Symbolism In The Lottery By Shirley Jackson

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The Lottery is a short story made by Shirley Jackson. In this short story she tells us about the most important day of the year, June 27. Each year on June 27 the town holds an annual lottery where every citizen, young and old, participate. Unfortunately, to who ever is reading, the surprise occurs at the end when Mrs. Hutchinson is the winner of the lottery and the winning she receives is being stoned to death just so the town can have good crop in the fall. When reading The Lottery for the first time, the story is quite confusing until you get to the end. But once you get to the end and put all the pieces together one can find symbolism throughout the whole story. For example the black box, the last name of the characters. One character that stands out is Tess Hutchinson. Tess Hutchinson is Bill Hutchinson's wife. In The Lottery Tess does many things to separate/ make herself stand out from everyone else throughout the story. Many of the things she does is what leads to her death. When the reader first meets Tess she is arriving late …show more content…

The narrator notes that “They [the men] stood together, away from the pile of stones in the corner, and their jokes were quiet and they smiled rather than laughed.” (3) Compare this to how Tess came in “Mrs. Hutchinson came hurriedly along the path to the square.” (8) and is reassured that she is one time. The other women just stand and observe when their husbands draw but Tess says “Get up there, Bill,” and the people near her laugh, making her stand out once again. Tess isn't very symbolic in The Lottery when compared to Mr. Graves, Mr. Summers, or Old Man Warner, Tess is actually very anti-symbolic. She is just a woman with an apron and soapsuds on her hands, who cracks jokes so she can feel like part of her community. But her community does not want her. Tess is the “sacrificial lamb” for that year. Tess is an outsider of that village who is then violently

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