus he learns what to do before he knows why he is doing it. Why is it that Davy picks his own paper but has help in stoning his mother?
Violence is a major theme in "The Lottery". While the stoning is cruel and brutal, we realize that horrifying acts of violence can happen anywhere at any time and committed by ordinary people. The fact that the villagers kill one person a year does not change the fact that they are murderers. We do not have many details about the villagers, which makes it hard to to tell their emotional feelings during and after the stoning. We do not have details of Mrs. Hutchison's death and we do not see a sense of guilt and remorse, but instead as the French moralist Rochefoucald "observes that we obtain a certain pleasure from news of misfortune to friends". (Short Story-criticism Vol. 9, Ed. Thomas Botteler, 251). The villagers must have returned to their homes thanking their gods that they did not win the lottery. Therefore life is not always fair when denied life's chances.
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___________________________________________________________If you need a custom research paper, research proposal, essay, dissertation, thesis paper or term paper on your topic, EffectivePapers.com will write your research papers from scratch. Starting at $12/page you can order custom written papers online. We work with experienced PhD. and Master's freelance writers to help you with writing any academic papers in any subject! High quality and 100% non-plagiarized papers guaranteed!
