The Lottery By Shirley Jackson Essay

The short story “The Lottery”,by Shirley Jackson, is a brilliant short story that represents very specific literary devices that paint a beautiful scene of town tradition while having a sense of anxiousness throughout the story. The author does so by providing a third-person objective point of view for the reader to be able to observe the entirety of the conflict occurring in the story. Doing so the author provides an outlook on all of the character’s emotions and thoughts during the proceedings of the event. This is seen as the story begins, “Bobby Martin had already stuffed his pockets full of stones, and the other boys soon followed his example; Bobby and Harry Jones and Dickie Delacroix”, this shows the author focusing on multiple characters

This introduces the author’s use of a symbol which is presented by the black box, this black box represents death but, we will not find that out until the resolution of the story. This use of a symbol provides an antagonist that is lacking in the story as there is no true villain. However, by using this symbol we can provide the antagonist to the story. The presentation of this box and the gathering of the townspeople is the inciting incident that is used in Freytag’s Pyramid. As the townspeople gather in the square we get a good idea of the setting that was provided at the beginning of the story with a “clear and sunny day”, and now the addition of the black box resting in the center of the square up on a stool adds to the symbolism of it being an antagonist. The postmaster, Mr. Graves is the character who provides the next piece in the Pyramid by calling names of the townsfolk and requesting for the heads of the family to come to draw a slip of paper out of the box. The author describes the characters' actions as nervous and anxious with Mrs. Delacroix, “holding her breath as her husband went

During this part of the story we are also introduced to a static character, this character is specifically used to provide more background into the lottery and its history declaring that “this is his 77th lottery”. Once the rising action is starting to slow the author does a fantastic job of creating a vivid description of anxiety amongst the people talking about a “long breathless pause” before the slips are opened to reveal who won the lottery. After the slips of paper are opened, we begin to reach the climax of our story. However, this climax is almost entirely focused on one individual, Tessie Hutchinson. The author uses rapid and short dialogue for this character to represent an extreme level of anxiety and show how impactful this climax will be to her saying, “I saw you. It wasn’t fair!”. This provides a bit of foreshadowing that the lottery is not something that the characters want to win. This climax is built up further and further through this character’s arguing with the postmaster and the crowd until the final draw of slips by the family is to be made. The Hutchinson family draws opens their slips one by one building more and more tension towards the