Analysis Of The Lottery, By Shirley Jackson

“The Lottery" is a verdict of depraved tradition of a community. The story surrounds a town where the lottery is drawn every year as a sacrifice ritual one 's life for a good fertile crop. The lottery rose up public opinions when it first published in 1948. It is a piece of Shirley Jackson in which she wrote about inhumanity and violence among human based on her real experience when she moved to a small town and was rejected by its people. Shirley Jackson always believed in sinful spirit within each individual self as her writing style portrayed the vicious side of her and people 's souls, “The dark current of awareness of evil that runs through her life and work seems too strong to have as its sole root the observance of suburban hypocrisy” (Judy Oppenhaimer). This short story shows that the author has been mastered the art of foreshadowing, symbolism and irony by her diction, narration and the shocking revealed at the end.
Despite of the joyful tone Jackson tells the story that started with a beautiful summer day in June, the author gave away some foreshadow hints and symbolism throughout the flow of the plot that we can somehow predict what will happen in the future. However, the audiences will not know the moral of the story until the end of the story. For example, the children imitated the adult to collect stones “...the other boys soon followed his example, selecting the smoothest and roundest stones” (Jackson pp.279). Moreover, the names of characters also revealed