The Lottery: Examples Of Literary Terms, And A Journal Entry

Figurative language is a strategy that authors have used over the years to give the reader different perspectives on the piece that they are reading about. In her short Story, “The Lottery”, Shirley Jackson writes about a small town that has a tradition known as the lottery. The way that the lottery works, is that there is black box with pieces of paper in it. The pieces of paper have the family names of every family in town. The last name standing then has to go into an elimination round with the people within the family. Each family member draws out of the black box, and the family member that pulls the slip of paper with the black dot gets stoned to death. In her short story, Jackson utilizes symbolism in the form of Old Man Warren, the black box and the pile of stones to demonstrate how tradition can be blinding without even knowing it.

Tessie Hutchinson was in the center of a cleared space by now, and she held her hands out desperately as the villagers moved in on her. 'It isn't fair,' she said. A stone hit her on the side of the head. Old Man Warner was saying, 'Come on, come on, everyone.' [...]. 'It isn't fair, it isn't right,' Mrs. Hutchinson screamed, and then they were upon her (Jackson 6).

When writing, authors use various writing techniques and devices to better their story. From onomatopoeia, and similes, to mood and setting, these devices are what make the stories we read astounding. Atmosphere specifically is imperative to a great writing piece as it is prevalent throughout the entire story. From the first three words to the last three words, the reader is focused on the mood they are interpreting from the storyline. In “The Lottery” written by Shirley Jackson, the mood is what makes the story so amazing and helps us understand the theme.

Summers has a delightful name, which also matches his description as “a round-faced, jovial man” (715). Mr. Summers is the mayor of the town and also runs the most successful business—the coal company. When one thinks of summer one generally thinks of pleasantness and happiness. His name is ironic because his job is essentially in contrast to these thoughts. He is in charge of the random killing of a villager, which hardly seems pleasant.

Yet, questioning beliefs may have taken the villagers away from the inherent cruelty that humans tend to have. The fact that "Mrs. Delacroix selected a stone so large she had to pick it up with both hands" (Jackson 186) demonstrates this deplorable fact of existence. Despite the fact that Tessie Hutchinson was a valuable member of the community, the townspeople did not hesitate to pick up large stones for the execution. Without any moral qualms whatsoever, the villagers took the stones and carried out the

They saw several stones stacked on top of each other, probably some wood elves playing a game. Bilbo kicked one off the top of the stack. He heard a wet splash as it hit some water on the ground somewhere outside of the

Stone uses her own personal experiences for the basis of much of her poetry. "Plumbing" is a poem about getting her toilet fixed! Another poem, "Simplicity", is a poem that describes getting water in the winter when the pipes the lead into her house are frozen. On a literal level, both of these poems are about relatively trivial events in her life, but there are much deeper meanings concealed inside the poems.

Shirley Jackson describes "the crowd was quiet. A girl whispered "I hope it's not Nancy". The people being afraid to be picked is a disturbing detail. Jackson wanted the reader to now believe the ending of the story is not what they expected. Secondly, the reader now finds out what the stones are used for.

But a calling rarely lets up, and Stones was meant for combat. The new foe was devious, coming up from Chihuahua, with support in surprising places. She’d never been faced with traitorous Americans, amazing wealth, and the sheer nastiness

The short story contains a lot of pessimistic and negative adjectives, which gives me, as a reader, a feeling of negativity at first, but then you realize that the story is so much negative that it turns out to be filled with humor and a sarcastic touch.

Throwing a stone across the water, he made seven perfect dashes and smiled to himself. Circular waves spread and combined and he threw another, but too heavy it jumped only four times and sank. Bern grunted, then swept the bank before another stone caught his eye. Unearthing it, he scraped dirt away with his uneven nails, then washed the stone in the water. When rotated, the stone’s facets glistened tiny beads of light. Dropping it into his shirt pocket, he hurried after her voice, tracing the sloping trail overlooking the river and leading up into the woods. At the top of the clearing he glanced in the direction of her voice and spied her periwinkle dress from behind a cottonwood tree.

Pebble had just arrived at her grandmother Boulder’s house who was seated in her rock-ing chair. Pebble had always wondered how her grandmother had ended up as an Igneous rock and decided that today she would ask.

the family would put seeing stones into their hats believing that they would see a revelation of where

The stones in the story were used symbolically to represent a cold, hard heart. Although the "villagers had forgotten the ritual and lost the original black box, they still remembered to use stones" (79). This contrasts what we have read in the bible that only he who had no sins should cast the first stone. Tessie was an innocent bystander to a brutal ritual. While some people such as "Mrs. Delacroix selected a stone so large she had to pick it up with both hands" others selected "a few pebbles"(79). Perhaps with the passing of age, one feels that the larger the stone the greater the benefit. However, innocence is seen when the children "made a great pile of stones in one corner of the square" they selected the

So they all sat down on a great flat grey stone that had pushed itself up out of the grass; it was one of many that lay about on the hillside, and when Mother came out to look for them at eight o'clock, she found them deeply asleep in a contented, sun-warmed bunch.