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The Importance Of Literary Elements In The Lottery By Shirley Jackson

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The short story “The Lottery,” by Shirley Jackson is full of literary elements. The old and innocent, small town atmosphere creates the perfect stage for this ironic tale. Several literary elements are evident throughout the composition but three specific elements stand out the most. Jackson’s unique ability to use tone and style, symbolism, and theme are what makes this story so fascinating. Tone and style are critical literary elements in “The Lottery.” Imagery, syntax, and irony are all used to create this horrific story. Jackson vividly describes the day in which this story takes place giving it a specific date, and describing it as a nice and full-summer day where “the flowers were blossoming profusely and the grass was richly green” (539). Imagery helps to set a positive mood, and suspend reality to draw the reader into the story. The syntax evolves over the course of the story as the tone of the story changes. The story starts off with longer descriptive …show more content…

The black box that is old and “[grows] shabbier each year,” represents the old traditions that are held with high esteem (540). The box has been repaired multiple times. There are talks about creating a brand new black box but those always fade away being as everyone wants to stick with the old box. The people do not want to break tradition. Everyone keeps “their distance, leaving a space between themselves and the stool” where the box sits (540). They revere the black box. Another use of symbolism is the lottery itself. The lottery represents traditions and ways of thinking that society goes along with because of how they are raised. The townspeople blindly go on with the tradition without truly knowing the significance. Mr. Adams suggests they give up the lottery like the neighboring towns, and Old Man Warner has to remind him of the significance saying, “Lottery in June, corn be heavy soon”

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The Black box is described as “grown shabbier each year, by now it was no longer black”. Not only is the conditions of the black box is fading but also the way villagers view it. Mr. Summers said “the ritual had been allowed to lapse” (Jackson

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One piece of the lottery that kept the most tradition was the black box. The author writes “ the original paraphernalia for the lottery had been put into use even before Old Man Warner, the oldest man in town, was born. Mr. Summers spoke frequently to the villagers about making a new box. But no one liked to upset even as much tradition as was represented by the black box”. This box had been around for so long and represented years of tradition that no one wanted to get a new box.

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This symbolism foreshadows to the danger and death involved in the lottery. The box is also described as falling apart. The town’s people do not want to replace it because of stories they were told about the box being made of pieces of the box preceding it, all the way to the first people who started the tradition (Jackson 313). This reluctance to let go of something that is falling apart and broken represents their reluctance to get rid of the lottery although it is broken and illogical. This is how Jackson represents the danger of tradition; no matter how crazy, harmful, or backwards that tradition, if it is something a society is used to, it will continue to follow the

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There is much symbolism hidden within the lines and small items and words. The black box, the black spot, even the villagers’ names, have symbolism. The black box is a form of symbolism for death, by its color, and it is also a symbol for the reuse of the lottery. According to LitCharts, the symbolism in the black box is related to the mentality of the villagers. LitCharts explains, “The box is worn and old, but the villagers do not want to “upset tradition” by replacing it...black box lends confidence to the villagers because it reminds them to trust in the tradition of their forefathers—never considering that those traditions might be immoral (LitCharts

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The Black Box is very important because the towns peoples feel as if they must follow through with the tradition of using it every year even though the box gets in a worsening position year after year. “Every year, after the lottery, Mr. Summers began talking again about a new box, but every year the subject was allowed to fade off without anything's being done.” every year the traditions, or they’ll go back to the stone age. The black box has a very powerful meaning . Mr. Werner, the eldest man of the town claims its a must do in the city, he feels as if horrible consequences will be put upon if they don’t go through with the lottery.

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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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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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In “The Lottery”, Shirley Jackson uses characterization, symbolism and themes to develop the action of the short story. First of all, one of the literary devices is characterization, Characterization in

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First, in the ”The Lottery” the black box represents a tradition that has been followed for longer than people can remember. Like the lottery as a whole, the black box has no functionality except during this day every June: "It had spent one year in Mr Graves's barn and another year underfoot in the post office and sometimes it was set on a shelf in the Martin grocery and left there" (Jackson 6). The purpose of the box, like the lottery itself, has become

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In the story of The Lottery, the random of persecution is shown through the literary devices of symbolism, characterization, irony, and scapegoat techniques. First up is the literary device called known as symbolism. This device can be found in the “black box”(Cite) that residents of the town choose a ticket from, which is completely random and holds the fate of the “player’s” life in one of the tickets. The box can symbolize tradition, as it has been used in the town for hundreds of years as a way to carry out the lottery ritual.

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It’s a beautiful summer day and everything seems perfect, but as the reader keeps reading they come to realize that this story is not as simple and straight forward as the title suggest, rather it is a horrifying and dark tale. Shirley Jackson is forwarding the theme on tragic it can be to blindly follow traditions by using foreshowing, symbolism, and dialog. The first literary device Shirley Jackson uses to forward the theme blindly following traditions, is foreshowing. The first example I am going to us I talked about in my introduction.

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A big symbol that is used in the story is the black box. The black box is placed on a three-legged stool This box is where all the slips of papers containing each family’s last name is placed and ready to be picked. The black box is a symbol of bad luck. At least one of the villagers in this small town will be the one to win the lottery and be stoned to death. Although, the black box is old and worn out, they continue to use the black box and not break the tradition.

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The black box is symbolic in two different ways: it represents tradition and death. “The black box holds the key between life or death for every single one of the townspeople, and embodies the evil acts that have been

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Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery” is an amazing fiction short story. This story is highly focused on symbolism, imagery, and allegory. These three literary devices are what make this story as successful and impactful as it is. This profound impact from symbolism is more immediate and keeps readers interested throughout the story. It does not take much creative thought to connect the objects in the story and how they foreshadow their use.

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However, the townspeople just brush off the subject and nothing gets done. The reason why the villagers do not want to make a new box is because “no one liked to upset even as much tradition as was represented by the black box. ”1 With that reason, readers can infer that the townspeople do not want to give up their tradition. If they are reluctant on changing

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