Literary Devices In The Lottery

Despite the length of the writings short stories can be filled to the brim with literary devices. Upon analyzing the short story “The Lottery”, one can find multiple examples of literary devices. The use of devices, such as foreshadowing, symbolism, and irony help create a clearer picture of people’s reaction to the lottery. These devices are important is discovering what the lottery really is. It also shows how this event has changed the humanity of the town itself. The corresponding actions and stigma of different townspeople to the lottery foreshadows to the reader that the lottery is a barbaric ritual put forth by good intentions. The first hint of foreshadowing can be found at the start of the story when a group of boys start creating

The first symbol can be discovered when analyzing the duality of the townspeople. At the beginning of the story the picture of a small tight knit community where life seems simple and nice. When in reality, “First-hand impressions can be deceptive; on the surface things are smooth; deep down reality is cruder.”. (Schaub, 52) This can be seen when after it is revealed Tessie Hutchinson won her whole community: friends, family, even her own husband and children start pelting her with stones. This could be seen that man itself always has a dark violent nature buried somewhere and can seem as soft and smooth and can become violent to whomever in an instant. Upon further analyzation the use of names to symbolize certain characters can further unearth the possible outcome of lottery day. An example could be Mrs. Delacroix delivering Tessi Hutchinson’s killing blow. This event symbolizes the excommunication of founder of Rhode Island a Puritan by the name of Anne Hutchinson. Mrs. Delacroix representing the priests that excommunicated Anne Hutchinson. Tessie Hutchinson’s death can be interoperated as her being exiled from her community through death. A final symbol that is possibly the most obvious is the black box and stool from which the papers are drawn. If put under a microscope it can be found that the box is mentioned three times and stool four times. This could symbolize

An example of early irony can be found when it is described that the men are talking about tractors. This entails that this town in which every year a person is stoned to death is not a dark ages village it is a relatively modern town. In the modern age it would seem that, “Modern man deplores as inhumanly evil is the annual sacrifice of a scapegoat,”. (Friedman 190) With this not only being a modern era town, but a tight knit community as well ironically uses a barbaric method to kill a member of the community to in turn help it survive. Another example of irony comes in the form of Tessie Hutchinson. When Tessie is presented in the story she is written as a good housewife that is quippy and seems to start pushing back against the tradition of lottery day. Ironically however she throws all of this away when realizing she may be the winner of lottery day she tries to sacrifice her child in her place. With Tessie doing this she loses in her way her relation as a character to a savior Christ like figure in the story. A final example of irony can be found in the character of Mr. Summers. The word summer in many ways has a positive connotation, and in the story, Mr. Summers organizes all the town’s other events which are gradually less dark then lottery day. However, he, “Is a willing leader and thus a perpetrator of evil.”.