Essay On The Lottery By Shirley Jackson

“The Lottery” is a horror fiction short story written by Shirley Jackson, an American writer who lived in the 20th century, which discusses the ideologies of tradition and ritual. Jackson does this by writing what seems like an ordinary story, but by changing things at the end with a plot twist. Jackson intends the reader to believe that they are reading a story about a town that has a lottery once a year, where the winner will win some sort of prize. However, the lottery is revealed to be a system to decide which person to kill from the town, and this tradition has been around for a long time. The story challenges whether traditions should be carried or reconsidered, just like in real life since people are always creating and improving laws.

The Lottery discusses tradition and ritual, and how far these can be taken when enough people are in support of it. The most significant symbol in the story is the black box, this box is used to represent death, tradition, and the darker aspects of human nature. Much time has passed since the creation of this tradition, and as time goes on the box only grows “shabbier each year” (Jackson). The box that the reader is told about is not the original box, as the original was lost, however even though it was lost, one of the key parts of the ritual that they continue and remember to do is “use stones” (Jackson). These stones just like the box, are another symbol in the story that is used to represent the significance that tradition can have. They also represent the darker aspects of human nature as the stones are used to kill the winner at the end of the story, and this is quite gruesome. It goes to show the lengths that some people will go to fulfill their traditions, even if they seem

Shirley Jackson sets up the story by describing that it was a nice and pleasant summer day and that “the flowers were blossoming profusely”, preparing the reader to believe that they are going to read a bright story (Jackson). However, he does this in order to create a contrast between the bright setting, and the shocking violent plot twist. By setting up the story in such a cheerful place, the reader would never predict that they were going to read about a public execution. Later on in the story, described that the citizens gathered around in the town square, and “they greeted one another and exchanged bits of gossip” while waiting (Jackson). The setting in this part of the story is meaningful because the citizens were talking normally, and it seemed like a nice day to interact with everyone else in the village; this created a sense of peace and safety in the story, which would be destroyed by the plot twist. This would make the plot twist even more unpredictable, and it would mess with the readers even more by destroying the peace that they believed they had. Shirley Jackson does a tremendous job of setting up the plot twist, even by dropping a few