Essays on The Lottery

A Reflection on Human Nature

When The New Yorker published Shirley Jackson’s famous story “the Lottery” in 1948, American readers immediately backlashed against the author and the magazine because they found the topic of the story—a mass stoning of a housewife whose name was drawn at random from a lottery—extremely offensive and grotesque. Readers went as far as cancelling their subscriptions to the magazine and numerous threatening mails started pouring in, addressed to the author and editorial staff of the magazine. Readers were also offended because many easily recognized their rural communities and the typical activities conducted in these places such ...

Today I will be presenting the similarities between the Lottery, by Shirley Jackson, and The Hunger Games, by Susanne Collins.

Slide 2: Both stories features a dystopian society routinely engaging in genocide This is dystopian in that everything appears to be in working order, or to be ok, with society at first but then a major problem is revealed in the form of the ceremonial killing of citizens. The Lottery never justifies the killing, but the Hunger games, the genocide occurs as a way for the Capital to maintain control over the districts.

Slide 3:

Both stories feature a lottery in which individuals are selected to die. Though the process is slightly different in these stories. The end result is the ...

Answers: I

3. How is the setting in the stories listed below essential to our understanding of the events in these works? The setting of the story, The Lottery, stirs the readers to the very core as it helps in setting up the ambiance that leads to the climactic sequence in the course of the narrative. The description of the beautiful day and the open space in stark juxtaposition to the final barbaric act in the course of the story makes one understand the dichotomy between the societal norms and logical outlook. Right up to the very end, one is unable ...

Many Americans tend to believe that traditions or customs represent the nation, as it is key, that once opened a possibility and since then than a possibility is transformed from generation to generation. But in Shirley Jackson’s short story, called The Lottery, the tradition is described through a cruel lottery, that does not give prizes, it takes one human’s life each year instead. First and foremost, the procedure of the lottery was quite easy, the people of the village should gather in the square, and they were supposed to take part in a random drawing. Common sense ...

The Camelot Group operates the National Lottery in the United Kingdom. A wide range of regularly-refreshed draw-based games that are instantly played and won are offered. The games that are normally played include Lotto, Euromillions, thunder balls, and Lotto hot pick. There are also National Lottery scratch cards, though only a small percentage of adults play this game. Instant win games (played on desktops and mobile phones) are also offered and they have a range of games and instant cash prices. The players buy their tickets online, in stores or use their mobile devices. It is estimated that more ...

The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) has set requirements for the protection of the rights of employees so that their rights are not violated. The FLSA have set certain target or age and salary requirements for the employees. According to them, the minimum age of a person for employment is16 years. At this age, the FLSA allows a person to work for unlimited hours. The FLSA does not allow people under 18 in hazardous occupations. If school going individuals of 14 and 15 years want to work, they can work but with a valid work permit and certain limitations. ...

Within each society, people build relationships that foster growth and development as people interact with each other. The relationships vary according to the work and social standards of the specific society. In other words, most people in a particular society will work together to develop a common idea that will help to bind people together as a community. Within these societies, there are those simple or common guiding principles that are practiced for extended periods and become an integral part of the culture and the traditions of the society. But, not all consensuses within the society will guarantee the ...

Prospect Theory and Disappointment Aversion

The Allais paradox is a problem designed by French economist Maurice Allais in 1953 to show common inconsistencies between the predictions of expected utility theory and actual observed choices of individuals. Many theories have been proposed to solve the Allais paradox, among which the Prospect Theory and the Theory of Disappointment Aversion, and both will be described in this essay.

Prospect Theory

Guthrie, C. (2003) describes how the two original proponents of the Prospect Theory, Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky, would meet every mid-day for a long time, and spend their time inventing interesting sets of gambles and observing our their ...

During the late 1940s, America was made up of small rural villages, in which it was customary for the community leaders to construct civic gatherings, to draw the citizens together at a time when the world was at war with one another. People were encouraged to socialize through town activities that drew them together and create a stronger, more cooperative community. This was the main theme of Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery”—a story centering on one of the rural communities in America during the 1940s. The story features a lottery being taken place in a community composed of ...

Many authors regard their work as being a single standalone piece of art. By this logic, it can be safe to assume that the authors work their literary pieces to stand out against similar genres of works. However, in some cases many different stories end up sharing the same motif and theme. In many cases like this, it is not because of two authors collaborating to come up with a theme, or lesson, to teach society but a stroke of luck. When forming their stories, authors use society around them to develop their characters, settings, and such so in ...

Events in our life strongly depends on the probability. I often try to calculate probability of the events in my profession as well as in my real life. If my memory serves me right, the last such try was about week ago. I was in a good mood and I decided to buy a lottery ticket. I did not expect to win the jackpot seriously. However, I was wondering, what is my probability of winning the jackpot? I knew that the lottery ticket contained six numbers. Each number was in the range of 1-50. I assumed that the lottery ...

Short stories are some of the literature read mostly by people because they are interesting and considered more educative to young and old generation (Gioia 7). Many scholars wrote short stories in the twentieth century, and one of them was Shirley Jackson, who wrote The Lottery. The Lottery is among the most favorite short stories in the History of American Literature. As narrated by Cummings (3) he explains that the function took place between 10 am and noon on June 27th in a small village with a population of only three hundred villagers. The event took place on a ...

After the Second World War, the American government entered into the global power bracket. It became an integral political and economic powerhouse in the world. As a result, most of the developing nations turned to it for support. As Vietnam struggled to free itself from the South Vietnamese communist Common Front, the American troops were sent to help the incumbent government gain control of the country. The entry of the United States into Vietnam became one of the most controversial wars in the history of the United States. In America, military conscription had been in use for years during ...