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The Story Behind the Story of "The Lottery"

            The Story Behind the Story of "The Lottery".
             The story of "The Lottery", written by Shirley Jackson is very different in terms of the ways you and me may see the lottery today. The lottery today is looked at as fun, entertaining and almost as a type of recreation for many Americans, but not in this short story. The lottery in this story is the total opposite of the way we view it today. It does not deal with entertainment but it deals with your life literally, almost as if they are playing Russian rullet. But this all seems like a normal everyday occurrence to this small farming community that seems to be just like any typical farming community except for the fact that each harvest moon someone in the town is sacrificed.
             Shirley Jackson's approach to writing this story was more than just reading the words and meeting the characters. Throughout the story Jackson does a great job of giving a deeper meaning of just about everything in this story. She portrays a lot of symbolism and ironic meanings in the story through the technique she uses to put together the setting of the story all the way down to the characters" names and actions. What Jackson wants the audience to do is make sure the reader examines deeper than just the words on the pages almost as if the audience had to be very analytical. She also did not give away the end of the story, she lets you figure it out which makes the title very ironic and suspenseful. Jackson does a great job at dropping in clues to the audience also, sort of a sense of foreshadowing that something isn't right in this community even though it seems like your normal everyday farming community. Shirley's whole point in writing in this style ties in very well with the overall meaning or theme of the story.
             The way Jackson decides to arrange the setting and mood in this story is very ironic and also symbolic in many ways. Jackson starts off the story by giving a description of what she wants the audience to think of this small community.


Essays Related to The Story Behind the Story of "The Lottery"

1. The Lottery

A Close Encounter with Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery" "The Lottery" by Shirley Jackson is a story in which the setting sets up the reader to think of positive outcomes. ... From the beggining Jackson takes great pains to present her short story as a folk story. ... The men in "The Lottery" are "speaking of planting and rain, tractors and taxes". ... Children are an important focus in "The Lottery". ... The townspeople do not even remember the reasons behind the ritual which leads me to conclude they only continue the process for tradition's sake. ...

  • Word Count: 796
  • Approx Pages: 3
  • Grade Level: High School

2. The Lottery

Garrison 25 October 2002 A Close Encounter with Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery" "The Lottery" by Shirley Jackson is a story in which the setting sets up the reader to think of positive outcomes. ... From the beggining Jackson takes great pains to present her short story as a folk story. ... The men in "The Lottery" are "speaking of planting and rain, tractors and taxes". ... Children are an important focus in "The Lottery". ... The townspeople do not even remember the reasons behind the ritual which leads me to conclude they only continue the process for tradition's sake. ...

  • Word Count: 801
  • Approx Pages: 3
  • Grade Level: High School

3. Evil YGB and The Lottery

In "Young Goodman Brown" and "The Lottery", "evil lurking behind a genteel or reassuring surface" is shown in three ways: Symbolism of Names, Objects, and Acts. ... Graves runs the Lottery throughout the short story. ... At the beginning of the story, the kids started to fill there pockets with stones, for the lottery. ... In "Young Goodman Brown" and "The Lottery", we have found that "evil lurking behind a genteel or reassuring surface" is shown in three ways: Symbolism of Names, Objects, and Acts. ... I especially liked "The Lottery" because there was alot of evil in mankind in that sto...

  • Word Count: 1021
  • Approx Pages: 4
  • Grade Level: High School

4. Tradition in The Lottery

"The Lottery" by Shirley Jackson is a deceptively simple story about a small town community that holds an annual lottery. Naturally, what makes the plot less simple is the way the story ends with one of the townspeople being stoned as a result of "winning" the lottery. A deeper look at the story reveals that the story is about tradition. ... Hutchinson "snatched a paper out and held it behind her," (572), that paper with a "black spot on it" (572) seals her fate as much as a chip of wood would have done. ... Throughout the story, the image of "the p...

  • Word Count: 874
  • Approx Pages: 3
  • Grade Level: Undergraduate

5. The Lottery and Mending Wall

The poem "Mending Wall" by Robert Frost and the short story "The Lottery" by Shirley Jackson both contain cases of apparently foolish customs. ... Through this story, one discovers that the deciding after effect of the lottery, which is played by the town people, is the demise of one of their nationals. There are clues all through the story to clarify why the lottery is played in the town. ... The issue that emerges is that this story does not occur in a less acculturated time. The story needs to happen after 1880 in a genuinely modernized area. ...

  • Word Count: 2043
  • Approx Pages: 8
  • Has Bibliography

6. The Lottery

The description of the story adds horror and suspense to the story by the way the author sets it up. ... However in this situation the lottery is something that results in some ones death. ... The box symbolizes the history and tradition of the lottery. leaving a lot behind -Stones- the gruesome reward of the lottery, where the kids perceived innocently playing are arming them selves for a horrid event. and need to be shown. ... Graves and Old man Warner- they represent the history and tradition of the lottery as well as the amount of faith every one has in the lottery. leaving them behind...

  • Word Count: 424
  • Approx Pages: 2
  • Grade Level: High School

7. The Lottery

"The Lottery" The story of "The Lottery" is a story that is filled with a lot of misconceptions and a misunderstood tradition. ... The story of the "The Lottery" contains a great deal of symbolism there are a lot of simple things in the story that mean more than they appear to. One of the most important things in the story of "The Lottery" is the box that contains all of the slips of paper for the lottery. ... Another example of symbolism in the story of "The Lottery" is the significance of Old Man Warner. ... I think that the purpose of this story is to enforce the fact that we are no...

  • Word Count: 619
  • Approx Pages: 2
  • Grade Level: High School

8. The Lottery

1 In Shirley Jackson's short story, " The Lottery", there is a theme throughout the story about traditions that can some how lose their meanings because of the repetitions of everyday life. ... The title of the story some how makes us believe that the lottery is something good, like a prize or an award. As the story goes along, we realize that the lottery is used to select someone to be stoned to death. ... The black box is the central theme or idea in the ...

  • Word Count: 522
  • Approx Pages: 2
  • Grade Level: High School

9. The Lottery

"The Lottery" clearly expresses Jackson's feelings concerning mankind's evil nature hiding behind traditions and rituals. ... The setting of "The Lottery" supports the theme. ... Symbolism in the story also supports the theme of "The Lottery". ... Tessie Hutchinson though may at first of the story appear to be a very good-natured and good human being by the way she comes in to the story. ... By showing the reader that the lottery has become a meaningless cat that people ignorantly follow driven by his or her own evilness, Jackson has proven the theme found in the story. ...

  • Word Count: 895
  • Approx Pages: 4
  • Grade Level: High School

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