The Lottery Essay -- essays research papers fc

The Message Sent in â€Å"The Lottery†   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The shock value of Shirley Jackson’s â€Å"The Lottery† is not only widely known, but also widely felt. Her writing style effectively allows the reader to pass a judgment on themselves and the society in which they live. In â€Å"The Lottery† Jackson is making a comparison to human nature. It is prominent in all human civilizations to take a chance as a source of entertainment and as this chance is taken, something is both won and lost.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  As long as human civilization has existed, so has the idea of death or suffering, or taking a chance of death or suffering, as a form of entertainment. This can be traced back as far the day of the Roman gladiator, when an event was staged in a coliseum where people watched someone lose their life as a form of entertainment. Also, executions, once public, provide entertainment as they cause an inescapable excitement as an escape from the normal routine of daily life. This form of entertainment is displayed in â€Å"The Lottery† as the character Tessie Hutchinson is stoned in public because she won the town’s annual lottery and as the character Old Man Warner claims in the story, â€Å"There’s always been a lottery† (Jackson 275). People also take a chance of harming themselves for entertainment in event of drug usage or extreme sports. The townspeople harm themselves in â€Å"The Lottery† by harming another person. However, this form of entertainment can also take another...