Jeremy Robberson - English 11.A – American Literature Final Paper Draft October 31, 2014 Foreshadowing in the lottery The lottery by Shirley Jackson is a very interesting short story, her purpose of this art piece was, as quoted by her “I hoped by setting a particularly brutal ancient rite in the present and in my own village, to shock the story’s readers with a graphic demonstration of the pointless violence and general inhumanity in their own lives” This purpose has been successfully portrayed in the story. The story is very well organized; the Lottery gives us an illusion of a pretty and calm day, something that we expect to be good. Later on in the story, we are cheated and shocked into believing the exact opposite of the reality and …show more content…
These hints point out to future events in the story, these hint to how the attitude of children, adults, and even society feel about the lottery. In the following quotation we can see an example of foreshadowing, “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-- the villagers pronounced this name "Dellacroy"--eventually made a great pile of stones in one corner of the square.” This example points out an odd part of the start of the story, the children and their rocks. Its weird that the author puts such emphasis on this part, but it is read as the kids playing, when in reality the kids were handling the murder weapon. There is also a part in e story where the town people say that some towns stopped doing the lottery, but when we read this for the first time we wonder why, isnt this a good thing? Could it be because of economical problems? We seek deeper answers when in reality the answers are simple and when with so many hints can be guessed, but we choose not to pay attention to this part and rather find out why by reading. There is also a lot of symbolism about the story but we don't notice its meaning until the end of the story, and example of this the box that had the little papers that told who was going to die. This box was …show more content…
We look back at the story and notice that the author has cheated us into thinking that everything is ok, even if we are given bad signs. Shirley Jackson writes the foreshadowing in the story in such a good and nice way that what is dark seems to shine. The author also sticks some irony in the story, in the form of ironic foreshadowing. Like at the start of the story she writes "the flowers were blossoming profusely and the grass was richly green", this is ironic because later it is foreshadowed of death with the black box, and that in the end, the day may seem beautiful but feels dark and is brutally harsh, but how did the author do this? She used so many things that the story becomes a more complex puzzle and is inserted so may irony and foreshadowing that we are so confused that we are pushed to believe in something good. When the story starts there is sun, flowers, people, and kids playing. All people are living passingly with each other, there is happiness and a sense of a healthy community, but when talking about the world, that is what it seems, and the purpose of the author is to show us something different and the reality of violent cultures. We think everything is normal, and like in the real world, brutality can hit us at any moment, punching us in the face without us noticing, disguising itself while showing small signs that hint to the punch. So the author