Lottery Essay Symbolism

When most people play the lottery today, they think about having wealth. Generally, people who win are happy about it whether they win one dollar or a million. The lottery in our society has grown to support education and it is often worth several million dollars. Usually, the winner of the lottery gains a lot of recognition for the money they win. But what would happen if there was a small town where people held a yearly lottery in which the “winner” was the member of the town who was not sacrificed? This question is answered in Shirley Jackson’s short story, “The Lottery.” In reading this story, and reading literary criticism about the story, there were many symbols and much symbolism in this story.

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.

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.

Symbolism is the use of an object or a word to represent an abstract idea. It's often used by writers to represent a hidden message or a hint in a story. The short Stories " A Rose for Emily" by William Faulkner and "Everyday Use" by Alice Walker are great examples of the use of symbolism. In "A Rose for Emily" Faulkner uses symbolism to create a Story about a woman called Emily whose life is surrounded by mysteries, especially after the death of her father and the disappearance of her beloved Homer. Falkner uses symbolism to hide several messages through the Story which, in my opinion, sounds very morbid as things happen. In "Everyday Use," Alice Walker symbolizes her messages through a beautiful detailed story where Mrs. Johnson also

The Lottery by Shirley Jackson is a short story based on a fictional village that holds a macabre ritual. Although the regularity was not stated within the tale, the story speaks of a regular gathering of the village folk to conduct some form of lottery. In a disturbing twist of the tale, the winner of the lottery doesn’t get to receive a prize, but instead, suffer the indignity of being killed by getting stoned to death by friends, family, and neighbors. Mrs. Hutchinson is the unfortunate soul, who, despite her pleas and protests has no option but accept her fate. In a similarly titled story, The Lottery by Chris Abani talks about an incident he witnessed when he went to the market with his aunt. In the story, Abani explains how he

Symbolism is defined as the artistic use of imagery and indirect suggestion to portray mystical or non-literal meaning. An object representing something else is given an entirely different meaning that is much deeper can be considered a symbol. Allegory can be used as a device to aid in character development if used correctly by the author. In two works of literature Sonny's Blues by James Baldwin and in Zora Neale Hurston’s, Sweat, this can be appreciated and seen by the reader.

Symbolism is used throughout The Lottery in the character names. Author, Shirley Jackson, uses the name of, Mr. Graves, to foreshadow the story and explain what “The Lottery” really is. Mr. Graves is the one who carries the three-legged stool which could indicate two things: the Trinity, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, or it could mean the past, present and future, saying that “The Lottery” will always be among the people of the village. In addition, he is also the owner of the post office and as the Postmaster, he delivers the news of the lottery on who will get stoned to death. Mr. Graves name signals the tombstones, death, and a cemetery. As well as Mr. Graves, Mr. Summers name also serves a symbolic purpose. He runs clubs and

Shirley Jackson wrote the story “The Lottery” back in 1948 to show us how ridiculous it could be to blindly follow certain traditions. In this story the author uses symbolisms to warn and prepare the reader about the gruesome ending of the lottery. There are a lot of symbols in the story and the main are the items, the lottery and the character names.

Literally, people wear “masks” to cover their faces. In the poem, “we wear the mask” to hide our true feeling. For example, on the first line “We wear the mask that grins and lies, it hides our cheeks and shaded our eyes…” (Dunbar, 527) shows that do not be deceived by that mask because it is full of lies. “They wear a grinning mask that hides their true feelings. This image of the grinning mask evokes an ancient and ritual African mask used for ceremony, hiding the eyes and face of the wearer with an impersonal expression. In that case, the mask carries a divine dignity, something superhuman, mysterious, and perhaps implying a terrible retribution to the enemy in the future.” (“Overview: ‘We wear the mask’ ”) Plus, by wearing the masks, people cannot see the emotion shown on the face. People also cannot look into each other’s eyes to understand the thoughts. According to Huff, “To ‘hide our cheeks’ means to stiffen the face so as not to reveal genuine emotion, and to ‘shade our eyes’ has the triple meaning of adopting an indirect or deferring manner, of avoiding the eye contact that implies a shared understanding of the situation, and of internalizing society's artificial barriers so that an individual will not embarrass himself or others by appearing to desire things that are clearly beyond his reach.”

All around the world today thousands of people die from murder and the numbers increase every year. Our world is filled with violence and tragedies that keep increasing, just like in, Shirley Jackson's story “The Lottery.” The characters in a small village choose someone to stone to death each year because of tradition. As this tradition continues, more and more people die as time passes. All of the towns folk grow more and more nervous, hoping not to get picked. They gather in the town square to choose the person who is killed in this unfortunate event as you meet characters like the hutchinsons, Mr. Graves, and Mr. Summers as they go through the fear of being picked. As the children pile up stones that they use for the killing. All

Symbolism in the real world can be evidently shown in mediocre objects, but in the short story “The Lottery,” deeper thinking is required in order to detect it. In “The Lottery,” symbolism is displayed quite frequently in order for the reader to better understand the story. It is not always perceptible, so context clues, evidence, and thinking outside the box must be put to use. Shirley Jackson uses the figurative language of symbolism in “The Lottery” to reveal the background of certain characters, objects, and events.

There are many Americans and people all over the world that live their lives following traditions that are passed down from one generation to another. A tradition can be as simple as cooking a recipe to how you raise your children and holiday traditions. Culture plays a significant role in how people live their day to day lives. In Shirley Jacksons “The Lottery” the people that lived in the town follow a tradition every year. It's easy to understand why Shirley Jackson’s Lottery caused controversy when it was published shortly after World War II in 1948. The Lottery has been dramatized, televised and turned into a ballet. It is taught in high schools and colleges. (Whittier). The Lottery held many questions about traditions that have

Symbolism is when an author gives an object a deeper meaning. Authors use symbolism to give an object or a symbol a deeper meaning. Like in The Hunger Games series by Suzanne Collins the mockingjay symbolises hope and rebellion. The idea of symbolism can be seen in William Golding’s novel Lord of The Flies. The novel is about a group of boys who are stranded on an island.

The poem “We Wear the Mask,” by Paul Laurence Dunbar, explores the theme of appearance vs. reality by discussing how we put on masks to hide our true emotions and characteristics. The first stanza starts with, “We wear the mask that grins and lies, / It hides our checks and shades our eyes,” (ll.1-2) which suggest the speaker’s belief on what the main function of the ‘mask’ is. He believes that the mask serves to conceal our true and raw emotions from those around us, as well as to lie to others about our trying situations. The speaker, in the first stanza, acknowledges the fact that we, as humans, persist to wear these obscuring masks even when we are being ripped to pieces from the inside out by these bottled up emotions.

In the poem, We Wear the Masks, the poet wrote about what we hide and why we hide it behind the mask. In the poem, it states, “We wear the mask that grins and lies,It hides our cheeks and shades our eyes--This debt we pay to human guile:With torn and bleeding hearts we smile, And mouth with myriad subtleties”(Dunbar). Dunbar wanted to explain that we hide or give distort vibes when showing our emotions or feelings to others. Some hide themselves and their true feelings behind their mask, people lie to loved ones, people shove their hurt feelings out the door when it comes to showing them. People wear masks usually, but that doesn't exactly mean it's okay to wear