The Lottery Literary Analysis

Ever been faced with a random act of persecution? Alternatively, saw the positive aspect in a situation that seemed impossible to discover happiness? Maybe you needed a person to connect with to find a way to vent your feelings. People can do this through literature, and in the story The Lottery by Shirley Jackson, you find many indirect connections to your daily life through the literary devices used throughout the entire story. We are shown a place out in a rural area that seems all too peaceful, the lottery happens once a year on the day of summer solstice, but is never described in terms of a prize, we come to later find out that the “prize” is sacrificing a town member for the sake of a good harvest. In the story of The Lottery, the random of persecution is shown through the literary devices of symbolism, characterization, irony, and scapegoat techniques. First up is the literary device called known as symbolism. This device can be found in the “black box”(Cite) that residents of the town choose a ticket from, which is completely random and holds the fate of the “player’s” life in one of the tickets. The box can symbolize tradition, as it has been used in the town for hundreds of years as a way to carry out the lottery ritual.

Tessie is the wife of Bill Hutchinson and is known around the town by everyone. Tessie is depicted as a kind, family endowed woman who is very outgoing among the townspeople. We come to learn of the newer generations rejecting the lottery, protesting it and trying to abolish it completely, this is before the reader learns what takes place at the end of the lottery. When Tessie is the “lucky” winner, her last words are “it isn’t fair”(Cite) in protest of the lottery, this brings along the assumption that she is one of the few groups that are progressive against the