Essay on Shirley Jacksons The Lottery - Message of Social Responsibili

The Message of Social Responsibility in The Lottery Often, we paint a fairytale view of life for ourselves and our children. Sometimes, an author paints a frightfully realistic picture of life and forces us to reconsider the fairytale. In Shirley Jacksons chronicle, The Lottery, a town each year conducts a draft in which the winner or looser, in this case, is stoned to death by his or her own neighbors. The tradition is supposed to uphold social structure inside the town, but in order to comprehend the true meaning of the story you must be able to read between the lines. The Lottery is a story about a town that has let its traditions go too far. Also, it is clear that the story contains eye-opening facts that lead me to believe that the authors intentions were not to write a horror story, but rather cry to all to stop and realize we accept problems that we can and should approach, that can make a difference in umteen peoples lives in our society. The author states that the lot tery is conducted every year in the spring. The flowers are blooming and the birds are singing, but this warm town chop-chop becomes a gloomy, overcast setting for a satanic event. This horrifying ritual ends in bloodshed and death. In our society today, there are large cities which have beautiful parks and people usually keep them clean and pretty th... ...lottery, and that could lead to many more deaths of innocent people. The fact that there are places in the world today that immoral actions occur, means that we, as responsible citizens, are not doing our job. The people of America must wake up and learn to bandstand up for what they believe in. Works Cited Jackson, Shirley. The Lottery. The Harper Anthology of Fiction. Ed Sylvan Barnet. New York HarperCollins, 1986. 862-868 McQuain, Michelle. Change Only When Affected. Ode to Friendship & Other Essays. Connie Bellamy, Virginia Beach VWC, 1997. Walden, bathroom. Critical Essays by John Walden. Electric Library. http//www.elib rary.com/id/230/270/lid, 1996.