The Lottery Essay This story by Shirley Jackson is very well written and ends with irony. The story was about a village who had an annual lottery. All of the villagers gathered and took a piece of paper from a black box. Tessie is a lady whose husband won and she said it was not fair.
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.
Although Odysseus has negative traits, Wilson praises Odysseus having a leadership and confident masculinity, as seen through the journeys he went on. For example, when Telemachus is telling the suitors to leave, but instead they mock him and refuse to listen so Odysseus returns as a disguised beggar and tells the suitors: "You suitors who indulge in insolence and evil actions, not in any way honoring the house of godlike Odysseus, you will not get away with this." (Wilson 2 229-232) When Odysseus says, "You suitors who indulge in insolence and evil actions" this shows Odysseus being confident not being afraid of standing up for his son which makes the suitors get humbled. Odysseus disguised himself as a beggar and shows his confidence as the King of Ithaca and waring the suitors that they will face consequences for their disrespect towards Telemachus.
Symbolism is an element found in literature to represent something that adds deeper meaning to a story. In Shirley Jackson’s short story, The Lottery, symbolism is incorporated through a variety of elements such as people’s names, objects and colors. Color is commonly used in literature as it holds significance and denotes certain emotions and meaning in religions and various cultures. In The Lottery, Jackson uses the color black to describe two significant objects in the story, the black wooden box and the black spot on the fatal slip of paper. Jackson’s use of symbolism in this story suggests something dark, such as death or evil as an overarching theme.
The short story “The Lottery” written by Shirley Jackson, the plot in the story that it only gives people an account of drawing lots to determine the winner who shall be stoned to death for harvest. However, we get a deep impression of the characters and their fate after reading the story. Jackson indicated a prevalent theme, the indirect of characterization and using symbolism and irony to modify this horror story. The Allegorical story of “ The Lottery” is often regarded as a satire of human behavior and social institutions, and exemplifies some of the central themes of Jackson’s fiction, including the victimization of the individual by society, the tendency of people to be cruel, and the presence of evil in everyday life.
The theme in this story is people should not believe and or copy others just because they do it. In the lottery, Shirley Jackson used a lot of irony in the short story. One piece of irony is that it’s a dystopian book because in the story at the beginning they were all happy and cheering and when the lottery was mentioned they said, “seems like there’s no time at all between lotteries any more”in page 197 line 23. This shows how they are so used to the lottery.
Many characters in the story have different viewpoint on the lottery. Old Man Warner was one of the advocates for this ritual for many reasons. In the book, it says how there has always been a lottery and how after, they would be eating stewed chickweed and acorns, suggesting that he still believes that the ritual would bring good crops and how it has always been a thing so why give it up now. One person that doesn’t like the lottery is Tessie Hutchinson. When she knew her husband got the slip of paper, she said how it was unfair and he didn’t get enough time to pick the piece of paper.
The Symbolism of The Lottery One big symbol that the short story is discreet about is the black box that is repeated throughout the short story symbolizes fear to adults which could affect even the most innocent. The black box appears to be the only paraphernalia that is still being used in the tradition of having a lottery. Mr. Summers is the one who is running the lottery at the time. Mr. Summers is seen as a nice man, however, when he is introduced, he is seen with the black box. “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson is a short story that uses the black box as a symbol to convey an underlying message that when the power of a tradition is given to a person, it could lead a crumbling society.
In the short story “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson, the author conveys conflict of man versus society’s traditions. Jackson uses irony and symbolism to is this story. The author sets the scene as an ordinary day in the town square. The children are collecting rocks, and placing them in a pile. The reader is expecting a prize winner of a lump sum of money; however, the winner is stone to death.
“The Lottery” is a short story by Shirley Jackson. The story commences with a vivid description of the summer day in the town, giving us the idea that the day will be good. When the lottery begins, families begin to draw slips of paper from the black box. Finally, when Bill Hutchinson withdrew the slip of paper with the black dot, his wife Tessie starts yelling that it wasn 't fair. When the second drawing was held only among the Hutchinson’s family, Tessie gets the same piece of paper with the dot and is stoned to death.
“The Lottery” is an realism/horror story written by Shirley Jackson. The story is about some villagers of a small New England town who follow the tradition of making a lottery every year. When it comes, they like to celebrate it with the correct rules and the correct objects so they can feel more comfortable. Everyone need to take a slip of paper from a small black box, and the paper with a black dot in it means that the family is the winner, then they raffle again; Bill Hutchinson, who was the husband of the protagonist Tessie Hutchinson picked a paper with a black dot in it, that meant that Tessie was the winner of the lottery, then she starts complaining because the drawing was not conducted properly. At the end, the townspeople moved off to a cleared spot outside the town and they begin stoning her to death (Jackson).
The story “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson is a short story of horror and realism. On June 27th on a late summer morning, the villagers of a small New England village gatherd together in the town square to conduct their annual lottery. There is a black box on a stool and in the box there is pieces of paper in the box. Each person from a family get one paper from the black box even the children get a piece of paper and every stayed quiet and nervouse. Then Bill Hutchinson looked at the paper and notice that he got the black dot.
Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery” is an account of a tradition gone awry. In this short story the villagers of this town have a tradition where they have a “lottery” to see who gets stoned to death. The characterization and symbolism used in the story makes the reader feel as if society has crumbled with the inhumane tradition that ultimately lost its meaning. Throughout the story, Jackson uses characterization and symbolism to imply a message to society about the meaning of tradition. Through the use of characterization and symbolism Jackson establishes that blindly following traditions can be hazardous
The Lottery The short story, The Lottery by Shirley Jackson proposes an annual lottery drawing in a little village set in New England. However, unlike any usual lottery, the winner is stoned to death by their fellow townsmen, women and children included. The lottery seems to have been a custom around the area for over seventy years.
“The Lottery”, by Shirley Jackson is a very suspenseful, yet very shocking short story. This story is set in a small village, on a hot summers day in June. Flowers are blooming, and the towns people are gathering for the lottery, which is a tradition the town does every year. As the reader reads the first paragraph they think this is a happy story. The title also says, “The Lottery” which is a word often used for winning something or receiving a prize.
