The Lottery Essay Example

“The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson

The short story “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson has a social ground and explores such serious issues as blind following of tradition and ruling of a mass. However, luckily, such “lotteries” do not appear in the modern world as now we live in a democratic society and have fundamental rights and freedoms. There are violent people, but they do not behave in such a heartless and tyrannical way as the characters of the story in question who kill without understanding that and do that on a regular basis and without a grain of doubts or sympathy.
Now civilized people are not any more influenced by weird ancient traditions or rituals, but by some moral principles and values as they are all conscious and they decide themselves what to do and how to act. For that they were given a free will and now have their own mind to use it.
What concerns a mass or a crowd, the situation is different. In current world of mass media, mass production, mass influence, a mass has a considerable power over people. It can set people against anything or against anybody, even against those they love. Here we can draw a parallel with the short story “The Lottery” since nowadays the crowd can influence you so much that you will break and surrender to influence and being hypnotized can take terrible actions. Therefore, it is very hard to step aside from the crowd and start moving in a different, right direction. But now there are more and more such people (who then can become main activists and leaders) who are not afraid and dare to stand out of the herd. Now you are free to choose your way and act accordingly.
Another point is that nowadays masses behave differently, as they do not destroy, but they overtake the control over the person they need. They try their best and make all needed efforts to absorb the person to make her the part of them. Now mightiness is defined by influence and power. However, it is not an everyday occasion. In the reflection similar to Jackson’s lottery, such mass crimes were conducted during the II World War, when the Nazi destroyed a great amount of Jews without their any quilt and against their will. I consider it to be very similar situation to that what is happening in “The Lottery.” To sum up, maybe such lottery-like events occurred in the past, but now hopefully the situation is different. Now the world is more loyal and tolerant. It gives options to choose, and you do not have to do something so that the other person will avoid punishment.

John Keats

After getting acquainted with John Keats, his life and his poems in the spirit of romanticism, there is nothing I can express except my excitement and admiration. This English poet was an outstanding personality and had a very complicated life, but he really proved he is a gifted poet and now he is considered to be one of those the greatest and most famous in Classic English literature, standing in a row with such geniuses as Byron and Shelley, but at the same time being different and exceptional.
During his unpredictably short life Keats faced a lot of difficulties and had really a lot to tackle. Firstly, he was affected by various family issues. His father died as a result of an accident (fell from the horse); his mother threw herself away on new unhappy marriage; having suffered a lot his younger brother Tom died from tuberculosis. Later on John himself got terribly sick and died in the tender age of 25 years and on the pick of his professional poetic development. In addition, when John Keats started his career as a poet, he was not successful at once and was exposed to severe and unjust critiques and mockery about his bad taste and vulgar thinking in his poems. He was not praised and even accepted and could not become as great and famous as his contemporaries. Being frail and delicate young man, and then being doomed to death due to incurable decease, John Keats was persistent in his endeavors and kept writing and actually gave life to his greatest poems which the world admires up till now.
John Keats’ poetry perfectly reflects romanticism and his imagination. One of his best poems “This living hand” shows how much the poet craves for life and love. He can be even opposed to this outstretched hand as all his life he was trying his best to grasp his muse, his inspiration, his love, his life, in other words, what was the most important for him. He was clinging to life aiming at being inseparable with his two greatest passions: poetry and love. However, his lines are usually saturated with melancholic sorrow, groom mood, sufferings and the motifs of death. He was not afraid of it as he always felt alive and was openly and bravely waiting for his death to come. As a result, we can feel that in or in-between the lines of his poems. Keats’ imagery is exceptionally tender and sensual with some drops of anticipation of the radical end (death, despair and hopelessness).

“Bright Star” by John Keats

The poem in question is the last and most significant, memorable and beautiful poem of John Keats. He dedicated it to his beloved Fanny Brawne whom he was forced to leave because of his deathly decease. They loved each other to distraction, but were both suffering because of their severe destiny which separated them with Keats’ illness and then death.
It is especially touching that the poem is so pure and dreaming. The poet chooses pretty ordinary for the romanticism poetry image of the star and talks to her, being quite jealous to her, her eternity, her light. But he also desires something specifically humane – simply happiness which he sees in being always together with his beloved woman. He escapes loneliness, wants to be happy with his beloved and let that be forever. His happiness would be simple. However, it is impossible and, for this reason, he prefers death to being not with her. And so happened it. This is the sense behind the words and lines. It was a farewell poem of John Keats addressed to the greatest gift of his life – Fanny Brawne.
The most interesting is that the poem strongly emits the personality and life of its author. It reflects not only his romanticism-oriented style of writing, but also his dreams and desires. Keats can be fully felt through this poem. Here we have perfect imagery, perfect language, perfect sensibility, Keats in his perfection.
For some reason, the poem does not trigger any sadness, it is perceived only with some slight pleasant and positive feeling. If I did not know who is the author of this poem and actually the whole story of John Keats’ life, I would simply like it and think that it was written by a young, romantic, daring and optimistic person simply dreaming about happiness and eternally close love. However, John Keats gives special importance and meaningfulness to it, and to my mind, the reader can feel and see what the poet sees in this poem only knowing the story of the life of its creator.