Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery".

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"The Lottery" (1948) by Shirly Jackson Introduction: "The Lottery" is a short story written by Shirley Jackson. First published in the June 26, 1948 issue of The New Yorker. It's ranked today as "one of the most famous short stories in the history of American literature" and hereby described as "a chilling tale of conformity gone mad". The story was written the same month it was published. The thought of a lottery brings to mind the idea of winning money, prizes and bonuses. However, in Shirley Jackson's the lottery, the word has a completely different meaning. The winner of the lottery sacrifices his/her life so the rest of the town's people can have food during the year, until the next lottery. The Lottery is a tradition these people have been following for ages. Shirley Jackson sets up a story where writing style is like no other. Jackson tells everything through symbolism. There is no rhyme or reason for a stoning of an innocent woman, but through the symbolism one might imagine certain reasons for everything, such as the characters of the story. This symbolism leads the reader into thinking about all of the things that were not specified in the story itself. Shirley Jackson presents an average society with seemingly common order and widely developed traditions which everybody is forced or even glad to follow whatever they are. The Plot: We start with seeing how everybody traditionally defined roles within the community. Everyone knows their role. The men, woman and even the children know well how they're expected to behave. Men are the dominating part. They have the right to make decisions for their families. Women have a subordinate position, in the meaning of that they are supposed to following their men and supposed to work only at home. Children have their social life and supposed to learn its traditions from an early age. Afterwards, we

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