Symbolism In Shirley Jackson's 'The Lottery'

In all books authors use figurative language to create suspense and get the reader interested. In “The Lottery,” by Shirley Jackson, a small village gets together on June 27th every year to do the “lottery.” Generally people think of the lottery as being a good thing. In this book, however; if you win you die. One member of each family in the village must walk up to a black box alphabetically, select a piece of paper, and return to their spots. Which every family has the piece of paper with the black dot on it must redraw from the box and who ever then gets the dot will “win” the lottery and get stoned.

In the beginning of the story the author portrays a town of only 300 people where all the villagers are gathering in the square on a full summer day. This illustration is to make reader believe that it is a perfectly good town and foreshadows the symbolism in “The Lottery.” The author then state a narrative style describing the atmosphere as, “The flowers were blooming profusely and the grass was richly green.” This sets a mood of fruitfulness and harmony but the story ends with an ironic twist, and it is deliberately done to intensify the horror of the stories conclusion. The lottery is a traditional ritualistic ceremony and every year the village people willingly part take in the custom. Tessie Hutchinson who is a rebel, had draw the slip of paper with the black dot on it and was stoned to death by the villagers. Tessie’s death is a sacrifice which are to cultivate and produce crops throughout the year for the people in the

Jackson pushes the envelope by telling a story of a village that blindly follows social normalities and conforms to a system that is in all reality completely backwards and shows how a modern society can appropriate and conform to ideas that do not seem logical,right, or justifiable. In the beginning Jackson conveys a sense of security and normalness as the children play around before the commencement of the drawing Jackson writes “The children assembled first, of course. School was recently over for the summer, and the feeling of liberty sat uneasily on most of them; they tended to gather together quietly for a while before they broke into boisterous play. and their talk was still of the classroom and the teacher, of books and reprimands. Bobby Martin had already stuffed his pockets full of stones, and the other boys soon followed his example, selecting the smoothest

“The lottery” (1948) Analysis The short story, “The lottery” by Shirley Jackson takes place in a small village. Was conducted the lottery story in 1948. In this story, the lottery is a yearly tradition that takes place in a small American Town. Contrary to the normal lottery, in this case one person is randomly selected to be killed by stoning, something the villagers believe to be good for the village. This tradition is accepted by everyone in the village, in fact, including women and children.

Literary Analysis of “The Lottery” Nobody loves tradition more than a small town and Old Man Warner in a story called “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson. This story starts out as a normal town everyone is happy chatting in their groups and gossiping. Children are playing outside, and they are also collecting rocks. Wait? Rocks, yes rocks for the annual lottery.

“The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson, is about a tradition that happens every year on June 27th. On this warm day of June, the people of the village gather in a square to participate in the tradition lead by Mr. Summers. In the tradition (lottery), Mr. Summers first calls every head of a family (men) forward to pick a piece of paper from a black faded box. Each man has to wait until all the other men of the village have chosen and then they all open the piece of paper at the same time. The winner is the one that has a black dot on their paper.

In Shirley Jackson’s 1949 short story “The Lottery,” takes place on a beautiful June summer day in a fictional location with a universal setting. The town is small, and the lottery does not take very long due to the size of the town. The town people attend the lottery once a year in the square of the village. Shirley Jackson uses foreshadowing in the short story “The Lottery,” by painting a beautiful picture of utopia, and building suspense and horror to keep the reader anxious to find out what is won in the lottery. In the beginning of the story the setting is perfect.

For instance in “The Lottery” the scenes changed from quiet laughter, and children playing to everyone in the town stoning Mrs. Hutchinson. Which can be compared to the scene in “The Destructors” when Mr. Thomas retunes from his trip early, and the boys must make a quick decision to abandon the house or destroy it. The basic conflict of “The Lottery” and “The Destructors” can be viewed as individual vs. society. “The Lottery” expounds upon one person’s struggle against the mass population of this small town. All the events are considered normal

The Theme Thingy Shirley Jackson’s infamous short story, “The Lottery” is located in a quaint little village around southwest Vermont with a measly population of only 300 people. Every year, the townspeople hold a possibly religious event, with malicious intent. Bill Hutchinson, a hard-working man of the village, is the head of a loving family, whom he runs with his wife tessie. During the actual lottery, the Hutchinson family is picked, and later on, Tessie is chosen as the sole receiver of the many stones that had been gathered by the villagers. The actions of everyone in this family, and the communication has lead me to believe that one of the central themes in this short story is mob mentality.

“The Lottery” is a short story by Shirley Jackson. It was about how they have a tradition of holding a lottery every year on June 27. The black box would hold all the papers with the names of all the families in the village. Out of all papers they only had one with a black dot. The person that got the paper with the black dot would get stoned to death.