Foreshadowing In Shirley Jackson's The Lottery

Tradition is a central theme in Shirley Jackon's short story The Lottery. Images such as the black box and characters such as Old Man Warner, Mrs. Adams, and Mrs. Hutchinson display to the reader not only the tenacity with which the townspeople cling to the tradition of the lottery, but also the wavering support of it by others. In just a few pages, Jackson manages to examine the sometimes long forgotten purpose of rituals, as well as the inevitable questioning of the necessity for such customs.

Shirley Jackson uses foreshadowing in “The Lottery,” to hint at things that may happen later in the story. The author first uses it to show the tone of the story. For example the story starts off as a happy place with with green grass and blooming flowers but then she includes, “The villagers kept their distance, leaving a space between themselves and the stool.” (Jackson) This shows that the villagers know something that the readers do not yet know, it looks to readers as if the stool or something on the stool is represents something bad. Therefore when you find out that the box on the stool contains lottery slips it makes you wonder why a lottery can be so bad. This contributed to the story by making people wonder and predict why the slips

    "The Lottery," a short story written by Shirley Jackson, is a tale about a disturbing social practice.  The setting takes place in a small village consisting of about three hundred denizens.  On June twenty-seventh of every year, the members of this traditional community hold a village-wide lottery in which everyone is expected to participate.  Throughout the story, the reader gets an odd feeling regarding the residents and their annual practice.  Not until the end does he or she gets to know what the lottery is about.  Thus, from the beginning of the story until almost the end, there is an overwhelming sense that something terrible is about to happen due to the Jackson's effective

“The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson artfully uses foreshadowing in order to build suspense and create a shocking ending. Jackson’s success in “The Lottery” comes from her ability to keep the reader in the dark about the evils, until the very end. She has masterfully set up what the reader believes as a pleasant event. After the story concludes, the reader can truly see how Jackson utilized foreshadowing. When the reader re-reads the story, one fully realizes all the miniscule details that foreshadow the ending.

     "The original paraphernalia for the lottery had been lost long ago, and the black box now resting on the stool had been put into use even before Old Man Warner, the oldest man in town, was born. Mr. Summers spoke frequently to the villagers about making a new box, but no one liked to upset even as much tradition as was represented by the black box." (Jackson, The Granta... page 63) They are all afraid of getting chosen for the lottery and so instead of standing up for one another and stopping the lottery they just go along with it. At one moment they're laughing together and the next they're stoning one of them to death. The lottery is a symbol of how fear is taught and handed down from generation to generation. People can't stand up to tradition, they're afraid of change. They are afraid to band together and change. No one wants to be the one stoned, but they will stone the one picked.

This statement supports what Jackson was trying to convey because rather than the villagers knowing the meaning behind the ritual, they can only remember the murderous, violent part of it. This ceremony had become so customary and routine that even the children had made “piles of stones” ready to participate in the lottery. Children are supposed to be considered innocent and uncorrupt but in this story it just goes to show that cruelty is inherent. Jackson’s story also displays the theme of hypocrisy. The author uses the story’s target Tessie Hutchinson to represent that theme. The audience could assume that Tessie is well known village woman who only any normal day would partake in this event. When Tessie discovers her fate as the winner she becomes self-serving saying “it isn’t fair, it isn’t right” (Jackson 7). It is duplicitous because if she was not the victim then she would have no objections, but now that she is the fatality the lottery suddenly is corrupt. The author aimed to indicate that society has a predisposition to become habituated to unkind things so long as they believe they will not be negatively affected by it.

Shirley Jackson, the author of the short story “The Lottery” is an unusual story of a town caught in a trap of following tradition. Shirley Jackson uses many symbols in the story to relate to the theme. By doing this it helps the reader understand the story and the message she is trying to get across. Jackson uses tone, setting, and symbolism to conduct a theme for her readers. By doing this she creates connections to the theme by using the black box and old man Warner as a symbol.

Most people have some sort of tradition that they follow, be it a family tradition or a morning routine, while most are harmless or have some positive effect there are a few that exist that are negative. This could be made worse if one such negative tradition takes over their life. In “The Lottery” the townsfolk gather for what at first seems like a harmless, fun tradition, a yearly lottery. But, as the story progresses it becomes apparent that there is more going on that first meets the eye. Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery” uses symbolism to show the theme: tradition isn’t always right, dialogue to get readers predicting and start to reveal the sinister nature of what was really going on in the story, and revealing actions to raise the

In her story “The Lottery”, Shirley Jackson manages to catch the readers’ attention and ultimately shock them with an unexpected ending; all of which help her emphasize her critique toward the dark side of human nature and the evil that resides, sometimes, in those who we less expect it from. Jackson uses symbolism throughout the story that helps her set the mood and also makes the readers wonder and analyze the senseless violence and cruelty in their own lives.

can be interpreted in a different way. The Lottery by Shirley Jackson is a short

In stories there will be objects that will constantly be mentioned within the story. This is what is known as Symbolism. Symbolism is the use of object, name, or person to represent an idea. If a name is being use, a name such as autumn can represent the adulthood of a human. Creatures such as an Eagle, represents ‘Freedom’ and ‘America’. Even inanimate objects can represent ideas; the light bulb represents ideas that just sparked into a character’s head.

Illustrated by the color of the box, one can infer that there is a dark mystery to the short story. The color black symbolizes power, death, and evil. The villagers' unwillingness to change can be represented from the box being old and worn out. Thus, the tradition has always been passed on for many years. After revealing the stoning, the box becomes of evil.

There is a great deal of tension about the ritual that surrounds the Lottery traditions in Shirley Jackson’s short story, “The Lottery.” Out of fear and superstition, the lottery ceremony continues to exist. In short, the lottery is more of a tradition rather than a ritual at the point we witness in the story, but out of respect and fear for tradition, the towns folks are more than willing to commit an act of mass violence, simply for the sake of a tradition.

The foreshadowing Jackson uses in this story helps to show how tradition should not be followed without knowing the origin. For example, small children make a “great pile of stones” (Jackson 457). Although gathering rocks seems harmless, the reason behind the children’s play is vile. The children are included in the stoning of an innocent person because the tradition has to be instilled early on so that they do not see the cruelty in the act. Jackson gives readers another sense of foreboding when Tessie, the ultimate winner, arrives to the lottery late

The tradition known as “The Lottery” is an old one that almost every village would do, but by the time that the story is set in most of them had stopped doing the lottery already. Nobody in the village knew why they would do this tradition or what it meant at all. They would just stone people each time someone won for no particular reason except that its “The Lottery.” The black box used in the lottery itself was also not even the original one which shows you that the villagers didn't even know the real meaning to the tradition.