Point Of View, And Symbolism In The Lottery By Shirley Jackson

Winning a lottery in general the first feeling one will have will be delighted and full of joy. However, in the short story “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson the general feeling is quite different and not to be expected. The townspeople in a small village participates in an annual tradition known as “The Lottery”. In other towns, this tradition has been stopped. The lottery consists of every local person to pick a slip from an old black box. Once everyone has received their slip the one who gets a black mark on their slip is chosen. Bill Hutchinson gets the slip with the marking, meaning his family gets to go to the next round. There his wife Tessie Hutchinson gets chosen. Where unexpectedly the winner in this tradition gets to be stoned to death by the townspeople. Shirley Jackson develops her character in the short story “The Lottery” by using diction, point of view, and symbolism.

Shirley Jackson diction plays a role on how we perceive the characters in the short essay. The diction that Jackson uses is simple and straightforward type. “Tessie Hutchinson arrives, the last villager to join the crowd at the square. Tessie had realized at the last minute, while she was washing dishes, that today is June 27. Her friends and neighbors tease her about her tardiness” (Jackson,). In this text, Jackson shows us Tessie lack of concern with the

Being in written in third person dramatic, in the beginning it gets the reader to believe that the lottery is just an ordinary tradition. The narrator is detached from the story making the readers know only a certain amount of details, it simply shows the process of the lottery traditions. Being able to jump from characters to characters it allows the reader to have an idea from different perspective on what is happening during the lottery. Third person dramatic is important in this short essay because it’s the readers don’t expect the ending to be what it really