The Lottery Symbolism Essay

    "The Lottery," a short story written by Shirley Jackson, is a tale about a disturbing social practice.  The setting takes place in a small village consisting of about three hundred denizens.  On June twenty-seventh of every year, the members of this traditional community hold a village-wide lottery in which everyone is expected to participate.  Throughout the story, the reader gets an odd feeling regarding the residents and their annual practice.  Not until the end does he or she gets to know what the lottery is about.  Thus, from the beginning of the story until almost the end, there is an overwhelming sense that something terrible is about to happen due to the Jackson's effective

«The lottery» is an allegory which was written by Shirley Jackson in 1948. In it, she used an irony to show how inane could be some traditions and people who essentially follow them. The lottery - is the ritual when all people from the small village crowd together and Mr. Summers, who enjoys devoting civic activities, organizes this event. He and his assistant make a small piece of paper and one of these has a black dot. They put it into the shabby black box, after Mr. Summers call head of household to determine who will «win» the lottery. But the winner should not be happy, because all other citizens will stone the winner to death. People do it annually, because they afraid that the harvest could be poor. Everyone must participate, regardless of gender and age. This short story contains a lot of different characters to explain how belief in something abnormal of previous generations can strongly affect traditions and consider morality.

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.

Shirley Jackson wrote the story “The Lottery” back in 1948 to show us how ridiculous it could be to blindly follow certain traditions. In this story the author uses symbolisms to warn and prepare the reader about the gruesome ending of the lottery. There are a lot of symbols in the story and the main are the items, the lottery and the character names.

In "The Lottery" Shirley Jackson presents us with a shocking story guaranteed to outrage the reader. The author brings together the residents of a small village as they are gathered for an annual event referred to as the lottery. The families of the village are represented by their names on small pieces of paper, which are placed in a black box. The appointed townsperson oversees the drawing to determine who pulls the slip of paper that "wins" the drawing. The characters seem ordinary enough, and they appear to be pleasant mild people participating in an innocuous activity. There is a huge shock when the story turns violent. The peaceful village people are choosing which person in their community they are going to

All around the world today thousands of people die from murder and the numbers increase every year. Our world is filled with violence and tragedies that keep increasing, just like in, Shirley Jackson's story “The Lottery.” The characters in a small village choose someone to stone to death each year because of tradition. As this tradition continues, more and more people die as time passes. All of the towns folk grow more and more nervous, hoping not to get picked. They gather in the town square to choose the person who is killed in this unfortunate event as you meet characters like the hutchinsons, Mr. Graves, and Mr. Summers as they go through the fear of being picked. As the children pile up stones that they use for the killing. All

Tradition takes place in “The Lottery” in several different ways. First of all, “The Lottery” is a tradition that has been passed down from many generations. The people of the village gather in the town square each year and choose one participant to get stoned to death by the entire village, by randomly selecting a piece of paper out of the infamous black box. As cruel and inhumane as it is,

“The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson is an extremely captivating and terrifying story. The author of “Jackson’s The Lottery” describes Shirley Jackson’s short story perfectly, “It is a grim, even nihilistic, parable of the evil inherent in human nature” (Coulthard 226). “The Lottery” creates an immensely eerie story by using the setting of a small town, the nonchalant attitude of the community, and the tone of the author.

The short story The lottery was written by Shirley Jackson. The Lottery was a tradition the village will follow every year. The lottery is usually a drawing of names from the villagers in the village. Every villager will have to retrieve a paper from the black box. If the villager receives the paper with the black dot in the center has to be stoned to death. In The Lottery Shirley Jackson uses symbolism to illustrate the theme of blindly following tradition and random persecution which in turn help enhance the action of the plot.

In most peoples minds, the word “lottery” signifies huge winnings, but for the townspeople in the story “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson the word brings forth fear and devastation. The lottery starts off as a seemingly innocent event which immediately turns into feared, mass chaos in the town. The symbols Jackson incorporates into the story contribute to the fact that everything in this town must be replaced and that some things we must let go of to start fresh with. Although, having said that, people don’t realize when a tradition becomes outdated and when the time comes to put it behind. Shirley Jackson uses several symbols to show how traditions become obsolete and that we must have an open mind to adapt to new, plausible ones, symbols including the black box, the stones, and the townspeople.

“The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson is a short story about a shocking traditional ceremony which is held on June 27 every year. However, instead of receiving a prize in the lottery, one person will be chosen to be sacrificed for the belief that the village will have a bountiful harvest. The story is brimming with symbols such as the use of colors, names of people in the village, and numbers. Even though each symbol represents different meanings they are all connected to guide toward a hidden message that Shirley Jackson wants readers to explore.

“The Lottery" by Shirley Jackson story is a short story often classified as a horror story. It tells the story of a small town that holds a lottery each year. The person picked by this lottery is then stoned to death by the town. This story Considered by many to be one of the best short stories of the 20th century. This is not an easy story to understand because it leaves so many questions unanswered.

The Lottery is a story about a community, who every year draws the lottery for someone in the village. A lottery is often associated with positive things such as prizes, and money, however, this story has a twist; whoever gets the black marked lottery ticket is stoned by the community people as it is a long tradition that has been passed down generation after generation. As bizarre and crazy as The Lottery seems, it can be compared very much to World War II. The lottery picking represents an action, the action of unjustified persecution and the danger of following traditions blindly. Having picked the black mark is not a valid excuse for execution and neither is being Jewish, they are both things that as a human beings, there is no physical control over. However, no one dared to speak up in the community because it was historical ritual. No matter how bizarre and morally incorrect it seemed, to the community it was

The lottery fools everyone with how amazing it truly seems to have a lottery every year. They start by talking about how nice it is outside “clear and sunny, with the fresh warmth of a full-summer (Jackson 1).” Then the conclusion of the story throws you off by how awful it honestly is. The main idea of The Lottery by Shirley Jackson is that if you win the lottery you will have stones thrown at you until you are dead. In each story, it is clear that the author uses symbols to show the violence and cruelty that people have towards each other. They didn’t have a desire to get rid of the lottery since they do not want to change, they think crops may not grow. Some of the stories most important symbols are the stones they use to throw, the black box that shows the tradition, and the paper with the black dot on it to choose who will be killed.

If you were to win a small million dollar lottery, you would feel a rush of adrenaline when you see your lucky numbers get called out. Would you feel that same rush of adrenaline when you win another type of lottery, where the winner gets stoned to death? This type of lottery was the plot to one of Shirley Jackson’s short stories. This story is set in an almost modern time, in a small average-looking town. The townsfolk gather together for an annual lottery where the “winner” gets stoned to death as a sacrifice for the growth of crops. At the time this story takes place, a woman who protests the use of this lottery draws the marked paper, but no matter what she does, she cannot convince the town to redo the draw. The story ends with her getting stoned by the whole townsfolk. In the short story “The Lottery,” Shirley Jackson reveals to the readers the dark side of human nature through her use of setting, foreshadowing, and symbolism.