Danielle L Allen Professor Shandor English 1101 Textual Analysis of “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson The theme of the short story, “The Lottery,” involves a society’s tendency to blindly and randomly persecute others without reason. The village lottery culminates in an annual violent murder; a ritual, which suggests how dangerous tradition can be when followed blindly. Jackson, the author, focuses on the individuals reverence for tradition, writing that the villagers do not really know much about the lottery’s origin, but continue to make every effort to preserve the tradition nevertheless. Leading the reader to understand that a lack of knowledge and understanding, in addition to reverence toward tradition, compel the villagers to continue only what they know, the lottery. Specifically, Jackson writes that the villagers recall there was, at one time, “a recital of some sort,” and that “some people believed that the official of the lottery used to stand just so when he said or sang it, others believed that he was supposed to walk among the people, but years and years ago this part of the ritual had been allowed to lapse.” (25) These once important procedures were now no more than talk among the villagers, of how the lottery “was originally conducted.” The specific details, lost throughout time, did not prevent the “tradition” from occurring year after year.
The village members all chatter amongst one another in a tone that kind neighbors would take with one another. To the surprise of the reader, the story provides a shocking twist. The story is not about someone winning a prize. Instead the story reveals that the lottery is a barbaric and inhumane practice in which the person who is drawn is subsequently stoned to death by the member of the community. Upon first reading the story, I sat there shocked staring at the book, not fathoming what I had read.
Calpurnia draws her aside to scold her and this is a lesson in manners. In the Trial of Tom Robinson, this is when Scout is truly exposed to the realities of inequality, racism and unfairness. Even though Scout has grown up in a racist town, Atticus has always taught her differently. When Tom Robinson is convicted guilty in the trial, the children are greatly disappointed because they had more faith in their townspeople judging fairly. It became apparent that even though
He readily admits that the current state of society is due to the cowardice of people like himself, who would not speak out against book burning when they still could have stopped it. He berates himself for being a coward, but he shows himself capable of acts that require great courage and place him in considerable danger.Clarisse McClellan,a beautiful seventeen-year-old who introduces Montag to the world’s potential for beauty and meaning with her gentle innocence and curiosity. She is an outcast from society because of her odd habits, which include hiking, playing with flowers, and asking questions, but she and her (equally odd) family seem genuinely happy with themselves and each other. Last but not least... Granger The leader of the “Book People,” the group of hobo intellectuals Montag finds in the country. Granger is intelligent, patient, and confident in the strength of the human spirit.
Evelyn accuses Lil as being The Ratcatcher: “You made me betray her.” To which Lil responds “I got you through it.” This shows just how untrustworthy Evelyn is of other people because of her past, being sent away by her parents and was left to ultimately believe that they had forgotten about her. This paragraph and the last shows that however close Evelyn is to people, she will always have this issue with trusting people, and it is likely that her subconscious mind believes that everyone she comes close to has taken her away from something – freedom. This links to The Ratcatcher’s significance, as he is constantly taking away children’s freedom, and throughout the play Samuels presents this character via Evelyn constantly. In scene one, an authority figure, the Officer, is the voice of The Ratcatcher, and I believe that in this particular moment of the play the Officer isn’t the only Ratcatcher. The train itself is taking Eva away, so here The Ratcatcher is presented as both this intimidating man and an object, not living.
When Sula returns to the Bottom after ten years she is “accompanied by a plague of robins”. The townspeople blame this, and several other incidents, on Sula and call her a witch. The other incidents she was blamed for was a child falling down the stairs and a man choking on a bone, both of which she is had nothing to do with. The town is in fear of Sula, but “in spite their fear, they reacted to… what they called evil days… Such evil must be avoided… and precautions must… be taken to protect themselves from it”. This shows that the town is quick to judge Sula out of ignorance and labels her as wicked and sinful.
“Miss Maudie’s voice was enough to shut up anybody” (51). She stands up for her beliefs and despises racism unlike many other residents in Maycomb. In other words, Miss Maudie shows independence and differs from most people because she believes in equality. Another of Miss Maudie’s bravery takes place after her house burnt down and she says “Scout don’t worry about me, there are other ways to deal with things” (79). Miss Maudie knows that life will, at some stage, contain suffering but its severity will be amplified if you do not learn to let go.
This can cause instances of mass paranoia and an over reaction of those who have power who are able to influence those beneath them. This is portrayed throughout The Crucible especially when they are scared of any sort of ties with Lucifer. The group of girls which are led under the influence of Abigail Williams, are terribly frightened that ’Abby’ will hurt them if they confess to dancing in the forbidden woods so they accuse many of the community of rash accusations. Unfortunately as the community starts to blindly follow along which was not overly difficult in such a strict puritan community that doesn’t believe in any sort of vain enjoyment. This is how the mass hysteria spread as soon as Abigail released that strong emotions are easily able to manipulate a group of weak minded
Rhetoric: Pathos- “The sobbing of his little girl would only prove how ccompletely he had failed.” (pg 46, Cooney) is pathos becauses it showing how Mary’s father wouldn’t die while seeing his daughter crying. This makes him vulnerable, making the reader feel sorry or pity for him. Most of the readers have been in that situation where they didn’t want to show a sign of weakness around their children. Ethos- “All hail Macbeth, cried the witches, who shall be king hereafter”this quote shows that Macbeth is very credible because the witches acknowledge him as a king. So whatever he says goes.
A second theme that Shirley Jackson displayed is that following the crowd can have dangerous consequences. It was obvious that Bill Hutchinson went to his wife and forced her to show the others that she had the slip with the “black spot” after doing so, Tessie is designated as the “winner” and the story states: “The children had stones already”. This line from the story shows that because of the actions of the community, little Davy followed the actions of the crowd and contributed to the stoning of his mother’s death. Another example was shown as, the story states, “the children were already stoning Tessie, and that someone gave little Davy some pebbles, as if it were a game in which he should participate”. This