Allusion And Mystery In The Lottery By Shirley Jackson

In 1949 a short story by Shirley Jackson talks about a village that has a annual lottery that a person get chosen to get stoned to death. But in this short story called the lottery the author put all these characters and objects that have more meaning than it is. In “The Lottery” there are many characters and objects that have a symbolic meaning. In this story everything has a special meaning even to the little stones on the ground to the people in the square village. This short story has a very special meaning to it.

The story started when people are gathered every end of June for the annual lottery ritual in a small village. All the head of each family are required to grab a slip a slip of paper in the box that is placed in the middle of the village. The in charge of the lottery was Mr. Summer. The conflict occurs when Tessie found out that her husband Bill was the center of the Villager’s attention. There is something on the paper that he picked. Because of that Tessie can’t even accept it and she keep on yelling that it is not fair. She believed that the time given to Bill was not enough to pick the paper that he wanted from Mr. Summer. The entire Hutchinson family, are

The mood had been cheerful continuously until a little uncertainty appeared, when all of the children started collecting rocks and making piles. “Dickie…

Jackson does not reveal the unethical and violent nature of the lottery until the very end, where the reader loses their earlier presumptions about an innocent lottery. Therefore, foreshadowing and suspense becomes a very large force in the story until the ending, and Jackson gives many hints to the reader. At the beginning of the story, children are found stuffing their pockets full and making towering piles of stones. Readers may brush this off as ordinary play of children, but in fact, it has a cruel purpose near the story’s end. Another area of foreshadowing is when Mr. Summers, the lottery’s organizer, asks the Watson boy to draw for him and his mother. Mr. Watson is not mentioned, like the other male head of households who pick for their families, so it can be assumed that Mr. Watson lost his life during the previous years’ lottery. All of this shows the juxtaposition between the seemingly everyday activities of the town and the cruel nature of what actually happens that day.

Through this mysterious act, one has to wonder why the boys are doing this, deliberately?  It only shows that the stones will play a role in the imminent future.

Shirley Jackson’s short story “The Lottery” is about a bizarre ritual performed in a town in which the townspeople proceed to follow every year. In a black, worn box they place all the names of the community. Once all the names are placed inside, Mr. Summers draws a name. After the name is chosen, this member will be stoned to death by the others in the community. Tessie Hutchinson in the story tries to reject the repetitive tradition of the lottery.

Society today sees the lottery as an easy way to win a ginormous amount of cash just by buying a little slip of paper with a combination of numbers. The irony that Shirley Jackson uses in her short story, The Lottery, is used to the extreme by not only the title being ironic, but also within the story. The lottery is seen as a way to gain cash, but the ironic part of the title is that the reader sees it and thinks that the story will be about someone winning a big prize, yet the winner is sentenced to being stoned to death. Within the story, Shirley Jackson writes about how one member of the community ultimately chooses who wins the lottery. Another ironic thing about someone chooses the winner is that one of the communities sons picked his own father to win the lottery. Linda Wagner-Martin analyzes The Lottery and its irony by writing, “Bringing in the small children as she does, from early in the story (they are gathering stones, piling them up where they will be handy, and participating in the ritual as if it were a kind of play), creates a poignance not only for the death of Tessie the mother, but for the sympathy the crowd gives to the youngest Hutchinson, little Dave. Having the child draw his own slip of paper from the box reinforces the normality of the occasion, and thereby adds to Jackson's irony. It is family members, women and children, and fellow residents who are being killed through this orderly, ritualized process. As Jackson herself once wrote, "I hoped, by setting a particularly brutal ancient rite in the present and in my own village, to shock the story's

The boys started gathering stones, finally making a huge pile. One after the other, the younger boys filled their pockets full of the smallest, smoothest, roundest, stones. “Bobby Martin had already stuffed his pockets full of stones, and the other boys soon followed his example, selecting the smoothest and roundest stones” (Jackson 1). The boys wanted more of the best stones, so they gathered their stones first before all the

Shirley Jackson received very little literary criticism throughout her life. The reason why is very controversial. The most accurate reason is most likely because Shirley Jackson’s works were so different, filling in many different genres and types of stories. “Despite her popularity--several of her novels were best-sellers--her work received relatively little critical attention. Some critics claim the lack of critical attention paid to Jackson is due to her versatility--in her lifetime she published novels, short stories, plays, children's books, television scripts and humorous sketches of domestic life.” ("Shirley Jackson."(Online)). Other critics blame it on the fact that Shirley was a woman and the men that lived during her time wouldn’t

Literary Analysis of The Lottery Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery” is about a lottery drawing held to choose randomly who will be the one chosen to be stoned to death by their village. The lottery is an annual tradition practiced by the townspeople for over seventy years in order to have a good harvest. The author uses a variety of literary tools such as tone, symbolism, and foreshadowing to represent his true purpose for writing the story. By creating suspense through the use of descriptive word choices and writing in limited awareness, the author is able to keep the reader on the edge of their seat, dying to know the true identity of the lottery.

Literature is the mirror of society. It gives us insight into human experience, allowing us to connect on various levels of desire, emotion, and morality. It gives readers the opportunity to seize the true meaning of human conflict. Not only is literature for entertainment purposes, but it has a grave impact on our society and how we view whatever factors life throws at us. Shirley Jackson shows us an example of how a piece of literature can change your point of view of things in her story “The Lottery.” This short story tells the unfortunate events that occur in a small village where families gather to draw

The Lottery was published at a time when America was scrambling for conformity. Jackson shows through the setting of the story, a small, close knit-town, that even though a population can ignore evil, it is still prevalent in society. Usually when people think of the lottery, they think of drawing or buying a ticket for the chance to win millions of dollars, well not this lottery its

Shirley Jackson uses the stones as symbols to highlight that an emotionless and cruel loss of respect for human life comes as a result of instinctively carrying out traditions. Throughout the whole story the villagers are portrayed as simple and decent people. Until the end when Mrs. Hutchinson picks the slip from the back box and she cries out for help. Mrs. Hutchinson yells “It isn’t fair, It isn’t right”, as the villagers start to stone her. They all turn into vicious beings.

As people of government we are expected to follow the norms of society like a puppet, but those who revolt against it shall be purged with death. The beauty of this world is just a mere mask to hide its monstrosity.Tear off its mask and you shall be bestowed upon the gift of the cruelty of this world. Shirley Jackson’s short story the “Lottery” illustrates the character Tessie Hutchinson as a figure of symbolism as it leads to the theme that the norms of society isolates those who are a victim of labels and expectations because they decorate the origins of sins therefore premonition of the ruin to some extent becomes sweet.

‘’The Lottery’’ is about people in a small town having a Lottery and whoever ‘’wins’’ they get pelted to death by the people in town. Nobody spoke up for Tessie Hutchinson, not even her own family. They believe that if they don’t have The Lottery their crops won’t grow. It’s almost like their sacrificing her so they’ll have a good harvest in the Fall. At the end she said ‘’this isn’t fair this isn’t right’’. She thought she wouldn’t win, she thought she wasn’t