The Lottery, By Shirley Jackson

“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.

On the surface, Shirley Jackson’s short story, “The Lottery,” reads as a work of horror. There is a village that holds an annual lottery where the winner is stoned to death so the village and its people could prosper. Some underlying themes include: the idea that faith and tradition are often followed blindly, and those who veer away from tradition are met with punishment, as well as the idea of a herd mentality and bystander apathy. What the author manages to do successfully is that she actually uses the names of historical figures to add to the underlying themes of the story. Some names include the Puritan spiritual advisor Anne Hutchinson, who is banished for speaking out against Christian beliefs and traditions, the founder of

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.

In some ways, “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson could be seen as controversial. Within the first paragraph, we are left with two main questions; “what is the lottery?” and “why does it happen?” A major theme that answers the first question is all about tradition. Yes, the lottery is a tradition in many towns. No one has ever questioned this tradition, even though it is quite inhumane. In all honesty, you could compare this story very well to The Hunger Games just because of what this tradition consists of. Imagine being in a town of around three hundred people and having your life put on the line. The lottery itself comes down to all of the townspeople meeting up, and each family name is read by Mr. Summers, and the head of the family

The author of “The Lottery” Shirley Jackson decided it was important to write this short story in order to inform the readers about another dimension, where a certain common tradition gets prized with something obscure. Some readers can be shocked when reading this story, because they might be surprised and even shocked with the themes that play along in the storyline. This short story “The Lottery” was so controversial at the time, because in the date it was published in June 24, 1948 there were so many themes from the stories that could relate to past events or even event that were taking place at the time.

In Shirley Jackson’s short story, “The Lottery,” a small village is preparing for an annual drawing, a tradition carried out for generations. During this ritual, the head of each household draws a blank piece of paper out of a black box. One piece of paper is marked with a single black dot and if chosen, the outcome is having the winner’s entire household draw out of the box. Whoever chooses the black dot out of the household is stoned to death by the entire village. In this instance, a husband wins to which his wife protests, and then she is the ultimate victim who is sacrificed. This story includes many literary elements like foreshadowing, warning of a future event, symbolism, symbols used in the story to represent ideas,and irony, when the contrary to what is expected to happen, occurs. Jackson uses foreshadowing, symbolism, and irony to prove the theme that it is foolish and barbaric to blindly follow tradition.

“The Lottery” was written in 1948 by Shirley Jackson. Mrs. Jackson, born in 1916, was known for her tales of horror and supernatural novels. She and her literary critic husband, Stanley Edgar Hyman lived in a little town called Bennington, Vermont. Mrs. Jackson was not accepted by the town. Her novels, especially “The Lottery”, revealed the dark side of human nature. Stephen King honored Shirley Jackson by dedicating his book Firestarter to her.

b. Background In the short story “The Lottery,” the inhabitants of a village participate in a lottery, which is essentially a tradition for them. However, the villagers are oblivious to the true consequences and destructiveness of their death ritual. One June day each year, the lottery is conducted and the “winner” is violently stoned to death. The very same day, the villagers return home and carry on with their normal day-to-day functions.

According to Philip Zimbardo the author of The Lucifer Effect: Understanding How Good People Turn Evil, he says “Good people can be induced, seduced, and initiated into behaving in evil ways. They can also be led to act in irrational, stupid, self-destructive, antisocial, and mindless ways when they are immersed in 'total situations ' that impact human nature in ways that challenge our sense of the stability and consistency of individual personality, of character, and of morality” (Philip). In the short story “The Lottery”, author Shirley Jackson demonstrates Zimbardo’s concepts in three different areas: Authority figures, Tradition and Superstition, and Loyalty.

The Black Box in the short story “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson signifies the physical connection between the villagers and their unwillingness to give up their tradition. “The Lottery” is very unpredictable and quite misleading. The black box has no functionality, except every June 27th. Shirley Jackson depicts the black box as an important and traditional tool.

One of the most shocking literary devices in Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery” is the setting. “The Lottery” being set in any town of the United States of America points to how important the reoccurring theme is. By not placing the story in any specific place, Jackson leaves the readers to wonder and evaluate the general inhumanity that surrounds them. When it comes to saving oneself a person seems to easily harm someone else. Along with the setting Jackson uses a great deal of irony, motifs, and symbolism to illustrate how easily society conforms in order to save oneself in “The Lottery.”

In "The Lottery" Shirley Jackson fills her story with many literary elements to mask the evil. The story demonstrates how it is in human nature to blindly follow traditions. Even though some people have no idea why they follow these traditions.

It was a sunny summer day when all the villagers gathered in the village on June 27th for the annual Lottery. The actual event did not start until later on in the day, so there were little activities that the community members could do to keep them occupied. People would also go around looking for stones and collected them so they will have enough for the event. Mr. Summers is the person who conducted the Lottery. He has no kids so running the Lottery gave him something to do since he had a lot of time on his hands. Therefor he created the Lottery event and that was what he did to keep himself busy. The Lottery is the main reason of the villagers gathering together; at the event all the families from the village gather together to pick a slip of paper from a black box to determine who will get stoned by all the other villagers. In short story "The Lottery," Shirley Jackson demonstrates the dangers of a culture that requires people to participate in traditions that may lead to death.

In “The Lottery,” Shirley Jackson uses symbolism to demonstrate how even with religion present, people still conform to tradition and in this case, human sacrifice. Symbolism is when the author uses symbolism to express a certain idea or quality throughout their work. Tradition has always been important all over the world and it is something that continues to hold strong to this day. “The Lottery” within itself contains a whole other meaning to the word tradition. It is present every year, which qualifies it as a tradition, but it is not one that people normally tend to think of as a tradition. A lot of traditions today are associated with religion such as Christmas mass and or Christmas dinner and Easter that is spent with families. Yes,

In Shirley Jackson’s, “The Lottery,” the author demonstrates the loss of the original significance of a tradition that results from people blindly following it. For example, the author makes it blatantly clear in the beginning of the story that The Lottery, the village’s annual ritual, which involves a human sacrifice is beginning to have lesser and lesser symbolic value to the villagers as opposed to when it began due to a lack of understanding in regard to the tradition’s significance. Secondly, Jackson describes how the Lottery has a completely different atmosphere, purpose, and practice due to the fact that it was passed along several generations and had been through several decades of transition, all the while being mindlessly adhered to by every single member of the village. Lastly, the author demonstrates the process in which the village’s annual tradition has been stripped bare, and is merely used to cater to the desires of the villagers. Overall, Shirley Jackson does a wonderful job demonstrating the general process of the results of blindly following popular tradition and celebration in the modern world by characterizing a specific village’s tradition with interesting dialogue and a noteworthy plot.