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How Does Shirley Jackson Use Symbols In The Lottery

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“The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson, Is about a lottery being held in a small town with 300 people in an unknown country. Every year a lottery is being held where one person is randomly chosen to be stoned to death by individuals in the village, in order to follow the tradition of stoning the person who has a black dot on the slip of paper. Jackson uses symbolism based on the characters name, objects and the setting to allow the readers to identify the true meaning of the story. Firstly, the names of the characters have a great symbolic meaning towards the ending of the story. Jackson uses symbolic names to foreshadow the upcoming event to the individuals whom wins. For example, the Graves and the Summers family, these names are very ironic to …show more content…

Jackson allows the readers to think that this event is a joke because these kids are picking certain stones for an upcoming murderous event and to see that the children are easily following the elders’ steps. Another example would be “the black box” and the black spot on the “fatal slips of paper”. The description of these two objects is very symbolic to death and evil. Starting of with the box, it’s described as being_ “splintered badly,… and in some places faded or stained” which symbolizes the individuals family falling apart due to the fact of the death of the person. The black spot on the “fatal slips of paper” represent darkness and evil since the color of the dot is black and it also symbolizes the person who gets stoned to death during the lottery next. From these two items of “the black box” and the black spot on the “fatal slips” could’ve been orange, blue, purple or any other color but made it stay as black which allows readers to realize that the villagers are scared to change anything from the

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Annotated Bibliography 1. Jackson The Lottery By: Yarmove, Jay A. Explicator. Summer94, Vol. 52 Issue 4, p242. 4p.

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Usually there’s a winner in a lottery, but not in Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery”. This story intrigued me by it's suspenseful nature and it's chaotic events. In small town America, they come together once a year to perform an annual tradition. Mrs. Jackson demonstrates literary devices such as foreshadowing, mood, and conflict in “The Lottery”. Foreshadowing is used quite a few times in “The Lottery”.

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However, in “The Lottery”, Jackson exposes the children’s relationship to tradition differently. In “The Lottery”, the town is forced to draw names out of a wooden box each year, including the children. “Bobby Martin had already stuffed his pockets full of stones, and the other boys soon followed his example.” (paragraph 2) The children participate in every part of the tradition, including stoning and the name

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In 1948, when the New Yorker published Shirley Jacksons piece, “The Lottery,” it sparked outrage among readers, but could arguably be known as one of her most famous pieces of writing. In this short story, Shirley Jackson used literally elements such as imagery, diction, and symbolism to foreshadow the negative and harsh ending of the story; the harsh ending that sparked such outrage by society in the 1940’s. One of the main ways Jackson foreshadows the ending and true meaning of her short story, “The Lottery,” is through symbolism. Jackson uses the color black throughout the story.

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In “The Lottery” Jackson uses a black box to symbolize death, Jackson says “The original paraphernalia for the lottery had been long lost ago,and the black box now had been resting on the stool. It had been there even before old man Warner”(Jackson 1).This shows symbolism because it shows how old the black box really is. The reader of “The Lottery” can tell that author is using symbolism. In the beginning, Shirley Jackson says “the original paraphernalia had been long lost ago”.(Jackson 1). Jackson also says “They always had spoke of making a new box but no one ever wanted to.

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Jackson uses irony in many different ways even starting from the title to the very end. By using irony it keeps the readers engaged and focused on the main point of the story. Shirley Jackson purposely made the title “The Lottery” so that the reader can automatically think that the story is going to be about someone winning the lottery and their probably going get a nice reward at the end of the story. Starting the story Jackson sets scene by saying “ was clear and sunny, with the fresh warmth of a full summer day; the flowers were blossoming profusely and the grass was richly green. ”(Jackson...

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Jackson gives an impression that the shabby, black box is a personal and constant reminder to the people so that they must remain faithful to the tradition of their forefathers and never ponder on the notion that those customs might be wrong or immoral. In addition, the villagers’ behavior towards the box embodies their assessment on the entire system of the lottery. They seem to be frightened by the lottery and the box, but they are even more petrified to alter or doubt one or the other. Pressures, traditions and longstanding beliefs may potentially guide that society to an extensive ignorance and sanctioned malevolence that is directly strengthened by

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The Lottery is a story by Shirley Jackson. It is about a town that has a type of stoning event called the lottery. It is basically like gambling with your life. Each person has to pull out a slip of paper out of a black box. There are enough slips for each member of the town.

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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

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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.

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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.

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In the second paragraph the little boys were stuffing their pockets with rocks. This is foreshadowing because at first it seems innocent, but later it is revealed that it was for killing with stones. The discomfort and uneasiness of the citizens foreshadowed that the lottery was not something that was a positive event. The men joked quietly and they “smiled rather than laughed”, and when the women called for their children, they had “came reluctantly.” Then a man named, Mr. Graves, was mentioned multiple times throughout the story.

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Shirley Jackson’s “The lottery” is a story based on tradition. When hearing the word tradition, most people think of team rituals before games, or something families do together annually. However, Jackson is obviously not like most people. She builds up a fair amount of tension around this ritual that is taking place to make readers wonder what is going on. She uses many different techniques to show that sometimes, traditions are not always meant to go on forever.

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In Shirley Jackson's “The Lottery”, names held a high importance, and foreshadowed events. Each of the main characters names were chosen to have a specific meaning. In this essay the names of Mr. Summers, old man Warner, Mr. Harry Graves, and Mr. and Mrs. Hutchinson will be analyzed for their meanings and the role they play within the story. Mr. Summers held one of the highest roles in the town. He was the one who ran the lottery, as well as any other event, every year.

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The color black is a symbol for death and despair as well which can be connected to all of the terrible acts that have been committed with

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