Ideas And Symbolism In The Lottery By Shirley Jackson

The person that got the paper with the black dot would get stoned to death. In “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson uses irony, symbolism, and tone to develop the plot of the story. The word irony is use of words to express something other than and especially the opposite of the literal meaning (Irony 1). Dramatic irony is when a character in the play or story thinks one thing is true, but the audience or reader knows better (Research 2). It occurs when Tessie objects

Shirley Jackson’s famous story, “The Lottery” is a brutally descriptive story about how a small village participates in the annual lottery. All throughout the story, Jackson uses several literary devices to convey the meaning behind this town’s tradition. Normally when individuals think about a tradition, they visualize something positive. However, in “The Lottery”, tradition is illustrated as something unfortunate and deadly. In “The Lottery”, Shirley Jackson shows the theme of the violence within a small village through symbolism to show that even the most ordinary people can commit violence, which can eventually lead to killing innocent individuals.

People have been stoned to death and the people of the village felt that it is was wrong, but they made the wrong actions anyway. They had the heart to stone their fellow friends, mothers, brothers, sisters, fathers, etc. to death. Why did the people of the village continue the tradition? “‘They do say, ‘Mr.

Imagine a society where killing somebody for the sake of a tradition is acceptable.In the short story “The Lottery” Shirley Jackson describes an ordinary village with normal people, but as the story progress the details of their yearly practice known as “the lottery” unravels to be more disturbing.The author subverts the readers’ expiations by persuading the reader into assuming “the lottery” is a ordinary tradition until unusual details and the behavior of the characters come into place. In her short story “The Lottery,” Jackson seemingly uses ordinary details about the setting and the townspeople to characterize her theme that although society claims to be civilized, and may appear so, it is inherently barbaric. Through her use of setting,

The person who picks out that slip gives one of their family members a chance at winning the lottery. The story “The Lottery” isn’t such a bright and cheerful story. The author of this story uses symbols, character traits, and and theme so give us a deep, dark twist. One of the many literary devices used in this story would be symbols. A symbol is defined as, “...A mark or character used to represent an object or character and have a deeper meaning.” A big symbol that is used in the story is the black box.

Black is culturally known as a dark and evil color, the choice of using black for the box is a perfect fit for the theme of the short story, foreshadowing the coming death of the citizen. No one in the village surely knows how the lottery started, but they kept on following through with it because it is what has always been done. Another representation of symbolism would be the stones that give an access to all the citizens in the village to throw stones at the selected winner of the lottery. As the narrator observes, "Although the villagers had forgotten the ritual and lost the original black box, they still remembered to use stones." (Jackson 114) in which stoning is ancient and one that costs a great deal of punishment.

The lottery is about a little village where they had a gathering called “The Lottery.” where who ever got the black dot would be stoned. For example as the author quotes “Tessie Hutchinson was in the center of a cleared space by now, and she held her hands out desperately as the villagers moved in on her” as quoted in “The Lottery”by Shirley Jackson. In the short story “The Lottery”, Shirley Jackson uses symbolism to illustrate the themes of the tradition and randomness of persecution. In the short story it show the tradition on how dangerous it is when people follow it blindly. The villagers seem harmless even with their preparation.

Old Man Warner expresses this desire for the lottery to not end when responding to the news of some villages stopping the lottery by saying, “ nothing but trouble in that,” Old Man Warner said stoutly. “Pack of young fools.” Mr.Warner is basically saying it would be uncivilized to discontinue the lottery. This passage also refers to the fact that the younger generation is having thoughts of wanting to stop this tradition. Furthermore, many of the characters express their uneasiness with change, as Mr.Warner says, “There has always been a lottery.” This indicates the importance of tradition to the villagers. The Lottery, demonstrates the complex feelings of a community engaging in a ritual event, in which they feel obligated to participate in.

Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery” describes a quaint town with perfect, homely citizens that nonchalantly participate in an annual, gruesome tradition. The short story deceives the reader through ironic descriptions of the characters, the character names, and the setting in order to heighten the dramatic effect of the horrific conclusion. The nature of tradition also occurs in the short story by focusing on the superstitious nature of people and the fear of changing the customs. Through the use of ironic descriptions and the overlying nature of tradition, Shirley Jackson creates an engaging story with relatable characters and personal beliefs to maintain culture only to shock the reader once the grim reality of the lottery. Shirley Jackson utilizes irony in her descriptions of people and the village in order to

"The Lottery" by Shirley Jackson is a short story about a small town with an unexpected dark tradition. When you first start reading you associate the lottery as a good thing. As you read on the story slowly starts eluding to a darker outcome. The further you read, the more you get foreshadowing lending a sense of impending doom. When the story comes to its conclusion that the one selected in the lottery is going to be stoned to death, you have the questions come to mind of, why do they do this, to what end?

The darker action in “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson is the fact that the winner is stoned to death. The whole town believes in this crazy ritual. They believe a lottery in June means more corn soon. To all the people in the town this is just a normal way of life and no one is brave enough to suggest that the lottery be stopped. Other towns have stopped the lottery and old Man Warner snorts that they are a pack of crazy fools no good will come from them.

In “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson, the author comments on the faults of tradition in modern society. She asserts that certain traditions, even though they are obsolete and no longer serve any purpose, have become so widely accepted that people fail to see the problems in them. This commentary is expressed through the opinions of Old Man Warner, who, when a conversation concerning other villages that have eradicated the lottery arises, says, “Pack of crazy fools...nothing’s good enough for them. Next thing you know, they’ll be wanting to go back to living in caves, nobody work anymore...there’s always been a lottery.” (7) This illustrates how he believes that not continuing the lottery is primitive, while he overlooks his own barbarism by

Many towns have traditions that they are not willing to let go of, but none like the one in the story The Lottery. Unlike most traditions this one does not have a happy ending. If you draw the chosen ticket from the black box you are then pegged with rocks by your whole town including your family.The forsaken tradition that this town is not willing to let go is dangling on by a thread. Many signs are shown throughout the story that the tradition that they thought would last forever is not going to last so long. In the story The Lottery every year they do an annual lottery.

Then, the members of the marked family draw, and the person that draws the marked slip is stoned to death. To many of the inhabitants, this means that they will sacrifice a member of the town in exchange for a better food ration. On the other hand, the person being stoned, and their family are thinking about each other, how they will survive without their family member, and the pain of being stoned. Being stoned might not sound terrible at first, but having boulders and rocks thrown at your head, chest, and the rest of your body until you bleed or fall to death is a horrible way to die. The town continues this practice because they have no desire to trigger change.

It is true that police most of the time target minorities. For example, In Charles Blow’s article he talks about how George Zimmerman did not plead guilty of murdering Trayvon Martin, and how unfair the justice system treated Martin’s Family. The first mistake was made when the neighborhood watch calls the police and told them about unusual behavior. When Zimmerman killed Trayvon, he said that the suspect was walking too slow, and it was a very suspicious behavior and he shoots him for the safety, but that was not a case ,it was more like a racial problem. In the Article Blow’s mentions “the system failed him” a lot of times, he expresses how disappointed he is about the choice of the justice system.