≡Essays on The Lottery. Free Examples of Research Paper Topics, Titles GradesFixer

The Lottery is a short story by the American writer Shirley Jackson, who is known for her horror and mystery works. Published in 1948 in the New Yorker, it is among the most famous short stories in American literature. The so-called lottery is a fictional tradition followed in a small contemporary American town during which a victim is chosen to be sacrificed by stoning to death – this is supposed to ensure the community’s well-being. Importantly, this story generated lots of negative reactions back in the days, with lots of hate mail being addressed to the author. Given the controversy around it and its fame, essays on this topic represent interesting assignments. Check through the essay samples below for more topics.

Concepts: Short story, Shirley Jackson, The New Yorker, The Lottery, Stoning, Question, Racial segregation, Sarcasm

The Lottery by Shirley Jackson summary

The events of “The Lottery” border on the absurd. Nevertheless, the story cries out for interpretation on several levels. Shirley Jackson has skillfully used the elements of several ancient rituals to create a tale that touches on the character of ritual itself and the devastating...

Shirley Jackson The Lottery 1 Page

Prominent Themes in The Lottery

Shirley Jackson’s The Lottery is an alarming parable that explores the concept of senseless violence whilst featuring many other prominent themes. The short story revolves around an annual lottery that a village holds to ensure that “lottery in June, corn be heavy soon” (6). Appallingly,...

Shirley Jackson The Lottery 3 Pages

Shirley Jackson’s The Lottery

Shirley Jackson’s 1948 short story ‘The Lottery’ is an exploration of what it means to belong, or not belong, to a culture and set of traditions. Jackson sets the scene comfortably, describing a traditional little village from the 1920s to the 1940s, where everyone knows...

Shirley Jackson The Lottery 2 Pages

Tessie's Revenge in The Lottery, a Short Story by Shirley Jackson

The crowd of villagers threw the stones at Tessie with all their might. “NO! Stop it! Please!” Tessie shouted with tears in her eyes. ”What’s happening?” Little Davy asked Mr. Hutchinson. With tears falling down his face, Mr.Hutchinson said “Oh, it’s nothing you have to...

Revenge The Lottery 1 Page

Human Morality in The Lottery by Shirley Jackson

Humanity is best known for confusing one thing for another and doing things in the name of following cultural guidelines or social expectations. But, is that action justified? Is it even a rational mindset? Most times, such behavior is very harmful and dangerous to individuals....

The Lottery 2 Pages

Symbolism in The Lottery by Shirley Jackson

Shirley Jackson’s, “The Lottery,” is saturated with the use of symbolism. Symbolism is practiced to represent something else. It helps construct significance and feeling in a story by causing the reader to make connections between the piece of literature and the real world. Sometimes it...

Shirley Jackson The Lottery 4 Pages

Gothic Elements in “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” and “The Lottery

Horrific, extraordinary, macabre, or supernatural events and “an atmosphere of mystery and suspense” are the essentials of the American Gothic genre of literature (Phillips). The Southern Gothic sub-genre sets the events in the American South, makes extensive use of irony, and includes eccentric, deeply flawed...

A Good Man Is Hard to Find Shirley Jackson The Lottery 5 Pages

Anyone Can Be A Monster

Primo Levi, an Italian Jewish chemist, writer, and Holocaust survivor, once said that “Monsters exist, but they are far too few in number to be truly dangerous. More dangerous are the common men, the functionaries ready to believe and to act without asking questions.” When...

Monster Shirley Jackson The Lottery 3 Pages

Multiple times lottery winners throughout the United States

The issue being addressed in this inductive argument is that if I had won the state lottery once, the probability of me winning again is very unlikely due to a state’s population. Premise (1) would be “I’ve already won a hundred dollars in the state...

Lottery The Lottery United States 1 Page

The negative aspect of tradition and ritualism in The Lottery and The Hunger Games

“The Hunger Games” by Suzanne Collins and the short story “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson both illustrate the dangers of blindly following ritualized practices and traditions. The stories involve the use of an institutionalized drawing system, one which is employed to blindly choose a sacrifice...

The Hunger Games The Lottery 2 Pages