The Lottery Essay -- essays research papers fc

When The Lottery was first published in 1948, it created an enormous controversy and great occupy in its author, Shirley Jackson. Shirley Jackson was born in San Francisco, California on December 14, 1919. When she was two years old, her family moved her to Burlingame, California, where Jackson attended amply crop. After high school Jackson moved away to attend college at Rochester University in upstate New York but after only a short period at Rochester and, after taking off a year from school, she moved on to siege of Syracuse University. At first, Jackson was in the School of Journalism at Syracuse but soon moved to the English Department to pursue her interest in writing. Jackson soon started publishing works in the school news paper and eventually, she and a classmate and future husband, Stanley Hyman started their own magazine under the supervision of teacher, Leonard Brown, who Jackson later described as her mentor. After graduating from Syracuse in 1940, Jackson and coll ege sweetheart Hyman married and moved to Vermont. In Vermont, Jackson did a lot of writing, publishing many withstands, childrens stories and humorous pieces, including a book ab kayoed family life titled Life among Savages. The Lottery was a radical departure from the tone and contents of her other works. (http//reagan.underthesun.cc/sjackson/sjackson1.html)In 1948, Jackson wrote what turned out to be probably her most famous short story entitled The Lottery. When The Lottery appeared in the New Yorker, it created a huge controversy and received a lot of press for its dark psychological horror. Many passel believed that The Lottery was about how company can be cruel to individuals, the military force in society and the overwhelming need of humans to conform to the norms of society without regard to right or wrong. Many people found the story gross and disgusting because of the strike murder at the end of the story. The story has been interpreted by many literary critics and s cholars with the general conclusion that The Lottery is a satire on the willingness of people to engage collectively in abhorrent behavior, racial prejudice, and sexism all of which are social evils (Barr 248-49). Jackson recalls when she first got the idea to write The Lottery. The idea had come to me time I was pushing my daughter up the hill in her stroller-it was, as I say, a warm morning, and the hill... ... a work of fiction, its underlying themes of human violence and cruelty, obedience to rituals and authority can be seen in many of the events of recent and contemporary history. The people of Jacksons time era were not utilize to someone telling such graphic truths through a short story. If Jackson had written her Story today I am sure at that place would not be anything close to the public uproar that occurred in 1948 when the story was published. Works CitedBarr, Donald. A Talent for Irony. New York Times Book Review (1949) 4Rpt in Short Story Criticism. Ed. Thomas Vo tteler. Vol. 9 Detroit Gale, 1992. 248Crisis Group. Crisis in Darfur. 20 Mar. 2005Hyman, Edgar Stanley. Biography of a Story. Come Along With Me. (1960) 211-25. Rpt in Short Story Criticism. Ed. jennet Cromie. Vol 39 Farmington Hills Gale, 2000. 181-185Jackson, Shirley. The Lottery. Literature The Human Experience Reading and Writing. Ed. Richard Abcarian and Marvin Klotz. 8th ed. Boston Bedford/St. Martins, 2004. 328-334Reagan, Bette. Shirley Jackson Life and Work. 18 Mar.