Figurative Language In The Lottery

In Shirley Jackson’s short story “The Lottery”, a rather small village gathers every year in the center of their town to participate in the lottery. The lottery is held every year around the end of June because the villagers believe it will bring heavy crops for the summer. However, this lottery is not like what we have today in our society. The lottery in this town brings pain and sadness to many, but also happiness to a few. This story is filled with anticipation and would leave anyone with their jaw dropped. “The Lottery” is full of forms of symbolism, foreshadowing and, irony that all come together to create a suspenseful story. First off, “The Lottery” is filled with tons of symbolic examples. An example of symbolism would be “the black

In the beginning of the story, the author describes the scenery of the town. She says that “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 (474). The description is ironic because, that day is described as peaceful and calm, when in reality someone would be stoned that day. This is suspenseful because it’s a well described scenery that makes the reader think of a beautiful place, and then later come to find out, the town is really cruel and corrupted. The other form of irony would be the boys who in the beginning of the story were stacking a pile of stones. “Bobby and Harry Jones and Dickie Delacroix- the villagers pronounced his name “Delacroy”- eventually made a great pile of stones in one corner of the square and guarded it against the raids of the other boys” (474). This is ironic because the reader thinks that the kids are using them in a playful manner but truly the stones will be used for the stoning of Tessie Hutchinson. This is suspenseful because it’s a part of the process that would lead to the stoning later that