The Lottery (Shirley Jackson) - Essay Example

1. How did you react to the style of the or poet? I read Shirley Jacksons "The Lottery" and thought the style of the was very chilling and scary. The details she used made me feel like I was really there watching this horrible thing go on to these people and they made me uneasy even before I understood what was happening. I barely even noticed I was reading a story because of how well she wrote and made me believe in the story. 2. Was the poem, story, or play especially significant meaningful to you, and why?

Because of all the news today about black people being killed by police officers, this story really gave me the chills. Although of course in this story what is really scary about it is the way the lottery is made into a completely ordinary event. The children compete to gather stones. The adults all are a little more disturbed by it but not enough to stop it or try and change the tradition. 3. What do you think the literary artist was trying to accomplish with this work I think what Jackson was trying to do with this story is show how people can be really horrible as long as they are not the ones in danger.

It is kind of like the holocaust and Nazi Germany, where a lot of Germans did not try too hard to fight the Nazis because they were worried about what would happen to them. And so a lot of other people died. Or again it is like the way blacks are sometimes treated by some police officers. Reading this story really made me think about that in a new way. I think basically thought the author is trying to push real people to look hard at their traditions, think about if they are hurting everybody, and change them if they are.