Foreshadowing in Shirley Jackson's The Lottery Essays

Did you know that Shirley Jackson wrote “The Lottery” in less than two hours? That is incredible considering her story was so suspenseful and detailed. Shirley Jackson is the master of suspense because she used surprising symbolism and fantastic foreshadowing in “The Lottery.” She followed those writing techniques up with a creative cliffhanger to create a story that kept the reader on the edge of their seat.

In her text “The Lottery,” Shirley Jackson uses foreshadowing to develop the central idea that people’s real nature is inhumanity and they follow the traditions that develop this inhuman nature of their. By the end of the story, the narrator has come to the understanding that people are no longer humans they are savages and “The Lottery” that they do every summer is just as violent as their true nature. Even though “The Lottery” start innocently, it’s begin to change when the author gives us a small clues about the purpose of “The Lottery”. As people read the story they may not notice an author's clues about the way the story goes, “Bobby Martin had already stuffed his pockets full of

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

In “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson, the people of the village are uneasy about the idea of the lottery and the fact that it was going on. For instance, the men of the village were uneasy about the lottery before it happened. I have proof of this because “their jokes were quiet and they smiled rather than laughed”(Shirley Jackson) which proves that something was holding them back from enjoying a pleasant summer day and that was the horrific event that would take place later that day known as the lottery. This helped the author (Shirley Jackson) add more foreshadowing to the story because all that she had to do was build off of it.

In the beginning of the story “The Lottery” the author uses foreshadowing to hint at the unexpected ending of the story. In the text it says, “ Bobby Martin had already stuffed his pockets full of stones and the other boys soon followed his example.” This demonstrates that the boys know the tradition in their village, were they kill one person that has the black dot on their paper. They also know that someone in their village is going to be killed by stones so they need to prepare for the slaughter before the drawings start. Through foreshadowing Jackson shows why all the kids were collecting rocks, filling their pockets with them and making rock piles.

In Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery” a town is set on the 27th of June. As the entire town is gathered, even the children, a representative from every household, usually the oldest male, goes up to a black, wooden box and selects a piece of paper at random. Once every household has a slip of paper, the entire village opens their respective slips as a group. Only paper one has a mark on it which signifies that they’ve been chosen. Each member from the chosen family draws another paper slip. The person with the dot on their paper is stoned to death by the entire village. Jackson uses foreshadowing and misdirection to direct the reader’s attention to the detail of the black box which conveys the theme of the power of the mob mentality by giving

Or when Mrs. Dunbar conversed about Mr. Dunbar and how he was “terrible mad to have to stay home and miss the excitement. ” These statements all build onto a positive meaning to lottery. This confuses the reader too once the true nature of the lottery slowly becomes revealed. The major indication that aids in conflicting the reader’s thoughts on the lottery is Belva and Joe Summer’s confrontation just before the event.

In the short story, “Lottery” by Shirley Jackson, the author creates and builds tension in the story by using foreshadowing throughout the story. Jackson uses foreshadowing alot in the beginning of the story by talking and using specific word choice about the little boys in the neighborhood when they are making a pile of stones. She describes the pile in depth, the kids in the neighborhood are now taking action and they, “...eventually made a great pile of stones in one corner of the square and guarded it against the raids of the other boys” (Jackson 1). Jackson used foreshadowing by describing the rocks alot. She describes them by writing about the texture and describing the rocks in depth in the story. Shirley Jackson also uses the pile as a tension builder because the reader doesn’t know why Jackson would have the kids build a pile of stones and how Jackson explains it makes the reader suspicious with what the pile is going to be used for.

One second…whether it is homicide… two seconds… or suicide… three seconds…on earth a person dies every second. Approximately that is eighty-six thousand and four hundred human beings dying per day. In “The Lottery,” Shirley Jackson uses symbolism of the character Mr. Graves, the black mark, the stones, and the black box to develop the theme of death. For example, Mr. Graves represents death in the story.

Shirley Jackson’s story “The Lottery” warns readers of the consequences that come from blindly following tradition. She builds upon the fact that the people in the town follow the tradition of The Lottery without questioning it because it is tradition. In her short story “The Lottery,” Jackson uses suspenseful foreshadowing and portrays her characters as ignorant in order to suggest that blindly following traditions can lead to disastrous and even fatal consequences. Jackson creates a suspenseful setting in her story by inserting small hints of the lottery’s outcome in character’s dialogue and by dragging out the final lottery drawing to expand on the idea of how unfair the the tradition of the lottery is. Jackson expands on the idea that all

(1) At first, gathering the stones seems harmless because the reader isn't aware of what occurs through the course of the lottery. It is not until the first rock hits Mrs. Hutchinson’s head, that the

“The Lottery” is a short story written by Shirley Jackson. This narrative uses different literary devices to help the reader understand the importance of the story. The author uses her story to describe the dangers of blindly following tradition. In this story, Jackson uses foreshadowing, irony and imagery to show how peer pressure can make someone feel no guilt through the negative tradition that occurs.

In The Lottery Shirley Jackson uses foreshadowing to hint at how the lottery is used to select someone to die. For example, the story continues to repeat the black box as shown by saying “... carrying the black wooden box.”, “...was represented by the black box.” (Jackson) And, “...held the black box…” (Jackson). These quotations show that by repeating the words the black box that it is very important, and this shows that the lottery could represent death because of the color black is often associated with death. Therefore, foreshadowing was used to show the lottery was used to select someone to die. The use of foreshadowing in the story contributed by warning us that the lottery was negative.

The lottery the town is converging for being by a man named Mr. Summers, who supervises the local coal business.He came carrying the old black ballot box with the postmaster Mr. Graves. He and a couple of the townsmen prop the box on a stool brought by Graves.The stool has existed as long as the older lottery than Old Man Warner. Mr. Summers has mentioned copious times of making a new box, but never follows through. The ballot takes place by using pieces of paper, as opposed to the wood chips of the past.Summers mixes up the paper in the box for the lottery. He and Graves have already made the lottery slips the night before. Mr. Summers is then sworn in but without the salutes and songs of the past.

The lottery is usually associated with beating the odds and winning something extravagant. In Shirley Jackson’s short story “The Lottery”, the reader is led to believe the story is about something cheerful and happy given the setting of a warm summer day and children out of school for the summer. Jackson turns winning the lottery into a bad thing. Of 300 villagers Tessie Hutchinson shows up late, claiming she forgot about the annual lottery drawing, but seems very excited to have made it on time. When Tessie was in no danger she is gossiping with neighbors and encourages her husband to draw for the winner. Jackson curiously builds up the character of Tessie so that it seems she is blinded by tradition until she becomes a victim of it