Literary Devices Used In The Lottery

Literary devices can be used to develop stories. In “The Lottery,” written by Shirley Jackson, many literary devices are utilized to help build the characters and plot. “The Lottery,” takes place in a small village where they host an annual “lottery.” This ‘lottery,” is used to pick one person who would ultimately be stoned to their death for the exchange of corn for their family. To create the story Jackson puts many literary devices to use, for example you can find literary devices such as irony, symbolism, characterization, and theme. Irony is the expressions of one’s meaning by using language that normally signifies the opposite, typically for humorous or emphatic effect. In “The Lottery,” such irony is found, more specifically hypocrisy. There are many times within the story where you can find hypocrisy, such as when, “Delacroix selected a stone so large, she had to pick it up with both hands” (Jackson 5). This signifies hypocrisy because in the rising events of the story, it is portrayed that she and Tessie Hutchinson were good friends, however she picked one of the biggest stones to throw at her so called “friend.” In our everyday lives

In “The Lottery,” one such symbol would be the town’s box, which is used to pull the people’s names. In this quote, “There was a story that the box had been made with some pieces of the box that had preceded it” (Jackson 1), shares that even though they made a new box, it still followed the same tradition. In connection with our day-to-day lives, racism today is not the same racism that we could find in the late 1900s. Racism in the past consisted of segregation and Jim Crow laws, while today, racism consists of using racial slurs and being discriminated against. We say that racism no longer exists but the fact is, we just changed what it looked like, similar to how the town’s people in “The Lottery,” used fragments of the old box to make the new