Analytic Essay of `The Lottery` by Shirley Jackson

THE LOTTERY ' BY SHIRLEY JACKSON

2009

Analyzing Shirley Jackson 's literature , Hyman asserts "her fierce visions of dissociation and madness , of alienation and withdrawal , of cruelty and terror , have been taken to be personal , even neurotic fantasies (Hyman , 4 . However , Jackson transforms those images into meaningful general symbols . If she used the resources of supernatural terror , it was to provide metaphors for the all-too-real terrors of the natural . Hyman says "The images Jackson deploys are not personal and neurotic , but the reverse - a sensitive and faithful anatomy of our times

, fitting symbols for our distressing world of the concentration camp and the bomb (Hyman , 5 . From the critical perspective , in a single short story The Lottery ' Shirley Jackson embedding her ideas in symbols depicted a plethora of acute problems occurring in any society

From the critical perspective , the protagonists in Jackson 's short stories and novels are immobilized by dread . Jackson 's fiction is about dread : what it is and what it feels like . In her work , dread is an emotion , a predicament , an existential condition . What is dreaded is a truth which seems to be the author 's . As one reads , one feels the presence of Shirley Jackson in her work . In "The Lottery " something dreadful occurs . Regularly , once-a-year , a villager is ritually stoned to death . But this event inspires no fear . Rather , it is sanctioned by the community . As readers , we appreciate the horror of the lottery , but our only reaction is surprise . The sense of horror comes...