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Symbolism In The Lottery By Shirley Jackson

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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. Other townships have stopped conducting the lottery; however, New England continues with the tradition. They never question the purpose of the barbaric tradition. The first symbolic person in the story is Old Man Warner, the oldest man in the community states, “Lottery in June, Corn be heavy soon”, so that leads me to believe that the lottery would
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Most people know the lottery as a contest to win money. But in the short story, “The Lottery,” written by Shirley Jackson, the lottery is not a simple game competing for money. In this small village’s version of the lottery, everyone must draw out of a box, and if their family is chosen then the whole family must redraw and the death of a member is decided. After the fate is decided, the rest of the village throws stones at him or her until he or she dies. The villages reasoning of this process is they believe it guarantees a plentiful crop season.

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Wisdom is a trait many people desire, but wisdom is gained through self-experience and cannot be taught. In the novel, Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse the protagonist Siddhartha identifies he can only learn from himself, when he converses with Gotama and discovers his teachings have flaws. “You have learned nothing through teachings, and so I think, O Illustrious One, that nobody finds salvation through teachings. (Hesse 27)” This is the pivotal moment for Siddhartha, from this moment forward, he knows to follow his own path in order to achieve Nirvana.

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If readers were to pay close attention to the events in The Lottery by Shirley Jackson, then they might be able to infer what will happen before they come to the end. In The Lottery, Jackson makes use of many different literary devices such as irony and symbolism to depict how corrupt human nature really is. The Lottery is an event that happens once every year on June 27th. The day is described as, "clear and sunny, with the fresh warmth of a full-summer day; the flowers were blossoming profusely and the grass was richly green."

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The short story “The lottery” is about a small village that has an annual lottery in which the winner gets stoned to death. Many of the townspeople know this is inhumane, but they choose not to speak out because their name isn’t picked. Jackson uses direct characterization to describe all the characters in the village and uses symbolism throughout the story. Not to forget about the vivid description of the setting in the beginning of the short story. Shirley

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In “The Lottery," the symbolic element of the lottery itself, serves as a chilling reminder of the darker aspects of human behavior, highlighting the potential for violence and oppression inherent in unchecked adherence to tradition. The lottery is very deceptive because when thinking of a lottery, the thought of oogles of money comes to mind first. With many people analyzing Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery” the twisted thoughts of the author are revealed to trick the reader into a dark and twisted outcome. The lottery serves as an effective form of symbolism and makes the reader question what ingrained traditions they follow without questioning the morality of certain social norms. Amy Griffin says it best “Although civilized people may no longer hold lotteries, Jackson’s story illustrates that society’s tendency toward violence and its tendency to hold onto tradition, even meaningless, base tradition, reveal our need for both ritual and belonging.”

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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.

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Shirley Jackson was a mid-twentieth century novelist who composed many awarded pieces, most notably being “The Lottery”. Within this piece Jackson was able to adhere to multiple literary devices to create a dark dystopian setting throughout the short story. Jackson utilizes elements such as foreshadowing, juxtaposition, and irony in order to show that human nature is something to be cautious of. Throughout the story Jackson creates specific moments with certain characters or aspects that hint towards the shocking ending.

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Symbolism Relating to the Theme “The Lottery” is written by Shirley Jackson and the setting is in the town square on June 27, a beautiful day. While all 300 village members stand together amongst their families, Mr. Summers carries the box to the front of the crowd, followed by Mr. Graves. Inside the box consists of each villagers name written on a slip of paper. Once he reads each name, the family head comes up and draws a slip. After everyone has one, everyone opens their slip, then they quickly realize Bill Hutchinson “got it.”

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“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.

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“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).

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1031 Words | 5 Pages

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.

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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.

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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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650 Words | 3 Pages

“The Lottery”, a short story by Shirley Jackson, is about a lottery that takes place in a small village. The story starts off with the whole town gathering in the town square, where Mr. Summers holds the lottery. Once everyone gathers, every family draws a slip of paper out of an old black box, and the family with the black mark on their paper gets picked. After that, each family member older than 3 years of age re-draws a slip of paper again and this time, the person with the black mark on their paper gets picked as the “lucky winner” of the lottery. In this short story, after the Hutchinson family gets drawn, Tessie Hutchinson is declared “winner” of the lottery, with her reward is being stoned to death.

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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.

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