Essay Topics for The Lottery by Shirley Jackson

Essay Topics for The Lottery by Shirley JacksonThe Lottery by Shirley Jackson is a novel about the author's experiences growing up in an isolated fishing village in Maine and later moving to a large coastal city. While it's not a supernatural horror story, it can be seen as such.On the first page, it is introduced as the story of one Simon Chris. He was forced to leave his beloved family when he was kidnapped and taken away. Since then, he has been sold off many times until he finally found himself in a small New England town.Rich Nelson is also introduced early on in the book. He was a rough, alcoholic who worked as a lighthouse keeper in a small island. He lived a lonely life until he finally became rich. He eventually left his wife and children in the home that they had built for him on the island with just enough money for food.At first, all three were used as plot devices to get the reader to want to know more about them. They didn't seem to have a lot of motivation and most of their stories were hard to follow. However, the book soon turns their stories into real people that we can relate to.Throughout the book, the characters are presented in such a way that makes us want to connect with them. We want to know what makes them tick and what makes them unhappy. I found this to be a powerful way to make the reader empathize with the characters.The author's familiarity with her Maine area allowed her to write about subjects that she has experienced herself and therefore was able to relate to her readers. The various pieces of the puzzle needed to create the major plot points were also based on how she felt and what she did in her small community.I particularly liked the changes that happened in the life of each character through the course of the book, as well as the way the lottery brought them together. The story's themes of life and death, the value of trust, responsibility, and the power of choice are timeless and are relevant to our everyday lives.In sho rt, The Lottery by Shirley Jackson is a fictional account of an event in one woman's life. Although not a horror story, it can be read as such because of its simplicity and the clarity of the plot. It can be a helpful story for anyone who wants to learn about what life is like on the small Island where she grew up and to learn about the events that can happen to a person that causes them to leave their loved ones behind.