Lottery Literature Reviews Samples For Students

The Lottery is a short fiction written by Shirley Jackson. It is a story about a shocking tradition practiced by the people in a certain town. Shirley ironically gives the lottery a bad the ceremony of public stoning, contrary to what it originally means; winning a lot of money. The story focuses around a village during a ceremony they call the lottery that ensures there is enough rain for their crops. In the story, a number of literary devices are used by the author, for example, irony, symbolism, foreshadowing, only to mention but a few. The author uses these literary devices to make her story interesting and to keep ...

A short story ‘The Lottery’ by Shirley Jackson has raised controversial feelings in me. It tells about a special annual occasion taken in a small village by its dwellers. Every year the whole community participates in a so-called lottery when a person is chosen at random by means of drawing and is stoned nearly to death by the villagers. The participation is obligatory for everyone. The town lives according to a deeply-rooted tradition which has existed for already seventy-seven years.
The story strikes with its cruelty skillfully masked with friendliness. The lottery implies something to be won, it symbolizes hopes and dreams. In a ...

Analysis (compare and contrast) of the stories ‘The Lottery’ by Shirley Jackson and

[The author’s name]

Abstract

This paper will present you with the analysis of two stories, widely acknowledged in the borders of the literary community, in terms of their context, main theme, risen thoughts and issues as well as their reflections caused by their readings. Emphasis will be given not only on their common elements regarding their thematic core but on their different way of approaching it. Both ‘The Lottery’ - written by Shirley Jackson and published on June 26, 1948 - and ‘The ones who walked away from Omelas’ - written by Ursula K. Le Guin and published in ...

Horror through Imagination: How do Stephen King, Edgar Allan Poe, and Shirley Jackson create suspense in their stories “Harvey’s Dream,” “The Cask of Amontillado,” and “The Lottery”

Introduction

Suspense is a literary style that is adopted by most authors to invoke the creative minds of the audience. Therefore, the authors intentionally fail to draw a conclusion to an event in a story, but instead live it upon the audience to think. On the other hand, mystery is an occurrence that is beyond human understanding, and in most cases it is associated with murder. This essay is anchored on these ...

Plot:

The story begins with families gathering in the center of town; children are piling up rocks and women are catching up on gossip. The town is preparing for a lottery, and Mr. Summers is making sure everything is in order, including the black box and slips with different family’s names on them. While people begin to get pull tickets from the box for the lottery, a couple guys talk about how other towns are doing away with the lottery, and whether their town should or not. Bill Hutchinson’s wife Tessie draws the “winning ticket”. What she wins ...

Author

The author was born in 1916(she actually claimed she was born in 1919, to appear younger than her husband), in San Francisco, California.
Her childhood was one of low self-esteem and a fragile sense of identity, because of her mother who verbally abused her.

Jackson attended Brighton High School in Rochester, NY, and graduated in 1934. Then, she graduated in 1940 from Syracuse University, where she studied English.

During her adult life, she was not what the society expected a “faculty wife” (she was married to a critic) should be: she drank, smoked, was interested in witchcraft and magic, was ...

Modern American fiction often concerns itself with identity; the individual is often at stake in part of a larger group, whether it be a family, village, or the societies of a big city. Perhaps it is the very nature of American fiction to place identity at the core of much of its short fiction; as a relatively young country that evolved quickly through colonial times and the industrial revolution, its population comes from around the world yet still seeks to define itself as a nation. Therefore, it is no surprise that in the diverse fiction of America, the theme of identity is wrestled with ...

Within Shirley Jackson’s short story, “The Lottery,” there are many underlying themes that raise questions about unexamined assumptions in modern society. One of these unexamined assumptions is the characteristics of human nature found within the characters in the story. Within the story, the villagers are all willing to accept the meaningless and harmful tradition of the Lottery because it is just part of their society. None of the villagers are willing to speak out against this tradition because they want to fit in. This shows the readers that within this story Jackson reveals that a characteristic of human nature ...

Dear _____________

I have just finished reading a short story called The Lottery. At first, I assumed the story was the one written by the famous American writer known as Shirley Jackson. However, it was an entirely different story but one that ends in death just the same. While the story was well written, I did not like it so much. The content of the story made me feel helpless like the child who is narrating the story. Reading about the lynch mob and knowing the result of such crowds means someone will die without every getting a proper court trial. ...