The Lottery Short Story

As Tessie’s protests continue and the Hutchinson family prepares to draw again the sense of apprehension is one again mounting, this time fearing for whoever wins yet still not knowing what their “prize” will be. “The crowd was quiet. A girl whispered, ‘I hope it’s not Nancy’”, the silence and fear of the crowds manifests in the reader as the three children and their parents all draw slips of paper. Tessie “wins” the lottery and when the narrator explains “although the villagers had forgotten the ritual, and lost they original black box, they still remembered to use stones” (6) its suddenly shockingly clear to the readers what the winner is to receive. The drastic switch from a light and cheerful tone with talk of the beautiful day and children playing to the closing like of “and they were upon her” (7) is in part why this story is so effective. The unforeseen sinister end of the story makes the revelation of the tradition much more shocking and unsettling than had the reader known from the beginning what the outcome would be. Jackson very effectively builds a sense of apprehension and foreboding as she slowly cues the reader into the reality of the situation.

In the two short stories, “The Lottery” and “The Possibility of Evil”, by Shirley Jackson, the literary elements of irony, mood, and foreshadowing are shown throughout the story. The use of these elements help to show how the two stories are both similar and different. The feeling of evil throughout both stories is present, but only in the slightest of ways until the end. The three elements help to show the significance and message of each story.

In “The Lottery”, a short story by Shirley Jackson, a small town is gathering on June 27th, a clear and sunny day, to hold what they called the lottery. This event is an annual event for the townspeople, where “the whole lottery took less than two hours” (Jackson 1). The story as a whole describes the events leading up to the lottery, the lottery itself, and the result of the lottery: the stoning of Tessie Hutchinson. Throughout Jackson’s telling of the story, she includes many forms of symbolism including the black box, the character’s names, the use of stoning, and the lottery itself. Shirley Jackson uses symbolism to give “The Lottery” a deeper meaning than what is portrayed by the text alone.

Shirley Jackson exploits a true form of human nature in this story. The lottery, a deadly tradition, is a draw for death. The selfish need to survive is shown by all the townspeople, who stone the chosen one to death, be it their friend or family, with only the thought that they themselves survived. Every lottery, the people look at the black box, and desperately hope that they aren’t chosen. It is a gruesome reminder of what they have witnessed and taken part of; the murders of innocent

Shirley Jackson is known for her creative writing and plot twisting stories such as “The Possibility of Evil” and “The Lottery”. Jackson always finds a way to leave the reader somewhat confused and wanting to read more. In both of these stories it is a small town where everyone knows one another but something about each of these towns isn't right. In “The Lottery” it turns out that each year, one family, then individual from that family is chosen to be stoned to death for a sacrifice. Then in “The Possibility of Evil” it turns out that one old woman has been writing rude anonymous letters to the people of the town. In both essays Jackson uses many literary devices that help her create these stories that she is so known for. Some of the literary devices she uses are situational and verbal irony, and mood and foreshadowing. She uses a fair amount of all three of these throughout her short stories.

The short story “The Lottery” written by Shirley Jackson begins with villagers gathering in the square, between the post office and the bank, to participate in the lottery which is not what it seems like because the story’s surprising ending reveals that Tessie Hutchinson, who draws the slip of paper with the black spot on it is stoned to death when the lottery ends. Shirley Jackson reveals through the use of irony, foreshadow, and symbolism in the story how much people can get caught up in maintaining a tradition that they wouldn’t question their wrongful actions, such as the murder of an innocent human being.

Imagine this; it is 9am, the sun is out and even though the children are playing , but before the day is done, someone will find themselves the winner of the lottery. However, it is not the lottery that most are familiar with. In 1988 author Judy Oppenheimer conducted an interview with author Shirley Jackson, the author of '' The Lottery'' . In this interview Shirley explained why she wrote the short story in the following excerpt ; " I hoped, by setting a particularly brutal ancient rite in the present and in my own village to shock the story's readers with a graphic dramatization of the pointless violence and general inhumanity in their own lives " (Oppenheimer 1988 ). In order to identify the key elements of the

It was a warm day that would end with a kind of tragedy even though the town’s people see it as something that has to happen. The lottery was something that took place as a tradition as a sacrifice for crops. One person would be stoned at the end of the lottery and in this case it was Tessie Hutchinson, a mother and a wife. In the story the main conflict is the lottery because it ends with the death of one of the towns people. There are many emotional triggers in the story, one being that someone asks Tessie’s own child pick up a rock and help stone her to death. Another one in this story is the helplessness that Tessie faced once she knew that she was the so called “winner” of the lottery, she helpless yells “It isn't fair, it isn't right.” In the story, the lottery is a metaphor for traditions that are used to inflict harm. It can be comparable to many traditions of today’s society that could be harmful to

One might expect a small village to have the qualities of friendliness, generosity, and charitable events. In this account, Shirley Jackson puts an unforeseen plot twist on this prospective. The author describes a pleasant summer day where people gather for annual event. However, the actions of the townspeople soon show the evil tendencies of humanity. What seemingly begins as a random drawing quickly turns into a barbaric stoning of an innocent woman. This is evident when “the lottery’s victim is revealed,” [and] …the black dot on the lottery slip” becomes a mark of death (Kosenko 261). Mrs. Delacroix in particular, gives clear signals that she means business when she “selected a stone so large she had to pick it up with both hands and turned to Mrs. Dunbar. ‘Come on,’ she said. ‘Hurry up.’ ” (Jackson 7). This specific occurrence and others

In her short story, "The Lottery," Shirley Jackson uses conformity and rebellion to convey the main theme, which is that blindly following tradition can have negative consequences. The village members show this through their actions while carrying out this “lottery” that they have done for generations. One character, Tessie, is the outlier who is a rebellion compared to the other villagers. Her character’s actions contrast the other villagers, and make what they are doing seem much more irrational. It also shows how the majority refuses to hear what one who deviates from the norm has to say. This allows them to remain in a bubble and continue to live out the same customs year after year.

In “The Lottery”, a yearly tradition of a lottery takes place in a small town except the winner gets stone to death.

It was the day of June 27th, it was a sunny morning. The town was holding a lottery as they do every year. All of the villagers of the village meet at the town square for the lottery. Some of the families that meet at the square were the Hutchinsons, the Dunbars, and the Martins. Mr. Summers and Mr. Graves began the lottery, all of the heads of the household/Husbands came to the center and drew a paper out of the black box. They all showed the people their paper, and Bill Hutchinson's had a black dot on his paper. So, the Hutchinson family went to the center and drew. They all showed the people their paper and Tessie Hutchinson had the black dot on her paper, so that meant that she got stoned to death. “Lottery in June crops be heavy soon,”‘ as they say, this means they sacrifice a person for good crops this is a tradition in this village. The main theme of the story is power of tradition. People didn’t want the tradition, but they did not have the power to stop it.

In the short story “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson, every 27th of June, in the middle of the town, there would be a huge litter of rocks with red “paint” on it. That “paint” is called blood. Surprisingly this day is “special and usual” for nearly everybody in town. They named this event the “Lottery”, the lottery is an event where each head of the household draws a slip of paper from the shaggy, old black box which is older than the oldest person in town, Old Man Warner(78) whichever family gets the black dot on their paper they are the “Winners.” As “winners” each member of the family gets to draw in from the black box, whoever gets the black dot “wins”, as celebration they stone he or she to death. This year the winner is Tessie Hutchinson.

Arrogance, good and bad, disastrous and calm are all ways to describe characters. Characters better help analyze a piece of literature. However, taking two different stories to give them a similar meaning is beneficial. In “The Lottery” the author uses setting to back up the old tradition as being a right thing to follow rather than questioning it, while “The Necklace” shows the struggle of fitting into society through the use of imagery and setting.

In the short story "The Lottery" by Shirley Jackson the towns citizens have a yearly "lottery" where the winner is stoned to death. The authors tone could be found as strange because of these instances. The theme of this story though is that all traditions are not that superb especially about killing people. This book has caused some major controversy on the mental health of the author and were outraged by it. So that’s why the book was written, to make others understand that some traditions where pretty awful. So that is why that I am covering this story.