We wonder if Tessie would have spoken up if it was another family was chosen. What started as a normal day becomes a ritualistic death ceremony. “The Lottery”, may have many meanings it could express different themes and ideas. Most importantly The Lottery discusses conformity and rebellion. The towns people live their lives believing that the day of the lottery is a normal day and that sacrificing one of their will help them have a good crop season; and rebellion in the way that Tessie stood up for herself in front of the whole town to try to stay alive but did not succeed.
The lottery is a reaper of some sort that every year, claims the life of an innocent soul. Jackson confuses the reader with her lively tone, but reels them back in with the small, but meaningful gestures and comments from the town’s people. The villagers accept this form of death because it is the only thing that they know. The tradition of the lottery has been drilled down for so long that Old Man Warner, the oldest of the town, doesn’t know any better. Another form of symbolism is the black box that sits upon the three-legged stool.
He never directly says the meaning of the hat other than its unusual appearance but I can interpret pretty well on what its true meaning is. Holden wants to be the catcher in the rye. He wants to save children from falling off the cliff. With that said the hat might also represent the catcher in the rye and who had the hat was the catcher. After he gave Phoebe the hat, he kept on feeling like he was going to fall when he came to each block and was asking his dead brother Allie to stop him from falling.
For The Sake of Religion Any one who participates in a lottery understands that it is a gamble; there is a chance that you will have no net gain or become the village sacrifice. The lottery is a term that may take on various meanings, like in the twentieth century villages that had a religious meaning in the annual ritual for the summer harvest. The understanding of the lottery was unclear to Mr. Adams as he proceeded to say to Mr. Warner, “over in the North village they’re talking of giving up the lottery (qtd. prior to Para 13). ” This interpretation says that the lottery is being conducted because this was a practice that was instilled in the villagers from previous generations and continued to go on unquestioned.
As Mr. Adams puts in his facts about how the village in the north was talking about giving up the lottery, Old Man Warner replies, “pack of crazy fools, listening to the young folks, nothings good enough for them. Next thing you know they’ll be wanting to go back to live in caves, nobody work anymore, live that way for a while” (143). The Hutchinson family shows the faults humans have, such as being a coward and showing indifference. Ms. Hutchinson shows evil and how a mother can risk her own child’s safety and life since she was willing to demand her married daughter to draw to improve her chances of survival. Shirley Jackson shows how coldness and lack of compassion in people can exhibit in situations regarding tradition and values.
The Lottery Many people say you adapt to your surroundings and are affected by those around you. As well as that there are strength in numbers. Short story “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson was a very good example of these statements with a detailed description of a towns belief in the relief of Evil in the town. The movie (containing some of the same contents as the short story) embraced the statements as well. In the movie Jason was forced to fight against an entire towns beliefs in attempt to grant his fathers one last wish before he died.
Chapter Questions: To Kill A Mocking Bird April 20, 2012 Chapter 23 After Tom Robinson's conviction, Jem finally started to realize why Boo Radley secluded him self for so long. It was simply because he wanted to. Throughout the book Boo makes very few appearances, but the dramatic irony is that Boo has been a help to the children countless times. For a better understanding, think of Tom Robinson, although Atticus defend him very well, the only reason why he lost the trail and was shot was because he was black. In other words, Jem drew out that if "everyone is alike, why do they go out of their way to despite each other?"
(Chpt.3 pg.44) Here Carlson is telling Candy how worthless it is to the ranch and to itself. Candy struggles with this harsh reality, but eventually lets Carlson take the dog outside and shoot him. Candy later regrets letting Carlson do this, and he thinks that he should have been the one to end the dog’s life. George will remember this later on and take it upon himself to end the life of Lennie. Lennie was an obedient and hard worker for many years with George.
The way that the story ended suggested that the first citizens of this town were superstitious and that possibly someone was killed in the month of June, and they had a good crop harvest. The people in the past equated that with the death, so they started this ritual to insure the success of future crops and continued it into modern times. The people of that town had been experiencing this lottery all their lives and didn’t know any different, or that they were doing something
Citera Propst Jon-Paul Wimer Introduction to Fiction November 2, 2011 The Lottery The Lottery, written in 1948 by Shirley Jackson, is a short story about a small village that holds an annual drawing of the lottery. To most the lottery is perceived as positive if won. In Jackson’s story the winner of the lottery is stoned to death as a sacrifice a good season of crops. The winner of the lottery is more than likely the rest of the village, and the loser being the one who was sacrificed. The Lottery can have multiple themes, but an interesting theme to focus and analyze would be tradition.