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Allegory In Shirley Jackson's The Lottery

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Summary: In this short selection by Shirley Jackson, three hundred villagers gather around in the middle of their local postal office and bank in commencement of the lottery. A group of children are told to collect stones for their parents, as they wait for them to call back. Shortly the event then begins. The head of the household in each village family was brought forward. Their task was to select a slip of paper from a black box.Then, they were to each open their slip. The winner is announced, when the wife of the winning family immediately Protests the decision. Standing in the middle of the crowd, the wife raises hers arms in despair, as she is pelted with stones. Evaluation: This selection provides several encounters of symbolism, allegory, and imagery …show more content…

The villagers, the rules of the lottery, and real life tone. The villagers are selected by head of each household. "What's more, we often do have to abide by the conditions of our households as a whole – the metaphorical strips of paper that our parents draw"(2) Explained by the writers at Shmoop. The rules of the lottery in the beginning would seem to entail happiness from the winner, based on the generalization of the lottery we already know. Which is why the ending of the story was so shocking. It was scary because it is not like the usual lottery that we know! Thirdly the real life tone, I believe is expressed in the characters themselves throughout their dialogue. In the beginning of the text the dialogue was minimal, and became more in depth throughout. Ending with the protest of the wife of the household, provided the clarification that this was no ordinary event. Surprisingly the story then provides emotion through action and description. The killing of the wife provided the turnaround to blew most readers minds. The ending was very unexpected, and that is why this short story made such a long list of

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