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Women, Class and Society in “The Lottery”

The prose of Shirley Jackson is simple and alien to pretentiousness. There are no lengthy descriptions, an abundance of details or long monologues. Just a couple of words often indicates the appearance of heroes. In some miniatures and the world of characters around the world, and equally, the meagre limit is allocated. Against the background of this verified conciseness of the replicas of the heroes, their dialogues bloom with bright multi-colour fireworks. The characters, designate hidden thoughts, in passing revealing to the reader the paradoxical beauty of banal everyday situations, everyday conflicts, the routine surrounding an ordinary person. And in this prose, the writer finds her original key to the development of the plot, for the most part, frightening and destructive.

"The Lottery" is one of the best-known stories in American literature and American culture. The definition of "feminine" is hardly suitable for Shirley Jackson's prose; nevertheless, in the overwhelming majority of stories, the main character is a woman, her problems, fears and typical everyday situations, in addition, the plots of some stories are much similar, so far from the entire collection was based on really interesting.

The more sacred a tradition is, the more unnecessary and dangerous knowledge becomes. An intentionally selective culture of a configurative past and a preconfigured present, which is then powerfully operational within the process of cultural and social definition and identification. A daily reality in a daily routine that nothing is special until everything changes.

The best of her stories is considered the "Lottery", and it would be logical to recall it. The most resonant in the history of the magazine "The New Yorker"; notorious; three cinematography inspired films by Marilyn Manson on the clip; many fellow writers on things written under the explicit influence. Just amazingly strong. But I do not want about the "Lottery". Cruel, bitter and sick things are enough without multiplying them.

The girl leaves home on the eve of the wedding of her older sister. Unrequited love for the groom and a broken heart have nothing to do with it. Just in the atmosphere of pre-wedding psychosis, it is easier to sneak out. Respectable family, established life, comfort and cosiness, communication. All the benefits of giving birth at the right time in the right place. What for? Come on, sort it out. Each has its reasons. And she succeeds because she is the flesh from the flesh of the top of the American middle class: rational knows what she wants, knows how to plan and implement her plan.

What embodied this? - Ask. Nothing imposing. I left for another city, rented a room from a lonely middle-aged woman, got a job as a saleswoman in a department store, and so she lives quietly. There are no friends, and she does not need them. The groom, too, but he is not required. And once a year, on the anniversary of the escape, the mother addresses on the radio: "Louise, please return home." (Griffin44). Everyone has their reasons. Maybe the key is in the word "native"? When you know what is not needed by those with whom you live. When life they are planning for you is entirely different from what they would like to live. And you have a head-on your shoulders (in contrast to the vast majority of peers who are convinced that you need to get married and everything will work out by itself) - realizing that it will be worse further.

The only lifetime collection of Shirley Jackson (1916-1965) includes stories created by her at the beginning of her career and subsequently recognized as a classic of literature. Without tying himself to genre conventions, Jackson plunges into the depths of the human psyche, revealing the fears and vices of his contemporaries with unchanging irony and ruthless accuracy.

Like any direction of literature, the "dark" prose (horror and its related genres comfortably housed under this umbrella) has gained a fair number of awards. The Shirley Jackson Prize was established only in 2007 but has already established itself as one of the most prestigious in the field of "psychological suspense, horror and dark fiction." Why exactly, Jackson? Compared to other masters of the genre like Robert Bloch or Fritz Leiber, who worked in the middle of the century, the writer did not leave much creative heritage, and her contribution to the "dark" literature is limited to a pile of thin novels and a handful of stories in which not only Cthulhu - and vampires not found. And yet, the prize was not so named by chance( Griffin46).

Shirley Jackson her talent for an anatomically accurate depiction of the human soul showed itself in the Lottery. On a thin line between real and fantastic, stories grow that can excite reader's emotions today. In lottery the portrayal of women , society and gender is clearly depicted to create this story as Jackson wanted to present it to her audience. In Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery," there is a struggle among masculine authority and feminine struggle. "The Lottery" efforts to clarify a covered way of controlled woman sexuality. In this short story the it is shown that women are not allowed to participate in the drawing. This is noteworthy because their prohibiting from the lottery leaves their destiny to be obvious by the men in the society. The the social order in this short story is patriarchal.

Works cited

Griffin, Amy A. "Jackson's The Lottery." The Explicator 58.1 (1999): 44-46.

Jackson, Shirley. "The lottery." The New Yorker 26 (1948): 25-28.