The Lottery, By Shirley Jackson

To a first time reader, Shirley Jackson's “The Lottery” seems simply as a curious tale with a shocking ending. After repetitive reading of Jackson's tale, it is clear that each sentence is written with a unique purpose often using symbolism. Her use of symbols not only foreshadow its surprise and disturbing ending but allows the reader to evaluate the community's pervert traditional rituals. She may be commenting on the season of the year and the grass being “richly green” or the toying with the meanings of the character's names but each statement applies to the meaning and lesson behind her story.

In the short story, The Lottery, Jackson tells a rich symbolic story of a little village that practiced the art of sacrificing a person annually, to ensure the success of the cultivation of crops. One of the rhetorical devices that was used heavily was the practice of symbolism throughout the short story. Symbolism is the use of symbols to represent ideas and opinions that the author has, and we see a various number of different symbols, be it an object, a name, or possibly even a concept, that can be established, in The Lottery, as the reader tries to make sense of the situation at hand. In The Lottery, Jackson used the name of characters and their actions to symbolize and depict how twisted and hypocritical society is, and also used the objects and the ideas that were practiced in the short story to show the shortcomings of a society that practices outdated and rudimentary traditions that hold no place in a civilized society.

Andrew Lansley once said “Peer pressure and social norms are powerful influences on behavior, and they are classic excuses.” Most people tend to follow cultural customs because they have grown with them or it has been forced onto them with factors such as parents or their environment. However, is it always right to follow these customs even if they are in fact considered wrong? Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery” is a short story about the cultural norms of a small community and its annual lottery ritual; a stoning. Jackson overthrows the story by making the lottery a corrupt occurrence rather than a victory. The reader would probably think that the “winner” of the lottery would be benefited but in this case the victory was not so delightful. In her short story “The Lottery” Jackson seemingly uses ordinary details about the setting and the townspeople to characterize her theme that although society claims to be civilized, and may appear so, it is inherently barbaric.

Authors use symbolism in order to substitute a hidden meaning within an action, person, idea, object, or setting. Symbols carry the weight to make a story more meaningful and can be used to help the reader make connections between the story and the outside world. On the 27th of June, a village gathers to conduct a lottery, where one chosen person will be stoned to death. This ritual, done each and every year, is planted in biblical roots and exemplifies the role of tradition within the town. This sacramental ceremony in Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery” has many aspects which all possess a symbolic meaning and incorporate another degree of depth to the story.

Jackson states that Mr. Summers is pitied because he has no children and his wife is a scold using irony. "People were sorry for him because he had no children and his wife was a scold" (Jackson 1). The author introduces Mr. Summers through lack of detail, characterizing him as enigmatic, like the box, and also dull. In "The Lottery", having more children is a benefit to the family. The more children a family has, the less of a chance each family member has of being picked. In the twisted society illustrated by "The Lottery", women seemingly exist only to clean and produce children for their husbands. Only because he is a man, Summers, an ordinary villager, is promoted to a position higher than anyone else. His wife, on the other hand, is looked down upon because she had no children. Felix Oehlschlaeger’s critique, entitled “The Stoning of Mistress Hutchinson: Meaning and context in ‘The Lottery’”, describes society in Jackson’s short story as “The woman who is without children is dismissed as a ‘scold,’ a challenge to male authority. The childless man, on the other hand, is elevated to a place of special responsibility and even sanctity…” (Oehlschlaeger 1). This quote clearly shows the extent of male control on society. Oehlschlaeger differentiates the female from the male in Jackson’s short story by acknowledging that the female is only used for childbearing and housework,

The people stoning Mrs. Hutchison are not only symbolic of religion, but the community’s connection to this act of murder. Stoning is prevalent throughout the history of Christianity. The stones are used to represent an ancestral way of committing murder or expelling someone. This further reinforces just how dependent this community is on their past. In the stoning, everyone is encouraged to participate from young to old as “someone gave little Davy Hutchison few pebbles” (Jackson 7). From a young age, these people are taught that their tradition is morally acceptable and absolutely necessary. Through the act of stoning, killing someone becomes a group effort and therefore no single person can take on the blame. Their morals can be more subdued if there is less for them to feel guilty towards. With this in mind, no one is observed refraining from stoning Mrs. Hutchison. However, with the huge crowd, they could likely decide against it and no one would be aware.

Symbolism is a literary technique that many writers like to use. In short, it is the use of symbols to represent qualities or ideas. This is largely the case in Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery.” “The Lottery” is a short fiction that uses many techniques of symbolism to define itself as a darker, yet meaningful short story. The symbolic messages within “The Lottery” include the atmosphere, the characters of the story, and the black box.

In the story, The Lottery, by Shirley Jackson, we are introduced to a story where traditions can be dangerous. It is a warm sunny day, and the time is approaching for the event to occur, the people gather in the town square and prepare for what they know happens every year. Slowly but surely, one by one they draw from the black box and the one that draws the right one, is chosen. The other villagers stone the chosen one to death. Although some readers may think this is just a normal story about a parable, it represents much more than just that. The author portrays a story about an attack on a small-town America. Shirley Jackson gives the reader this understanding by using the elements of irony, foreshadowing and symbolism.

“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. But, it is not until the ending, can the reader see the foreshadowing of the evils to come. Through the use of foreshadowing, Jackson is able to contribute to the story 's overall effect of suspense and a shocking ending.

Other symbolisms that supported the theme included the black box and the changes of the tradition. The villagers refused to acquire a new box even though it was old and shabby. The characters claimed that it had tradition and that it may be made from previous lottery boxes too. This claim is illogical since they disregard other elements that were original to the tradition. The lottery originally used wooden chips but they switched the chips with paper slips. Also, in the original ritual, a salute addressed each person as they drew from the box. Jackson compared this analogy with people who practice a religion but disregard certain aspects of the religion’s traditions to make their lives easier. The lottery was the main symbolism of the story. It represented that people have their traditions by chance. When a person follows the same religion from their childhood, they were born into that religion. Their parents could have been any religion, but they have their beliefs by chance. The lottery also demonstrates the chance of racism. Anyone could have been a person who was persecuted. The lottery also showed how people discriminate against others at random. A group of people may discriminate against another group even though they are all people but one group may have a different physical or cultural attribute. Tess Hutchinson’s one difference was

In “The Lottery” Shirley Jackson writes about the game lottery, which makes the story very ironic. Unlike all of the other Lottery games, in this traditional version no one wants to be chosen, because that brings them the end of their life. Jackson explains how keeping up with some traditions that are part of people’s life, may not be the best choice to embrace a particular culture. Jackson uses the Lottery as an example to express her idea about the ethical issues such as; violent murder, harming people, forcefully following a tradition, and lying. All of these ethical issues are created by blindly following tradition in “The Lottery.”

“It isn’t fair, it isn’t right!” screamed Tessie Hutchinson before she was stoned to death (Jackson). “The Lottery,” by Shirley Jackson, is a short story about a village that has an annual lottery; however, in this lottery, one does not win the typical million dollar prize. They win death. Mr. Summers, the man who organizes the lottery, calls each family, up to a box to draw papers. All the papers are blank, but there is one paper with a single, black dot on it. The family that draws the paper with a black dot marked in the middle draws a second time to see which individual, within that family, will be stoned to death. The family that is unfortunately selected is the Hutchinson family. This means that there are five potential victims: Mr. Hutchinson, the husband/father, Tessie Hutchinson, the wife/mother, Nancy Hutchinson, the daughter, Davy Hutchinson, the youngest son, and Bill Hutchinson Jr., the eldest son. After they all select papers, Tessie Hutchinson is stoned to death for drawing the only marked paper. The time period in which Shirley Jackson lived suggests a psycho-analytical reading of “The Lottery” because the actions of the village reflect an everyman for himself, or mob, mentality.

“Although the villagers had forgotten the ritual and lost the original black box, they still remembered to use stones”. During 1948, promptly world war II ,“The Lottery” was published by Shirley Jackson. The story was true expression of Jackson’s genuine thoughts about human beings and their heinous competence in an annual village event for corn harvest .

When people think of the term “lottery,” they often think of it as winning a prize or they have good luck. The short story “The Lottery,” by Shirley Jackson, represents an entirely contradictory meaning of “lottery.” In the story, Jackson illustrates how coldness and brutality in human nature hide behind tradition and ritual. Jackson gives new meaning to the word “lottery,” because in this story, the winner of this lottery will be stoned to death by the villagers, which the townspeople show neither sense of internal nor external guilt. Even though the townspeople understand that the tradition is inhumane and evil, they are obedient without questioning for any reasons. Shirley Jackson uses symbolism throughout this short story; symbolism shows

Shirley Jackson’s, “The Lottery,” is a story about the need to find a sin offering to appease the community’s superstition while everyone else plays the scapegoat.