Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery” Reflections and Responses

DLCV: Língua, Linguística & Literatura

The Lottery is an American short story written by Shirley Jackson. Published in 1948, June 26th, this short story presents ideology of a capitalistic society and gender stereotype. By definition, the capitalistic society is a social order in which private property rights and the free market serve as the basis of trade, distribution of goods, and development (Duane). Meanwhile, gender stereotype is over-generalizations about the characteristics of an entire group based on gender (Davis). Gender stereotype can be positive and negative. The forms of a capitalistic society and gender stereotype to women are what Shirley Jackson figured out through The Lottery.

International Journal of Applied Linguistics and English Literature, 2018

Nowhere is American author Shirley Jackson’s (1916-1965) social and political criticism is so intense than it is in her seminal fictional masterpiece “The Lottery”. Jackson severely denounces injustice through her emphasis on a bizarre social custom in a small American town, in which the winner of the lottery, untraditionally, receives a fatal prize. The readers are left puzzled at the end of the story as Tessie Hutchinson, the unfortunate female winner, is stoned to death by the members of her community, and even by her family. This study aims at investigating the author’s social and political implications that lie behind the story, taking into account the historical era in which the story was published (the aftermath of the bloody World War II) and the fact that the victim is a woman who is silenced and forced to follow the tradition of the lottery. The paper mainly focuses on the writer’s interest in human rights issues, which can be violated even in civilized communities, like t...

Humanities

Shirley Jackson’s, ‘The Lottery,’ is without doubt her most famous work. It is one of the most anthologized short stories in America. However, despite the popularity of the short story, very few critics have attempted to delve deeper into the story’s meaning. Those few critics who have attempted to prove the story’s message have done well in the sense that they have picked up on ‘a’ pattern, but have failed to see that there are also contrasting patterns which cross over and cut through each other. Shirley Jackson deserves far more praise than what she has received for the intricacies, the small details and the well thought out design of the story. When one discovers that Jackson admired William Empson’s, Seven Types of Ambiguities, in which he argues the best authors (such as William Shakespeare) purposely create ambiguities in their writing so that the reader questions and wonders what the author might have meant, one can begin to understand that there is more to Jackson than what...

The aims of this research is to discover about the author's world view in The Lottery short story. In this research the writer conduct the library research to find out the information from some books, which are related to this literary study. The writer also uses genetic structuralism approach and theory by Lucien Goldman. Working through the analysis, the results of the analysis are Jackson tries to describe about the world view in terms of religious sense towards the ritual or lottery inside the story through of small village ritual tradition as depicted in the small village that hosts brutal stoning in The Lottery story. Other world view from Jackson is the story was publishing in June 1948. In 1948, most of the world, the United States included, was still trying to come to terms with the staggering violence of World War II.This story satirizes a number of social issues, including the laws and practices traditions.

Mediterranean Journal of Social Sciences, 2012

Feminism, originating in late 19th century, is a cover term for a series of movements which seek to define, establish and defend equal rights for women. It focuses on the women's issues and their problems in the society and aims at overcoming their problems. In the three main waves of feminism, many feminists such as Virginia Wolf, Simone de Beauvoir, and Kate Millet aired their views in their popular and famous books. This article deals with the application of feminist criticism to The Lottery by Shirley Jackson, considering Simone de Beauvoir's ideas based on her Second Sex. Many sentences and phrases are quoted through the article to illustrate the women's weakness and the men's power, the notion usually called "men's control of the dominant discourse" in Beauvoir's words. There are some keys in the story showing that women are not satisfied with their ways of lives and try to change their current situation.

Journal of the Short Story in English, 1990

Most critics are puzzled by the final shock they experience at the end of Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery", its purpose and effect: they feel they are «only (left) shaken up» with «a sense of an unclosed gap» (Heilman, 1974: 385). In fact their major concern seems to be with the anthropological allusions to the rituals of the summer solstice. Seymour Lainoff claims that «anthropology provides the chief symbol" so that the lottery is to be understood as a "modern representation of the primitive annual scapegoat rite" (1954). Brooks and Warren explain that the story reveals "the all-too-human tendency to seize upon a scapegoat" (1971: 74) which Virgil Scott voices as "the human tendency to ‘punish’ innocent and often accidentally chosen victims for our sins" (1968: 20). If these comments are to the point they nevertheless do not disclose how the remarkable reversal of expectations is anticipated. True Helen E. Nebeker throws light on the author’s «symbolic tour de force» (1974, 100-107), but then only partially. Indeed she focuses on the underlying theme–the role of tradition in man’s life–but fails to consider the symbolism prevailing in the main theme–man’s recurrent need of a victim. Yet symbols are Jackson’s major device in her tightly-knit handling of both themes.

A teacher's aid for introducing this deservedly famous story to students, including teaching some basic principles of good reading and interpretation. With a special focus on high school teachers, but applicable to many kinds of classrooms, including community colleges, liberal arts colleges and universities, etc. This lesson plan was prepared by my Swarthmore College student Lauren Hee Won Chung, in consultation with me.