Analysis of The Lottery by Shirley Jackson

When Shirley Jacksons chilling story The Lottery was first published in 1948 in The New Yorker, it generated more letters than any work of fiction the magazine had ever published. Readers were furious, disgusted, occasionally curious, and almost uniformly bewildered. The public outcry over the story can be attributed, in part, to The New Yorkers practice at the time of publishing works without identifying them as fact or fiction. Readers were also presumably still reeling from the horrors of World War II. Yet, though times have changed and we all now know the story is fiction, The Lottery has maintained its grip on readers decade after decade. The Lottery is one of the most widely known stories in American literature and American culture. It has been adapted for radio, theater, television, and even ballet. The Simpsons television show included a reference to the story in its Dog of Death episode (season three). The Lottery is available to subscribers of The New Yorker and is also available in The Lottery and Other Stories, a collection of Jacksons work with an introduction by the writer A. M. Homes. You can hear Homes read and discuss the story with fiction editor Deborah Treisman at The New Yorker for free. Plot Summary The Lottery takes place on June 27, a beautiful summer day, in a small New England village where all the residents are gathering for their traditional annual lottery. Though the event first appears festive, it soon becomes clear that no one wants to win the lottery. Tessie Hutchinson seems unconcerned about the tradition until her family draws the dreaded mark. Then she protests that the process wasnt fair. The winner, it turns out, will be stoned to death by the remaining residents. Tessie wins, and the story closes as the villagers—including her own family members—begin to throw rocks at her. Dissonant Contrasts The story achieves its terrifying effect primarily through Jacksons skillful use of contrasts, through which she keeps the readers expectations at odds with the action of the story. The picturesque setting contrasts sharply with the horrific violence of the conclusion. The story takes place on a beautiful summer day with flowers blossoming profusely and the grass richly green. When the boys begin gathering stones, it seems like typical, playful behavior, and readers might imagine that everyone has gathered for something pleasant like a picnic or a parade. Just as fine weather and family gatherings might lead us to expect something positive, so, too, does the word lottery, which usually implies something good for the winner. Learning what the winner really gets is all the more horrifying because we have expected the opposite. Like the peaceful setting, the villagers casual attitude as they make small talk— some even cracking jokes—belies the violence to come. The narrators perspective seems completely aligned with the villagers, so events are narrated in the same matter-of-fact, everyday manner that the villagers use. The narrator notes, for instance, that the town is small enough that the lottery can be through in time to allow the villagers to get home for noon dinner. The men stand around talking of ordinary concerns like planting and rain, tractors and taxes. The lottery, like the square dances, the teenage club, the Halloween program, is just another of the civic activities conducted by Mr. Summers. Readers may find that the addition of murder makes the lottery quite different from a square dance, but the villagers and the narrator evidently do not. Hints of Unease If the villagers were thoroughly numb to the violence—if Jackson had misled her readers entirely about where the story was heading—I dont think The Lottery would still be famous. But as the story progresses, Jackson gives escalating clues to indicate that something is amiss. Before the lottery starts, the villagers keep their distance from the stool with the black box on it, and they hesitate when Mr. Summers asks for help. This is not necessarily the reaction you might expect from people who are looking forward to the lottery. It also seems somewhat unexpected that the villagers talk as if drawing the tickets is difficult work that requires a man to do it. Mr. Summers asks Janey Dunbar, Dont you have a grown boy to do it for you, Janey? And everyone praises the Watson boy for drawing for his family. Glad to see your mothers got a man to do it, says someone in the crowd. The lottery itself is tense. People do not look around at each other. Mr. Summers and the men drawing slips of paper grin at one another nervously and humorously. On first reading, these details might strike the reader as odd, but they can be explained in a variety of ways -- for instance, that people are very nervous because they want to win. Yet when Tessie Hutchinson cries, It wasnt fair! readers realize there has been an undercurrent of tension and violence in the story all along. What Does The Lottery Mean? As with many stories, there have been countless interpretations of The Lottery. For instance, the story has been read as a comment on World War II or as a Marxist critique of an entrenched social order. Many readers find Tessie Hutchinson to be a reference to Anne Hutchinson, who was banished from the Massachusetts Bay Colony for religious reasons. (But its worth noting that Tessie doesnt really protest the lottery on principle—she protests only her own death sentence.) Regardless of which interpretation you favor, The Lottery is, at its core, a story about the human capacity for violence, especially when that violence is couched in an appeal to tradition or social order. Jacksons narrator tells us that no one liked to upset even as much tradition as was represented by the black box. But although the villagers like to imagine that theyre preserving tradition, the truth is that they remember very few details, and the box itself is not the original. Rumors swirl about songs and salutes, but no one seems to know how the tradition started or what the details should be. The only thing that remains consistent is the violence, which gives some indication of the villagers priorities (and perhaps all of humanitys). Jackson writes, Although the villagers had forgotten the ritual and lost the original black box, they still remembered to use stones. One of the starkest moments in the story is when the narrator bluntly states, A stone hit her on the side of the head. From a grammatical standpoint, the sentence is structured so that no one actually threw the stone—its as if the stone hit Tessie of its own accord. All the villagers participate (even giving Tessies young son some pebbles to throw), so no one individually takes responsibility for the murder. And that, to me, is Jacksons most compelling explanation of why this barbaric tradition manages to continue.

Joining in Counselling - 2475 Words

Introduction Counselling, in the profession, refers to the creation of relationships that are helpful and positive between a counselor and a client. Counselling is intended to aid in adjustment and growth. Usually a client come to counsellors when they do not how to change so that they can lead a better and satisfying life. There are many skills and concepts that makes a great counsellor but in this essay, I will go back to the most fundamental basic skill which is joining. As with all counselling sessions, joining with the client is very essential to build the rapport with our client so that we are able to work together to identify and achieve the contracted goals. Having a good rapport with client is one of the active†¦show more content†¦Counsellor can noncoercively invite client to talk by using door opener like You dont seem to look very happy. you seem to be burdened by something. Care to talk about it? For clients who plunge straight to their issues, this will not be necessary. But sometimes, client might be in the midst of conversations, and might show signs that he is unsure of continuing, door opener like Im interested in hearing more about it. may help facilitate the conversation. Moving further on in the counselling session, the counsellor must be able to tune in with client. Being on the same wavelength is important aspect of joining. By tuning in to the other individual past experiences that made them who they are today, we will be able to understand their beliefs and principle is life whoich resulted from their each unique experiences. By doing so, we will be able to respect and value our client as an individual thus building mutual respect between us and the client in the relationship. This will also refrain us from talking down to our client but instead will be able to get along well. This is what we need to acheive as counsellors. Listening is a vital component of joining as we will be attending to clients who expect solutions from their counsellor. The primary role of a counsellor is to deliberately and intentionally listen to our client. Before expecting solutions, they will unload what is troubling them. If the counsellor talk and input alot intoShow MoreRelatedThe Importance of Ethics in Counselling904 Words   |  4 Pagesspiritual values. Within the counselling profession however there is a strict ethical framework which must be adhered to. This framework has been developed over the years to insure integrity, confidentiality, and responsibility on the part of the counsellor. In this essay I will discuss briefly the importance of ethics within the counselling profession, I will also outline a few of the major ethical dilemmas that might possibly arise while working in the field of counselling. â€Å"The primary role ofRead MoreStrategies For Improving Hiv Counselling Services Essay1450 Words   |  6 PagesFor this research, AI will aim to empower HIV clients and counsellors as co-researchers, to contribute their expertise and experiences to propose ways of improving HIV counselling services. AI is a participative, collaborative, and a systematic approach to inquiry that seeks what is right in an organisation in order to create the desired future. It is a process and method for asking questions designed to strengthen a system’s capacity for organisational learning and creativity (Preskill CoghlanRead MoreYouth Gangs In Canada886 Words   |  4 PagesCanada is becoming more and more of issue. Adolescents across Canada resort to joining youth gangs for many different reasons. A youth gang is a group of young adolescents who use intimidation and violence to gain prestige among other gangs and control certain areas of unlawful activities. For all the reasons an adol escent would join a youth gang, police and the Government have come up with programs to prevent youth from joining and to get them to leave the gangs. With programs involving prevention, interventionRead MoreThe Ethics Of Ethics Approval Essay1006 Words   |  5 Pagesbe taken and only audio recording and notes will be taken. A facilitator will be employed to assist with the FGDs; preferably someone with experience of working with community groups. He/she will be asked to sign the confidentiality clause before joining. Maintaining confidentiality between the co-researchers is not possible during the FDGs as the co-researchers will be interacting with each other and sharing their ideas. There is still a risk of identification, however, as the focus is on what worksRead MoreNegative Effects Of Divorce1409 Words   |  6 Pagesyoung age, it can create a situation that does not allow for academic success. Many school systems have interventionists who can step in and either provide cou nselling assistance or academic assistance. Children that exhibit extreme behavioral issues at school may be tested by the school district s special education department. The counselling department may also step in and refer the child to a community agency. The other interventionists, like speech language pathologists, step in to assist withRead MoreEssay on Counselling Skills2275 Words   |  10 PagesThe counselling process is based on the exchange of emotions between the client and the counsellor which aims to form an alliance (Hough, 1998). It involves the counsellor using skills in which they possess in order to communicate effectively with clients (Hough, 1998). This reflective essay clearly articulates my application of counselling skills used in this practice session and suggestions for improvement. It will provide a summary of the session, identification of a range of skills used and aRead MoreThe Health Belief Model Of The United States1367 Words   |  6 Pageshealth pr omoter and participant will review the results of the Health Belief Model questionnaire and acquire additional information from the participant. Based on this information, the health promoter will develop an individualized counselling program. Subsequent counselling sessions will focus on different aspects of the Health Belief Model. If the participant has a low perceived susceptibility, the health promoter and participant could discuss the relationship between family history and lifestyleRead MoreAssessment Of A Relationship With The Family1640 Words   |  7 Pagesand alliance with the family members. This alliance is built through joining. Though joining does not consist of a set of techniques or methods, but is rather of way of being for the therapist to show respect, curiosity, empathy and commitment (Minuchin, Reiter, Borda, 2014a). By joining with the family, the therapist will be able to actively engage and challenge the members to uncover the explicit and implicit issues. Joining necessitates that the therapist is initially accepts the family’s organizationRead More A Therapeutic Relationship Essay2156 Words   |  9 Pageswe do have an understanding of basic counselling skills and how they are applied a t a ward level and as such it is more important as a registered nurse to establish a proactive therapeutic relationship with a patient than it is to use an appropriate counselling approach. This paper will examine what counselling is, the role of the nurse counsellor, the basic counselling skills used by registered nurses and the differences in counselling approaches. Counselling and psychotherapy are frequently usedRead MoreWork Effectively with in Mental Health 21503784 Words   |  4 Pagesnot have sufficient knowledge or experience to be sure of his sexual preference. He would like Lee to receive counselling to help ‘sort this problem out’. What advice would you give Frank? You must remember to be respectful of Frank’s opinion and views. I would offer Frank information on homosexuality so he may better understand his son’s sexual preference and also suggest joining a support group. Frank cannot be told how to feel about his son’s sexuality, but giving him information may help

Brain and Language Free Essays

Damasio and Damasio (1992) discussed the detailed mechanics of language processing by the human brain. Their article, first established a general understanding of such concepts as the brain’s ability to categorize and classify word-forms through the mediation of the human sensors. According to their article, the brain’s left and right hemispheres contains three neural structures. We will write a custom essay sample on Brain and Language or any similar topic only for you Order Now The first extensive structure processes the non-verbal representations organizing objects, events, and relationships. Second structure, located only in the left hemisphere is responsible for producing the language through and with phonemes, phonemic and syntactic structures with the resulting word-forms. They referred to the third structure as a mediating structure that can change the concept into the word form or vice versa. Their further discourse proceeded into the specifics of the brain anatomy and various effects of the damage or lesions of the portions of the brain. Their examples with the color recognition were particularly impressive when they described the condition known as achromatopsia – lack of ability to perceive colors (i. e. seeing the environment in the shades of gray). The article was especially effective in describing the complicated mechanism behind the color recognition, color categorization and classification, and producing the correct word-form for the specific color. The article argues against the traditionally thought the â€Å"pictorial† representations of the objects, persons, or any combination of the environmental experiences but instead the authors describe their theory of how records of neural activity are stored in the sensory and motor cortices. Such patterns of synaptic activity also act through and with associations on which one particular object will associate with the patterns of color, shape, usage, tactile perceptions, and the feelings that a person has usually when using this object. The authors further state that the neural actions that occur as the result of interaction between the person and the object happen in different functional areas of the brain and come together in areas of â€Å"convergence† of synaptic connections. Then recall of the event and its associated experiences depend upon simultaneous reactivation of the neural actions within the neuron assemblies when those fire simultaneously and reactivate the previously occurred patterns of neural activity. Simultaneously, the categorization and classification occurs in such similar or related neural actions are activated together. The categorization and classification abilities of the first neural structure make it possible to distinguish objects by their characteristics and function ‘stored’ previously, as Damasio and Damasio describe the example with a coffee cup. Such ‘recollection’ is perhaps responsible for the brain’s ability to express the formed within concept and to understand a comprehensive input as the concept. The article further exemplifies a curious condition in which a patient would loose an ability to define a concept for a unique entity (like an animal species in the author’s example). From this example, the reader would learn that the affected patient would not be able to name any animal species (i. e. raccoon) nor would say its size, color, or shape. He would simply say â€Å"animal† when presented with the picture of a raccoon (Damasio Damasio, 1992). When describing the affect produced by the specific lesion of the portion within the left hemisphere, the authors wrote about the earlier discovery by Paul Broca and Carl Wernicke of the phenomenon called ‘cerebral dominance’ which specifically pointed out at the left hemisphere as the organ responsible for the production and processing of human language in â€Å"99 percent of right-handed and two-thirds of left handers. † The article confirms these studied by briefly discussing the research by Edward Klima of the University of California at San Diego and Ursula Bellugi of the Salk Institute of Biological Studies in San Diego who have discovered that aphasia (condition that impedes language-interpreting ability) is caused by damage to the particular region of the left hemisphere of the brain. Using the aphasic patients, the investigators were able to map the neural activities responsible for the formation of the language and its interpretation (also including other variations of language such as sign language) (Damasio Damasio, 1992). With having a map in front of them, the neuroscientists and other field investigators would be able to specify exactly which function would be impaired as the result of damage to which portion of the left hemisphere. This would also extend to the predictive ability as far as other functions of the whole language production mechanism are concerned. Example of such can be actual production of speech sounds, intonation (i. e. speaking in a ‘flat tone’, long pauses between the words and defective grammar), the impairment of associative and habit learning, production of nouns, production of verbs (nouns and verbs are produced and processed in different regions), difficulty understanding meanings that represent the syntactic structures, and the inability to understand the meaning of non-reversible passive structures. The authors further attempt to defend their point of view in favor of the mediating system between the structure that is responsible for concept processing and the system that actually produces word and word structures. According to them, the mediating system’s function would be that of the selection of the correct meaning of lexicon or that connecting the concepts’ interrelationship. It is understood that mediation system is mostly activated when the person attempts to understand the comprehensive input. The purpose of comprehension sets in motion the mediating system that is capable of bringing associative connections between the concepts, particular experiences, and generalized experiences together. To exemplify their view, the authors mention A. N. and L. R. as patients who have a problem in retrieval of common nouns representing certain entities. Their deficit in the specific word-form retrieval is causes by their inability to activate the mediation system that deprives them of the ability to bring the connection between the concepts (i. e. of the noun and what that noun represents as far as the object and its function). Damasio and Damasio explained such selective deficiency by stating that the selectivity in conceptualization of entities depends upon the absence or presence of the personal relation of the patient to the entity/concept. By loosing the function of some regions of the left hemisphere, the patients will respond by loosing the specific speech/conceptualization function that is mapped to that region. In A. N. and L. R. case it was the damage to anterior and midtemporal cortices that rendered them unable to pick may common nouns. The article concludes with the detailed discourse into the studies by the group of researchers at Washington University. Specifically, this group was interested in the production and interpretation of verbs and functors and how the nouns can be mediated together with the appropriate actions, like the noun ‘apple’ would mediate with the verb ‘eat. ’ Their conclusions illustrated a situation in which the damage to the certain left hemisphere regions would disrupt such association rendering the patient unable to produce the appropriate verb and further disrupting their use of grammar (Damasio Damasio, 1992). The article was comprehensive in its purpose in terms of being able to describe the complex structure and function of the left hemisphere’s regions responsible for processing, production, and mediation of the components of human language. The only critique of the article that I have is that the authors attempted to place too much of very specific information into a very small format. The complexity of the concepts behind the message would be better delivered if more practical examples were used and the text would be delineated with a larger number of lay terms. In general, the article’s audience appeared to be professionals or paraprofessionals who already had a significant understanding within the field. It would be difficult to understand for people with a limited knowledge and background within the field. The illustrations were adequate and the sources appropriate in both quality and quantity. My suggestion for the further research would be targeting the Visio-Spatial Memory Units that are units of memory assembled from different perceptual input within the Working Memory (Baddely, 1992). Further, my suggestion would be to investigate the alternative approaches to the definition and theoretical function-ability of the short-term memory. References Baddeley AD. 1992. Working memory. Science 255:556-59 Damasio, A. R. , Damasio, H. (1992). Brain and Language, Scientific American, pg. 89- 95, Retrieved June 28, 2007 from http://www. utdallas. edu/~wkatz/Proseminar_articles. html How to cite Brain and Language, Papers

My Summers free essay sample

With a tremendous bang, the top of the port diesel engine exploded and smashed a huge hole in the deck, leaving a smoking crater and scattering splatters of flaming diesel fuel everywhere. As I tried desperately to think what to do, I suddenly felt a tremendous crack on my forehead as it smacked into something hard: the bunk above mine. I jolted awake and realized that I had been dreaming in the narrow bunk that was my home on the majestic pungy schooner Lady Maryland. As I rubbed my forehead to ease the pain, I glanced at my watch, which dutifully informed me that it was 1:57:29 AM on July 3, 2008. Two short hours of wakeful sleep were all I was going to get today, I realized as I rolled out of my bunk, stretching and yawning. I secured my life vest as I climbed up a creaky wooden ladder into the chilly night air and onto the slowly rocking deck to report for duty. We will write a custom essay sample on My Summers or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Until dawn, I, in the company of the chief mate, was to pilot the ship through a night lit only by skyglow a few miles from the New Jersey shore, with merely a compass to guide me. As I piloted the boat calmly through the five-foot swells, I reflected on how I came to be in that position. I remembered taking my SATs in seventh grade to make it into a summer camp that was run, in conjunction with Johns Hopkins University, by an organization called the Center for Talented Youth (CTY). I remembered thinking that I was crazy to want to spend three weeks away from home on an old sailboat and a college campus studying whales (of all things), when I wanted to become an engineer. I spent a total of twenty days studying whales: nine days on the Lady Maryland and eleven days at the College of Notre Dame. It was the best experience I have ever had. Looking back, I now realize how narrow-minded I was before that experience. I can only imagine the experiences I would have had if I was more open regarding new opportunities. From this experience, I learned that it is very important to always keep an open mind when you are given the opportunity to try something new. Here I now stand as a prospective engineering student with a newfound interest in marine biology; a person that has had the honor of piloting the world’s last pungy schooner through the most treacherous waters on the East Coast: Hell’s Gate; a person whose interests now range from music to politics, from building Legos to cooking, and it’s all because of the experiences I had on the Lady Maryland and at CTY. Now I always take advantage of any new opportunity I am presented with because I’ve learned that when you try something new, you discover something interesting about yourself, and you open yourself to all the experiences the world has to offer.