ipl-logo

The Symbolism Of The Stones In Shirley Jackson's The Lottery

277 Words2 Pages

Shirley Jackson’s short story, “The Lottery” uses specific details regarding the stones to convey a malicious tone. This is because by the end of this short story, the reader discovers the unsettling role the stones play in the lottery. Near the end of the story, Jackson reveals to the reader that “although the villagers had forgotten the rituals and lost the original black box, they still remembered to use stones” (34). To paraphrase, the people of the village only preserve one of the original traditions from the lottery, stoning the “winner” to death. Not only does this indicate how hostile the inhabitants of this village are, but it also unmasks a sort of numbness that the villagers display towards the idea of murdering someone. It is as

Show More
Related

  • Examples Of Inhumanity In The Lottery

    748 Words  | 3 Pages

    Inhumanity in The Lottery and in life The short story, The Lottery by Shirley Jackson, is about a village that takes part in this annual ritual called the lottery, but instead of the usual winning and receiving a heaping of money, you get pelted with stones until you are no longer breathing. Harsh right? There is actually a harsh reality to this story. It is shown in The Lottery that society and humans are very inhumane at times and that they will follow along side others in traditions with out a sight to what is actually going on.

    Read More

  • Critical Lens Essay On The Lottery

    483 Words  | 2 Pages

    In this quote “Although the villagers had forgotten the ritual and lost the original black box, they still remembered to use stones” (Shirly 7). The town is preparing to kill Mrs. Hutchinson because she won the lottery. It states in the book that the lottery had been going on for a while. Which means they must have done the ritual for every time they did it. Mrs. Hutchinson said, “It isn't fair, it isn't right” (Shirly 7).

    Read More

  • Symbolism In The Lottery By Shirley Jackson

    152 Words  | 1 Pages

    In Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery," the author has demonstrated each symbol and the meaning that holds behind them. The black box is culturally known as a dark and evil color. It represents the fate of the people in town, and the three-legged stool is used as a support for the black box to lay on top of the object. Stoning is ancient.

    Read More

  • The Lottery Tradition Essay

    501 Words  | 3 Pages

    The Lottery itself represents a primal example of loss of innocence; portrayed through the young boys who gather at the town square to collect rocks for the horrors soon to follow. An illustration of how traditions can lose their true meanings and come to represent violence and warfare. Furthermore, “The Lottery” also represents the decaying characteristics of traditions, as symbolized by the town’s black box, in this case where every year, someone’s name is drawn out of the black box and they are stoned to death, by other members who may or may not end up to be family. Nonetheless, it ends up to be the villagers who

    Read More

  • Examples Of Foreshadowing In The Lottery

    597 Words  | 3 Pages

    In “ The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson, Jackson utilizes innocent details to foreshadow the tragic ending. Shirley Jackson foreshadows the terrible events throughout the short story with the children playing with the stones. Shirley Jackson shows foreshadowing in the story throughout the kids when they make a pile of stones and they play around with them but playing around with them wasn’t their only purpose. “Dellacrroy’-- eventually made a great pile of stones in one corner of the square”(Jackson 1).

    Read More

  • Social And Class Divisions In Shirley Jackson's The Lottery

    253 Words  | 2 Pages

    The lottery tells us a story about a yearly tradition practiced by the villager of a small town and that their tradition is becoming pointless over time. The lottery is foreshadowing the violent conclusion in the story. The children would put stones in their pockets and make a piles of stones

    Read More

  • Symbolism And Realism In Shirley Jackson's The Lottery

    1031 Words  | 5 Pages

    The story “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson is a short story of horror and realism. On June 27th on a late summer morning, the villagers of a small New England village gatherd together in the town square to conduct their annual lottery. There is a black box on a stool and in the box there is pieces of paper in the box. Each person from a family get one paper from the black box even the children get a piece of paper and every stayed quiet and nervouse. Then Bill Hutchinson looked at the paper and notice that he got the black dot.

    Read More

  • Foreshadowing In Shirley Jackson's The Lottery

    457 Words  | 2 Pages

    In “The Lottery,” Shirley Jackson uses foreshadowing when the children are collecting stones from the river and putting them into piles. It hints that something bad is going to happen because it is unusual for boys to be grabbing stones and randomly put them into a pile. For example, while the towns people were getting ready for the lottery the narrator states, “Bobby Martin had already stuffed his pockets full of stones, and the other boys soon followed his example,selecting the smoothest and roundest stones; Bobby and Harry Jones and Dickie Delacroix, eventually made a great pile of stones in one corner of the square and guarded it against the raids of the other boys.” (Jackson). This quotation shows that the boys in the village are finding the smoothest and roundest stones and putting them into a big pile.

    Read More

  • The Lottery Argumentative Essay

    691 Words  | 3 Pages

    The purpose of the lottery is to continue the old tradition of sacrificing a scapegoat in order for a harvest. The scapegoat is chosen at random and then stoned to death by his/her companions. Although “The Lottery” reflects an event from the past, Jackson shows that many of the actions of the town resemble the tribulations that ensue in today’s society. To begin with, like the villagers in the story, our society also partakes in valuing tradition.

    Read More

  • Foreshadowing In The Lottery By Shirley Jackson

    811 Words  | 4 Pages

    In many ancient cultures, animal or human sacrifices were made in hopes to please the gods enough for a good harvest. The people of the town continue to behave like any other day, discussing things such as the weather and how their day was to one another. Later on it was said that, “Although the villagers had forgotten the ritual and lost the original black box, they still remembered to use the stones”(629). That the lottery is indeed a ritual of some sorts, but stones were also a part of it but they don't really understand the meaning of how this certain ritual is helping solve their problems.

    Read More

  • Symbolism And Themes In The Lottery, By Shirley Jackson

    1474 Words  | 6 Pages

    “The Lottery” is an realism/horror story written by Shirley Jackson. The story is about some villagers of a small New England town who follow the tradition of making a lottery every year. When it comes, they like to celebrate it with the correct rules and the correct objects so they can feel more comfortable. Everyone need to take a slip of paper from a small black box, and the paper with a black dot in it means that the family is the winner, then they raffle again; Bill Hutchinson, who was the husband of the protagonist Tessie Hutchinson picked a paper with a black dot in it, that meant that Tessie was the winner of the lottery, then she starts complaining because the drawing was not conducted properly. At the end, the townspeople moved off to a cleared spot outside the town and they begin stoning her to death (Jackson).

    Read More

  • Symbolism In The Lottery By Shirley Jackson

    926 Words  | 4 Pages

    The Lottery The short story, The Lottery by Shirley Jackson proposes an annual lottery drawing in a little village set in New England. However, unlike any usual lottery, the winner is stoned to death by their fellow townsmen, women and children included. The lottery seems to have been a custom around the area for over seventy years.

    Read More

  • Symbolism And Irony In Shirley Jackson's The Lottery

    227 Words  | 1 Pages

    The short story “The Lottery” written by Shirley Jackson, the plot in the story that it only gives people an account of drawing lots to determine the winner who shall be stoned to death for harvest. However, we get a deep impression of the characters and their fate after reading the story. Jackson indicated a prevalent theme, the indirect of characterization and using symbolism and irony to modify this horror story. The Allegorical story of “ The Lottery” is often regarded as a satire of human behavior and social institutions, and exemplifies some of the central themes of Jackson’s fiction, including the victimization of the individual by society, the tendency of people to be cruel, and the presence of evil in everyday life.

    Read More

  • Analytical Essay: The Lottery By Shirley Jackson

    355 Words  | 2 Pages

    The Lottery Analytical Essay In this short story, written by Shirley Jackson, the townspeople have somewhat of violent “tradition”. The people participate in this process called stoning where someone is randomly beaten to death by stones. Shirley doesn't specifically say why they do this or why it is still happening but she does drop hints.

    Read More

  • Banality Of Evil In The Lottery

    865 Words  | 4 Pages

    “Bobby Martin had already stuffed his pockets full of stones, and the other boys soon followed his example, selecting the smoothest and the roundest stones”(304).The ritual and traditions of the lottery in Shirley Jackson’s story seem to be just as old as the town itself, especially since most of the residents do not recall any of the old rituals, even the Old Man Warner, who is “celebrating" his 77th lottery. This helps illustrate how the people of the village just went on with the lottery without even questioning it. Like during the shock testing in Lessing experiments. The subjects blindly followed orders to obtain information even if it meant killing the person. Even in today’s society we are in social groups that define who we are and we do whatever we can to conform to

    Read More

More about The Symbolism Of The Stones In Shirley Jackson's The Lottery

Open Document