The Lottery Short Story Analysis

Jackson does not reveal the unethical and violent nature of the lottery until the very end, where the reader loses their earlier presumptions about an innocent lottery. Therefore, foreshadowing and suspense becomes a very large force in the story until the ending, and Jackson gives many hints to the reader. At the beginning of the story, children are found stuffing their pockets full and making towering piles of stones. Readers may brush this off as ordinary play of children, but in fact, it has a cruel purpose near the story’s end. Another area of foreshadowing is when Mr. Summers, the lottery’s organizer, asks the Watson boy to draw for him and his mother. Mr. Watson is not mentioned, like the other male head of households who pick for their families, so it can be assumed that Mr. Watson lost his life during the previous years’ lottery. All of this shows the juxtaposition between the seemingly everyday activities of the town and the cruel nature of what actually happens that day.

A literary device element that was used in “The Lottery” was setting. Setting from the story relates to the theme of false hopes. As it developed throughout the article, it shows that it took place during the summer time in June in a small village of 300 people. The description of the day states that it “ Was clear and sunny, fresh warmth of a full-summer day; the flowers were blossoming profusely and the grass was richly green”(Jackson 1). The quote relates to the theme of false hopes because when you read this you think it is going to be a nice day and good things are going to happen. In reality this is a day that most do not look forward to, and a day that carries the tradition of death.

To begin with, one of the literary devices Jackson uses is irony. In the short story “The Lottery” Shirley Jackson presents, “The morning of June 27th was clear and sunny, with the fresh warmth of a full-summer day; the flowers

The first literary element of this story is the point of view, and how the writer uses a third-person narrative style to tell this story. This gives the writer the ability to give details, but not make any real judgments. When you read the story you feel as if you are there watching what is happening, looking over the shoulders of the crowd, but not able to know what the people are thinking. In this story we get an example of how the writer is detached in a way. We don’t get to know what the characters are feeling just what their actions are telling us, like when they choose to whisper instead of talking at normal volume, or how nervous they seem as the lottery progresses. This writing style leaves little if any room to get attached to a character. This however is a smart move by Jackson, because if the story was told from a villager’s point of view it could have been far less effective. When we read we just read about the events of the lottery unfolding. This narrative point of view adds to the shock factor when we find out

Society today sees the lottery as an easy way to win a ginormous amount of cash just by buying a little slip of paper with a combination of numbers. The irony that Shirley Jackson uses in her short story, The Lottery, is used to the extreme by not only the title being ironic, but also within the story. The lottery is seen as a way to gain cash, but the ironic part of the title is that the reader sees it and thinks that the story will be about someone winning a big prize, yet the winner is sentenced to being stoned to death. Within the story, Shirley Jackson writes about how one member of the community ultimately chooses who wins the lottery. Another ironic thing about someone chooses the winner is that one of the communities sons picked his own father to win the lottery. Linda Wagner-Martin analyzes The Lottery and its irony by writing, “Bringing in the small children as she does, from early in the story (they are gathering stones, piling them up where they will be handy, and participating in the ritual as if it were a kind of play), creates a poignance not only for the death of Tessie the mother, but for the sympathy the crowd gives to the youngest Hutchinson, little Dave. Having the child draw his own slip of paper from the box reinforces the normality of the occasion, and thereby adds to Jackson's irony. It is family members, women and children, and fellow residents who are being killed through this orderly, ritualized process. As Jackson herself once wrote, "I hoped, by setting a particularly brutal ancient rite in the present and in my own village, to shock the story's

by its unusual ending. The story starts in a unreal world without any relate The phenomenon which occurred in “The Lottery” relates to our real lives, it mocks our social relationships through the unique plot. The story reminds readers to think of their daily interactions and reflects the lack of democracy. Shirley used the conflict between different things to show defects of humanity. Trough Jackson’s story, she tells us a old, traditional village tradition—the lottery. Every year the village will draw villagers to be the “lucky” one to be killed by stoning. Shirley used this simple story to allude modern Americans’ in reasonable rituals. In the story, the village seemed

The setting and tone of the story “The Lottery” play very significant roles that give the reader a sense of where they are and an overall feeling of what the story should be like. At the beginning of the story Jackson is very specific in describing the setting of the story. She does this by giving an exact date, time, and even telling the reader how the weather outside is. In the story it is summer and everything is getting ready for a new beginning. By saying all of this it gives the reader a sense that this is a normal town that goes through normal day to day activities just like other towns do. Later in the story it is revealed that the “Winner” of the lottery gets stoned to death by the rest of the town. The overall tone of the story changes in an instant as you get to the end of the story and realize what the lottery really is.

Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery” is a terrify story about a small town and their traditions. The Ending of the lottery is the most shocking many of its readers have ever read. Why is it so shocking. Well Shirley jackson uses sybolism and simple narritive and her normal life to convey such a shock.

According to Helen E. Nebeker, most acknowledge the energy of The Lottery, admitting that the psychological stun of the ritual murder in a modern, rural small-town cannot be easily overlooked. Virgil Scott, for instance, says, “the story leaves me uneasy because of the author's use of incidental symbolism: the black box, the forgotten tuneless chant, the ritual salute to assure the entire recreation of the procedure of the lottery forget to serve the story as they may have.” At that point, they indicate fundamental weakness by acknowledging that Jackson has preferred to give no answer to her story, but it leaves the meaning to our imagination, allowing a good deal of flexibility in our interpretation, while yet demanding that everything in the story has been obtained to assure us how we are to 'take' the ending events in the story. Maybe the critical conflict depicted above comes from failure to see that The Lottery really intertwines two stories and subjects into a fictional vehicle. The obvious, easily discovered story shows up in the facts, wherein members of a small town meet to decide who will be the next victim of the annual savagery. The symbolic hints which develop into a second, sub rosa story becomes apparent as early as the fourth word of the story when the date of June 27th alerts us to the season of the summertime with all its connotation of ancient ritual. From the symbolic development of the black box, the story shifts quickly to climax.

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.

“The Lottery’s” effectiveness leans on subtle character traits and changes—her style, while not as minimal, reminds me of Carver, in that what is left unsaid is nearly as important as her stripped down and dialed back use of character description. Though there is an undercurrent of unease slowly pulsing through “The Lottery”, it isn’t until the moment that a flying rock hits the side of Tessie Hutchinson’s head, that all the groundwork Jackson laid out comes into complete focus. Once we realize what the members

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.

In “The Lottery”, Jackson foreshadows the ending and tricks us into thinking that the town is normal in many ways. Initially, Jackson foreshadows the ending of the story with Mr. Graves’ name. The word grave refers to a place where someone is buried, hinting at the ending of the story where the reader can infer that someone dies. Additionally, Mrs. Hutchinson coming late foreshadows that she is going to be the “winner” of the lottery. She is singled out further by Mr. Hutchinson telling her, “Thought we were going to have to get on without you, Tessie”, which foreshadows her being important in the lottery.

Jackson story is very similar to Collins. In The Lottery, there is no explanation on why this tradition is necessary or why it has to be done. Jackson does make it clear that she does introduce the oldest character; Old Man Warner is making the statement that “there's always been the lottery” (Jackson). Later on in the story; its mentioned that the other townspeople mentioned in quitting the tradition and Old Man Warner said “ Nothing but trouble in that” (Jackson). Jackson used Old Man Warner’s character and old age to represent the older generations that have a hard time adapting to changes. When Mr. Adams mention quitting the tradition, Old Man Warner’s response was “Pack of crazy fools. Listening to the young folks, nothing’s good enough for them. Next thing you know, they’ll want to go back to living in caves, nobody work any more, live that way for a while. Used to be a saying about ‘Lottery in June, Corn be heavy soon.’ The first thing you know, we’d all be eating stewed chickweed and acorns. There’s always been a lottery. Bad enough to see young Joe Summers up there joking with everyone” (Jackson). Old Man Warner’s Character shows how the older generations have a harder time adapting to change. The younger generations usually are the ones who introduce change, which is looked down upon by more of the traditional person. It's interesting the way Jackson made Old Man Warner of the

With visual imagery, Jackson tricks the audience into believing this is an innocent village; however, as the story unfolds, the dark nature of these residents becomes apparent. On the day of the lottery, individuals select a white slip from a tattered box. Ultimately, the resident possessing the slip marked with a black dot gets stoned to death. No one questions the lottery, and the original purpose remains a mystery. Some say it is beneficial for the village’s harvest. Only when Tessie Hutchinson discovers she is the winner, does she object to the lottery and argue how the system is unfair. Her protest fails, as the villagers persist in the brutal stoning. Jackson’s story reveals the dangers of blindly following tradition and the darker aspects of human nature, such as the absolute cruelty in people’s actions. Focusing on recent mass shootings and the parallelisms in attitudes between Jackson’s villagers and Americans reveal how daily life in the United States is becoming a lottery.