The Lottery
Kyle Simms
ENC 1102
Professor Daniels
Essay 1
The Lottery
The story by Shirley Jackson, “The Lottery”, is a very unusual story. It is unique in its own ways. The author Shirley Jackson is definitely a passionate, creative writer to write a story like this one. There are some odd themes and lessons we can all learn from this crazy story. The story is about a small village of only around three hundred people who all know each other. “The morning of June 27th was cleat and sunny, with the fresh warmth of a full-summer day; the flowers were blossoming profusely and the grass was richly green.”(Jackson, 5) It is a somewhat pretty peaceful place to live. Except that there is an out of the ordinary tradition that the whole village has practiced for many years. Every year they all gather together in the middle of the village. The tradition is called “The Lottery. It is where everybody takes a piece of paper from a black box and all unfold their piece of paper they have randomly drawn after everyone has grabbed his or her own. “Every year, after the lottery, Mr. Summers began talking again about a new box, but every year the subject was allowed to fade off without anything being done.”(Jackson, 8) There is a black mark on one piece of paper. Whoever has the black mark wins the lottery. The only thing is you do not want to win this lottery. If you are the one person who grabs this piece of paper with a black mark, you are to be sacrificed by the whole village. Everybody grabs stones and throws and chucks them hard at you and chases you. Even the children participate in this sickening tradition. “The children assembled first, of course. School was recently over for the summer, and the feeling of sat uneasily on most of them.”(Jackson, 5) Yet, nobody in the village challenges the odd tradition; they all just participate in it and accept the fact that somebody is going to randomly be selected to be sacrificed.
There are some important
ENC 1102
Professor Daniels
Essay 1
The Lottery
The story by Shirley Jackson, “The Lottery”, is a very unusual story. It is unique in its own ways. The author Shirley Jackson is definitely a passionate, creative writer to write a story like this one. There are some odd themes and lessons we can all learn from this crazy story. The story is about a small village of only around three hundred people who all know each other. “The morning of June 27th was cleat and sunny, with the fresh warmth of a full-summer day; the flowers were blossoming profusely and the grass was richly green.”(Jackson, 5) It is a somewhat pretty peaceful place to live. Except that there is an out of the ordinary tradition that the whole village has practiced for many years. Every year they all gather together in the middle of the village. The tradition is called “The Lottery. It is where everybody takes a piece of paper from a black box and all unfold their piece of paper they have randomly drawn after everyone has grabbed his or her own. “Every year, after the lottery, Mr. Summers began talking again about a new box, but every year the subject was allowed to fade off without anything being done.”(Jackson, 8) There is a black mark on one piece of paper. Whoever has the black mark wins the lottery. The only thing is you do not want to win this lottery. If you are the one person who grabs this piece of paper with a black mark, you are to be sacrificed by the whole village. Everybody grabs stones and throws and chucks them hard at you and chases you. Even the children participate in this sickening tradition. “The children assembled first, of course. School was recently over for the summer, and the feeling of sat uneasily on most of them.”(Jackson, 5) Yet, nobody in the village challenges the odd tradition; they all just participate in it and accept the fact that somebody is going to randomly be selected to be sacrificed.
There are some important