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Imagery, And Allegory In Shirley Jackson's 'The Lottery'

1459 Words6 Pages

Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery” is an amazing fiction short story. This story is highly focused on symbolism, imagery, and allegory. These three literary devices are what make this story as successful and impactful as it is. This profound impact of symbolism is more immediate and keeps readers interested throughout the story. It does not take much creative thought to connect the objects in the story and how they foreshadow their use. This story is quite morbid and has dark symbolism to support its twisted plot. In fact, this story relies heavily on this literary element. The title itself is a symbol. The genius in the symbolism of the lottery is it does not turn the entire idea of a typical small-town community lottery entirely on its head. The ideals of a lottery are twisted it until it is extremely and morbidly warped. The lottery plays out almost—almost—the way one thinks it will. The time in which the lottery takes place is in June. June is a time one associates with pleasure, being out of school, it is warm outside, and all around enjoyable. This sets the reader up to expect joy and pleasure, yet this is not the case. The lottery takes place in a few hours and in multiple villages, which leads one to expect something ordinary and familiar to happen. The whole town and events happening at this point are very familiar to the reader, but things quickly start to turn dark. The winner dreads they have won and it is revealed the brutal outcome of “The Lottery”. The winner is

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