The story of “The Lottery” is a story that is filled with Shirley Jackson’s view of her society. “The Lottery” is a story that takes place in a small foreign town on a warm and sunny day; you will see further down in the paper the significance of the weather. The story was used to express many controversial ideas and conflicts that can make people think about the culture that they are currently living in. Freidman notes that one of the most interesting points of this story is that the village is a typical society that any modern person could live in, “Jackson’s story portrays an “average” New England village with “average” citizens.” This points out that there could be things like this going on around us with out people even thinking that there is something wrong with it. It also brings us to realize that there are still many cultures around us that are barbaric and use outdated traditions. The theme of “The Lottery” is focused around the traditions that all people have and re-examining where those traditions come from. In this story there are three main focuses that Jacks
“The Lottery” is a fine example that stirred up a lot of emotion in the mid 1900’s. Shirley Jackson’s story caused a large number of people to rethink their society and the simple traditions they use today. In Friedman’s review it says, “ The story represents that village’s best, humane impulses, impulses, which the lottery represses.” This is clearly stating how Jackson can vividly point out the flaws she found most prevalent in her society.
This story also contains loads irony; many situations throughout the book have small hidden irony. One of the situations that were very obvious was in the beginning of the story children were piling up stones to throw. This is highly ironic because the children had no idea that the stones were actually going to be used to kill a person. In the end Mrs. Hutchinson’s actually ends up throwing rocks at her because he does not realize what he is doing. Friedman states, “Even the village children have been socialized into the ideology that victimizes Tessie. Another example of irony in this story is the day that stoning takes place. The whole
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