The Lottery By Shirley Jackson Analysis

“The Lottery” is a short story written by Shirley Jackson. The story is about villagers gathering on a warm day in late June. They gather to participate in a lottery ran by Mr. Summers. All the children arrive first and begin collecting stones. Mr. Summers calls each man forward to a black wooden box where each one selects a slip of paper. The men open it after all have picked a slip to see who is selected. Mr. Hutchinson is selected. There are 5 people total in the family so each member draws a slip. Mrs. Hutchinson draws a slip of paper with a big black dot in the center of it. The villagers notice that she has that paper and now it becomes clear that the winner of the lottery dies by getting stoned to death. Mrs. Hutchinson protests in vain as the villagers attack her. In “The Lottery,” Shirley Jackson uses tone, symbolism, and theme to develop a short story.

Tone is an attitude of a writer toward a subject or an audience. One example of tone is inconstant. The tone shifts towards the end of the story from a peaceful tone to one that is disturbing. Jackson states, “The morning of June 27th was clear and sunny, with the fresh warmth of a full-summer day; the flowers were blossoming profusely and the grass was richly green (Jackson 1) ...The children had

In my opinion, I feel like these 3 literary elements did have quite an effect on “The Lottery” because it made the story interesting with the different tones and the symbols Jackson used throughout it. I would recommend this story to friends because it was a shocking and exciting story by Shirley Jackson. It was shocking and exciting because when you’re the reader, in the beginning, it seems like the family is going to win so much money, until later, they end up drawing to see who is going to be the one to die and that person ends up getting killed by stones by every