Examples Of Foreshadowing In The Lottery By Shirley Jackson

In Shirley Jackson’s print on “The Lottery,” published by Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s in 2012, readers will first capture the story in their minds that the story is about tradition. Tradition is a set of customs or beliefs that are passed on from generation to generation. The setting of the story takes place in the clear and sunny morning of June 27th. Three hundred people gathered in the village square. The annual lottery was conducted by Mr. Summers. As he arrived, he was carrying a black wooden box, and set it on a three-legged stool that was placed in the center of the square. Mr. Summers suggested every year to acquire a new box because the black box grew horrid every year, however, the suggestion was ignored. The people of the village were afraid to dismay the tradition that was signified by the black wooden box. As the lottery began, Mrs. Tessie Hutchinson arrived quickly forgetting that the lottery is taking place. There was a list of each head of the household along with each member of the family. Mr. Summers calls out the names of each

In other stories, foreshadowing can be clearly evident, almost boring the readers because there is no excitement to the story. For example, we do not think that Mrs. Hutchinson’s late arrival has nothing to do with the foreshadowing aspect of the story. We think that she genuinely forgot that the lottery was going to take place. However, the more we analyze the story, we begin to notice that Mrs. Hutchinson’s late arrival set herself apart from the others, implying the fate she was going to have at the end of the story. Therefore, Jackson’s way of supposedly ‘hiding’ these foreshadowed elements of the story should be looked at as a good thing because the story is so short, it gives the readers time to try and appreciate how and what literary devices were carefully put into