ipl-logo

Allegory In Shirley Jackson's The Lottery

685 Words3 Pages

Summary: In this short selection by Shirley Jackson, three hundred villagers gather around in the middle of their local postal office and bank in commencement of the lottery. A group of children are told to collect stones for their parents, as they wait for them to call back. Shortly the event then begins. The head of the household in each village family was brought forward. Their task was to select a slip of paper from a black box.Then, they were to each open their slip. The winner is announced, when the wife of the winning family immediately Protests the decision. Standing in the middle of the crowd, the wife raises hers arms in despair, as she is pelted with stones. Evaluation: This selection provides several encounters of symbolism, allegory, and imagery …show more content…

The villagers, the rules of the lottery, and real life tone. The villagers are selected by head of each household. "What's more, we often do have to abide by the conditions of our households as a whole – the metaphorical strips of paper that our parents draw"(2) Explained by the writers at Shmoop. The rules of the lottery in the beginning would seem to entail happiness from the winner, based on the generalization of the lottery we already know. Which is why the ending of the story was so shocking. It was scary because it is not like the usual lottery that we know! Thirdly the real life tone, I believe is expressed in the characters themselves throughout their dialogue. In the beginning of the text the dialogue was minimal, and became more in depth throughout. Ending with the protest of the wife of the household, provided the clarification that this was no ordinary event. Surprisingly the story then provides emotion through action and description. The killing of the wife provided the turnaround to blew most readers minds. The ending was very unexpected, and that is why this short story made such a long list of

Show More
Related
520 Words | 3 Pages

“The Lottery” Interpretive Essay “The Lottery”, a short story by Shirley Jackson, is about a lottery that takes place in a small village. The story starts of with the whole town gathering in the town square, where Mr. Summers, the official, holds the lottery. After that, every family draws out of an old black box, and a certain family gets picked. Out of the certain family, one person gets picked as the unlucky “winner” of the lottery. In this short story, after the Hutchinson family gets drawn, Tessie Hutchinson is declared “winner” of the lottery.

Read More
464 Words | 2 Pages

Although many who read Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery” believe it to be about a crazy town viciously slaughtering an innocent woman for the ritualized sacrifice to bring them a feastful harvest of corn, it very clearly demonstrates Jackson’s hope to educate readers of the horrors of society’s blind following using social conformity, tradition, and general acceptance. The story starts at around 10 o’clock a.m. on June 27, and children are stacking rocks. The whole town gathers around and picks one piece of paper per family, out of an old black box.

Read More
1474 Words | 6 Pages

As well, Shirley uses themes in the hole story to not forget the main topic in different sections, and to understand how important the values and the manners are. My opinion of “The Lottery” is that sometimes the writer can express herself with the readers using different literary devices on the story, and this helps to understand the main purpose of the story. The story was very entertaining and it has a great conclusion because we never expected that kind of end. She also used a lot of different characters to demonstrate the different perspectives that each part of the

Read More
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
1004 Words | 5 Pages

Hamlets manic-depressive state displayed throughout the play would be the trigger of the series of events that concludes with the death of the principal cast of William Shakespeare’s Hamlet.  Hamlet's depression strums from the untimely death of his father, King Hamlet.   The death sends Hamlet into a manic state which would create a domino effect on each character in the play.  

Read More
477 Words | 2 Pages

This passage takes place right after Chris learns of his mother’s affair. Chris, who simply wanted to find Wellington’s killer, is found to be in a situation that proves to be much more afflictive. Christopher suffers from Asperger 's syndrome, and has trouble with social interaction and sees his environment reasonably and observantly. Maths is a subject that is very straightforward and logical, and requires no emotion. It follows sets of rules, which clearly suits Christopher’s logical view of life.

Read More
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
457 Words | 2 Pages

also it seemed like she was trying to avoid showing up to the lottery .Therefore it is obvious that she doesn’t even want to be there which hints that there is something dark behind the Lottery. Jackson’s use of foreshadowing in “The Lottery” contributed to the story by hinting that there is something much darker and eerier than we expect about this village and its tradition of the

Read More
550 Words | 3 Pages

When the lottery was conducted by Mr. Summers, the writer began to reveal that something is askew, as the crowd got more anxious. As narrated in the story “most of them were quiet. Wetting their lips. Not looking around”. This shows that the villagers were nervous when the lottery began.

Read More
1220 Words | 5 Pages

The gathering and guarding of the pile of stones suggests that the children were preparing for the lottery’s conclusion, and even anticipate participating in it as if it is a game of dodgeball. The eventual outcome and demise of a community member at the end of the lottery event does not faze the youths demonstrating a numbness towards

Read More
152 Words | 1 Pages

When the winner is selected for the lottery, the stones are used by the fellow villagers to throw them at the person. Each name of the characters hold a meaning for the lottery or one that indicates what the future of the unlucky winner will be. The lottery date is one of the main symbols of the short story. It is set for the reader to believe that the lottery is wonderful event like a nice summer day, instead

Read More
1333 Words | 6 Pages

Full of plot twists, and turns, “The Lottery” relies on its characters to convey a sense of normalcy throughout a majority of the story. The villagers’ acceptance of rituals allows them to act normal while knowingly partaking in a deadly tradition. Jackson’s brilliant use of deceptiveness leaves readers blind sighted as one could never predict this story’s outcome. Jackson’s work is renowned because of its unpredictable shift in tone. June 27, may appear to be a pleasant summer day, but this prediction could not be further from the truth.

Read More
467 Words | 2 Pages

In her story "The Lottery", Shirley Jackson implies the negative consequences of blindly following tradition through the acceptance, by the villagers, of the tradition of the lottery. Jackson suggests that the people of the village are afraid to give up the little tradition they have, even if it is not good. Every year after the lottery, the conductor of the lottery, Mr. Summers suggests that they should build a new box but, “No one [likes] to upset even as much tradition as [is] represented by the box.” (Jackson, 1). The black box symbolizes ritual and tradition.

Read More
926 Words | 4 Pages

This story still remains relevant in comparison to today. Simple towns people who speak to each other on a daily basis and joke around with each other all of the sudden turn around and kill one of their one. This story symbolized the change of heart within people when events go on. With various symbols, Shirley Jackson created the short story, The Lottery, to show society and what it has been and what it could be. One might even say that Jackson wanted to keep it in the mind of a ‘modern’ society that such things could happen again.

Read More
505 Words | 3 Pages

If the villagers will quit the lottery, then his villagers will see him as no one. His uniqueness among the villagers will be

Read More

More about Allegory In Shirley Jackson's The Lottery

Related Topics

Open Document