Human Sacrifice vs. Ritual Murder in The Lottery, by Shirley Jackson

Shirley Jackson is often regarded as one of the most brilliant authors of the twentieth century. Born in San Francisco in 1916, she spent the majority of her adolescence writing short stories and poetry (Allen). While she is known best for her supernatural stories, one of her most popular works is a short story called “The Lottery”. The lottery takes place in a small village in which once a year on June 24th, the town population is gathered. After the gathering, there is a drawing to see which family is chosen, after the family is chosen, another drawing takes place to see who is stoned to death. In the New Yorker's magazine book review hailed “The Lottery” as “one of the most haunting and shocking short stories of modern America and is one of the most frequently anthologized” (Jackson). This review stems heavily from Jackson’s brilliant use of irony, symbolism, and foreshadowing. However, perhaps what truly stands out is how Jackson is able to wrap all of those elements together as a way to show an overarching theme of the corruption that exists in human nature. While the real source of “The Lottery’s” inspiration is unclear, there has been heavy speculation that the roots lie heavily in the actions of the holocaust and the actions that took place during World War II. Regardless of the source material, a general consensus can be made that the plot of the lottery is a dark reflection of human actions.

Within the first few lines of Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery" we are faced with such adjectives as clear, sunny, fresh and warmth. She goes on to paint a picture of small children just out of school for the summer, as the townspeople gather for the annual Lottery. This leads us to believe that the rest of the story is as cheery as the summer day initially described. We as the readers are virtually unaware of the horrible senseless events that lie ahead. Through the use of symbolism Shirley Jackson reveals the underlying decay of ethics that results from an empty ritual followed by narrow-minded people.

            As the story goes on, each the following paragraphs contains subtle clues as to what is going to unfold.  After all of the children have gathered around, the men began to fill the square, followed by the women.  "They stood together, away from the pile of stones in the corner" (p.422).  The fact that they stood away from the stones, again, informs the reader that the stones will play a significant role.  Nervousness amongst the people is manifested due to the children's reluctance to join their parents in the square.  At this particular moment, there is a feeling that this lottery is not going to have a pleasant outcome.

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

Tess’s tone in her last words before being stoned is desperate and hysterical, because she knows that her protests will not result in anything but death. The black box used in the lottery each year isn’t something that the reader would usually associate with a happy lottery. The box is described as, “shabby…splintered…faded and stained,” yet no one in the community wants to replace it because, “no one liked to upset even as much tradition as was represented by the black box.” The color black symbolizes the savage and evil nature of the lottery as well as the townspeople’s participation in it and the shabbiness of the box indicates how outdated the tradition truly is. Like the lottery, the box is well worn with its real purpose lost, and the townspeople are extremely reluctant in letting it go, even getting defensive when the idea of it is brought up. After the stoning of the “winner” occurs, the townspeople go on with their lives as if nothing out of the ordinary has happened. The lottery takes less than two hours so that the townspeople could, “…get home for noon dinner,” immediately following the execution. The normalcy of the lottery to the townspeople is horrifying and all throughout the story everyone seems ok with this evil tradition, children are shown laughing and their parents, gossiping and talking about work. When Tess Hutchinson chooses the paper slip with a black dot making her the “winner”, Bill Hutchinson, her husband, as

At the beginning of the story the author uses foreshadowing to show the reader there is something causing anxiousness for the town’s people. The author wrote “school was recently over for the summer and the feeling of liberty sat uneasily on most of them” and “their jokes were quiet and they smiled rather than laughed” these quotes show the nervous/anxious behavior of the town’s people. The author also uses foreshadowing to explain more about what the lottery is. This quote “ Bobby Martin had already stuffed his pockets full of stones, and the other boys soon followed his example; selecting the smoothest and roundest stones; Bobby and Harry Jones and Dickie Delacroix… eventually made a great pile of stones in one corner of the square and

In “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson present a story that describes the annual lottery that takes place in a small town in the summer. Since the town was founded the lottery has been a part of its tradition. The original purpose of the lottery was to ensure that the town has an exceptional harvest, but the reason has been lost in time. Now the town held its annual lottery just because it has been their “tradition”. The one who draws the black dotted paper from the black box become the winner, who

Once upon a time there was a little village. In this village three hundred people happily farmed and played and went about their business. The children went to school while the men cut wood or farmed, and the women cooked and cleaned. Every summer in June each of villagers took part in the traditional lottery drawing and one villager was picked for the prize – a stoning. In 1948, Shirley Jackson published this short story known as “The Lottery,” in The New York Times. The story’s plot shocked readers all over America as they learned of the horror happening in such a quaint town. Jackson purposely set this tragic event in this innocent setting to emphasize humanity’s cruelty. Using her appalling short story, The Lottery,

Occasionally there was talk of the lottery ending in the surrounding towns. A old wise man named Warner was quick to chime into the talk saying, “There's always been a lottery, no reason to stop it now.” Finally once everyone had drawn their papers, they were allowed to look. Everyone opened their papers nervously as sighs of relief swept across the crowd. The last one to open theirs was Tessie’s husband. Their family was quickly called back up to redraw to papers to see who the real “winner” was. Tessie’s children, who appeared less than 16 years old, participated with them. After a while, they opened their papers and waited in silence. Drawn on Tessie's paper was a dark black dot. This indicated that she won the lottery. What had occurred next was quite horrifying. Everyone collected stones hastily and handed them around. They cornered the beautiful Ms. Tessie in the corner and prepared to stone her. The stoning was brutal and even the children participated. The amount of violence was immense and this type of cruelty used on a person is despicable. The story ends with her screams being muffled by the sounds of rock hitting a solid

When Shirley Jackson had her short story, “The Lottery,” published in The New Yorker in 1948, she had no idea it would strike such a nerve with readers. The response she received from her story was staggering. The story bewildered, angered, and fascinated people and continues to do so. Some critics speculate that it is because of the blatant act of human sacrificing and the villagers’ use of a scapegoat; plus, their refusal to stop their sadistic tradition; not to mention, the hypocrisy of some of the characters that takes place in the story that has upset so many readers.

As the story begins it sounds to be in a high-spirited mood. The village people, children, and elders are all excited about the lottery beginning to take place. They’ve all started to prepare while the children began to gather stones and placed them all in a pile, and in their pockets. The reader has probably made no inquiry about the children gathering the stones and predicted their actions were simply harmless.

People love to win lotteries, right? Well, probably not so much in this small farm town, who treats their winners a little different. In this small town, not all lotteries are for the good of the people. The townspeople perpetuate unnecessary traditions and with these traditions, punish those who do not deserve the punishment. Through the depictions of the nervousness of the adults and children, as well as her descriptions of the objects associated with the lottery, Shirley Jackson, in her short story, “The Lottery," suggests the horror of the violence that concludes the story.

Shirley Jackson uses irony as a theme to create this almost perfect story where there is an unexpected twist. Jackson’s short story “The Lottery” is sickening, horrific and intense. This shocking story is about a small town that has all the members’ participate in an annual lottery. Unlike all normal lotteries the winner receives death by stoning rather than a cash prize, as the story advance Tessie places her children in danger to have a better chance at survival. This lottery seems to have no limit of age.

An astonishing ending of a story makes a story more memorable and interesting. It lingers in reader’s memory and starts to evoke multiple readings. Such story allows the author to better deliver his or her values to the audience. In order to build a surprising ending, not only the plotline has to be interesting, but also needs to use some smart tricks or techniques. In the short story, “The Lottery” written by Shirley Jackson, the setting, tone, narrative strategy and irony effectively builds up the plot, inconspicuously foreshadows and exaggerates the shock and horror of the ending, therefore, effectively reinforces the themes of the story.

What thoughts come to mind when you think of "The Lottery?" Positive thoughts including money, a new home, excitement, and happiness are all associated with the lottery in most cases. However, this is not the case in Shirley Jackson’s short story, "The Lottery." Here, the characters in the story are not gambling for money, instead they are gambling for their life. A shock that surprises the reader as she unveils this horrifying tradition in the village on this beautiful summer day. This gamble for their life is a result of tradition, a tradition that is cruel and inhumane, yet upheld in this town. Shirley Jackson provides the reader’s with a graphic description of violence, cruelty, and inhumane treatment which