Foreshadowing The Lottery

The lottery went on for many years and will go on for many years to come; if the people do not open their eyes to the cruelness and insanity of the tradition the have been following. At times it appears that the act of rebellion is not enough to change conformity; however, at other times it is the ignorance of the conformity that makes change impossible. In The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas, the act of walking away is strong enough to receive attention, unlike Mrs. Hutchinson. However, similar to her, it is not strong enough to change the minds of those around them. Le Guin does this by presented the story through a bias narrator who does not believe in those who walk away.

The idea that a small town would make such an event an annual tradition shows the depths to which superstition takes humanity. Usually a lottery is a drawing of a prize, but in this case, people are thrilled not to have

In society there are some things that we will do without ever questioning why. No one really has an answer for why we do it, we just do. Traditions are passed from generation to generation, even if we have no backing for what we do, we just know it’s “good” and it’s “tradition” so it’s a part of us. In the short story, “The Lottery”, Shirley Jackson uses imagery and symbolism to show that evil can be present in the most innocent environment, resulting in society being tainted with dark illusion. In life, we often fail to realize that simple objects can symbolize something that is deep, dark and evil.

Though essential to them, the townsfolk are unaware and begin to question why they continue to participate in such the barbaric ritual of selecting a villager at random, and stoning them to death. Peer pressure and conformity are the reasons that the clear majority of these villagers are participating. One of the frightening elements of this tradition, is that it seems eternal. The townsfolk are unaware of the origin of “The Lottery”, and by the sounds of Old Man Warner practically forcing the townsfolk to allow the ritual to continue, there seems to be no end in sight. The lack of knowledge about the tradition, shows just how strong the tradition has become.

Foreshadowing is used quite a few times in “The Lottery”. One of the first examples of foreshadowing is when the children come out of school and start collecting stones and piling them up. Those stones would later on be used to stone Tessie to death. Another example of foreshadowing is when she told us that the men that were gathered were just smiling at jokes instead of laughing. That tells us that

In 1948, when the New Yorker published Shirley Jacksons piece, “The Lottery,” it sparked outrage among readers, but could arguably be known as one of her most famous pieces of writing. In this short story, Shirley Jackson used literally elements such as imagery, diction, and symbolism to foreshadow the negative and harsh ending of the story; the harsh ending that sparked such outrage by society in the 1940’s. One of the main ways Jackson foreshadows the ending and true meaning of her short story, “The Lottery,” is through symbolism. Jackson uses the color black throughout the story. This is described as both the color of the box the people use to draw from for the lottery and the color of the paper that the winner receives on the paper they

In the second paragraph the little boys were stuffing their pockets with rocks. This is foreshadowing because at first it seems innocent, but later it is revealed that it was for killing with stones. The discomfort and uneasiness of the citizens foreshadowed that the lottery was not something that was a positive event. The men joked quietly and they “smiled rather than laughed”, and when the women called for their children, they had “came reluctantly.” Then a man named, Mr. Graves, was mentioned multiple times throughout the story. His last name foreshadows what happens when the lottery is complete.

Silent Racism George Saunders ' "The Semplica Girl Diaries", is written in the style of a diary in which the narrator of the diary is a lower middle-class father is just trying to make ends meet. The father seems to have good intentions by always putting his family 's happiness as his priority; however, the consequences of his actions never seem to be quite as good. One lucky day he happens to stumble upon a winning lottery ticket and as expected, he spends it on objects he believes will make his family happy. Yet in the end it turns out that winning the lottery was more of a curse than a blessing. One of the biggest purchases from his lottery money was four Semplica Girls, who essentially hung out in the lawn like pieces of decoration.

The villagers never saw how dangerous the lottery was because they have done the same for so long. If the villagers never would have made the lottery something they do once every year than it would not be so intense if they did not. Of course, nobody wants to get rid of a tradition, but at some point it should stop. The effect the lottery could have on the village is the population could eventually start to fall and effect the whole village. No child should have to take place in one of their parents getting stone, nor should the parents should have to take place in stoning their child.

However, the town featured in The Lottery still stones a person after the drawing. They put on the lottery, which is their vision, even though it does not match the reality that towns no longer need