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Shirley Jackson
"The Witch" is a dark comedy. It has elements of something sinister but it is also funny. It shows that the boy (and children in general) is innocent but also morbid. When parents say that their...
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Shirley Jackson
First of all, I have to disagree with the global premise of your question. When people follow a tradition without thinking of the consequences, bad things do not necessarily happen. They can and...
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The Lottery
In this disturbing story, that there are no voiced objections to the lottery before it begins indicates a blind acceptance of a ritual that the town has performed over eighty times, at least, since...
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The Lottery
The twist ending structure of "The Lottery" is one of its strongest features. Until the events start becoming tense (the separation of Tessie from the other villagers, the increasing hostility of...
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The Lottery
The tradition of "The Lottery," in which a random villager is stoned to death to promote a good harvest season, is ingrained in everyone practically from birth. For this reason, even rational...
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The Possibility of Evil
I think that there is significance in the story's setting being unnamed. There is a distinct feeling that the story could happen anywhere. This is enhanced in how the town is regular and nothing...
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The Lottery
This section of text from "The Lottery" indicates a few possibilities. One is that the people gathering for the lottery, the stoning, are so used to this tradition that it is treated with the same...
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We Have Always Lived in the Castle
The original question had to be edited down. I would suggest that feminism is presented in the novel as a response to the repression and cruelty found in the world around the sisters. Merricat...
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The Lottery
I think that one of the most intense lessons of Jackson's short story is to create reflection about how people in supposedly civilized societies can do awful things to one another. For Jackson's...
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The Possibility of Evil
I believe that the story's exposition helps to establish the ending of the story. Consider the Miss Strangeworth loves the town in which she lives. She admires nearly every element about it. She...
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The Lottery
I think that the most significant element of Jackson not naming the village for her story helps to broaden out the meaning of the story to more people. It is evident that Jackson is influenced by...
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The Possibility of Evil
I think that Jackson is masterful in being able to make clear that the small actions that are engaged in on a daily basis can contain a darker side to them. For example, I believe that Jackson's...
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The Lottery
I think that the direct intent of the short story on the reader is to create a sense of fearful reflection about the capacity for evil in the world. One of the realities of the ending is the...
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The Lottery
I think that the question hits at exactly what Jackson wishes to say. There is no moral code that is being followed in the village. This is exactly the problem. People have set aside their moral...
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The Lottery
To a great extent, I think that this becomes one of the central themes of the story. The idea of violence and cruelty being learned behaviors, passed down like tradition from old to young, is part...
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The Lottery
Jackson's use of violence is subtle and this what makes it so effective in the story. There is not much in way of demonstrative violence, but there is much in way of social cruelty. For Jackson's...
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The Lottery
I think that the overall cruelty that is so intrinsic to understanding the themes in "The Lottery" is amplified in seeing how Tessie's family is a part of the savagery. Jackson is seeking to bring...
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The Lottery
I think that Old Man Warner's mentality about the lottery results from the basic idea that tradition should not be questioned. Old Man Warner speaks to this idea in different ways. Old Man Warner...
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The Lottery
If by "developing character" we are discussing an individual in the story whose arc is still changing, I think that Tessie could be considered a developing character. It is difficult to see her in...
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The Lottery
I think that one of the most profound and intense issues that comes out of the short story is how the notion of the "banality of evil" is approached. There is a desensitizing effect to the lottery...
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The Possibility of Evil
I think that there is much in Miss Strangeworth's attitudes towards her neighbors that can be seen today. I am not sure the elaborate means of sitting down and writing letters to individuals about...
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Shirley Jackson
I would like to help you but you didn't list which book you were talking about
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The Possibility of Evil
I tend to think that Jackson has aimed the story at the modern reader. There is much in the story that coincides with the modern setting and modern audience that can connect. On one hand, the...
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Shirley Jackson
Shirley Jackson uses two prominent literary techniques (one of two kinds of literary devices) in her story "The Morning of June 28, 1948." The story is a recollection of the day where her infamous...
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Shirley Jackson
WOW! I do believe that the book you possess may be a piece of true literary history. Shirley Jackson (1916-1965) lived most of her life in New England with her husband, the literary critic Stanley...
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Shirley Jackson
Although Shirley Jackson (1916-1965), author of the acclaimed short story, "The Lottery," had personal demons of her own, there is no evidence that she worshipped any in real life. Her husband,...
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Shirley Jackson
Shirley Jackson's very controversial story is considered by many to be a parable about the detached inhumanity of man to man. Indeed, this detachment in cruelty is most relevant today as the daily...
