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The Lottery Rhetorical Analysis

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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. This is described as both the color of the box the people use to draw from for the lottery and the color of the paper that the winner receives on the paper they …show more content…

Using both her word choice and the tone in which it set, her use of language foreshadows the true intentions and outcome of the lottery and its devastating ending. When she states, “[The] feeling of liberty sat uneasy on most of them,” she creates an uneasy and negative tone when she uses these certain words ( Jackson 264). It creates the sense that the villagers’ liberty and freedoms were about to be threatened and it truly foreshadows the events that are to come. She also continues her negative tone and word choice towards the event and the black box when she says, “They stood together, away from the pile of stones in the corner, and their jokes were quiet and they smiled rather than laughed” (Jackson 264). This created an uneasy feeling in the readers mind and led to the foreshadowing that the towns people weren’t so excited to participate in the lottery. She again backs this up by stating, “The villagers kept their distance…” providing insight in that they didn’t want to be close to the box where they draw for the lottery. The people didn’t want to be associated with what the lottery and box represented and seemed to hesitate when it was their turn to draw from the black box. Jackson’s use of diction and the way she set the tone throughout the story clearly led the reader to believe that what the box and the lottery represented was negative and represented

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The beginning of The Lottery starts with, “a great pile of stones in one corner of the square,” that some boys had gathered, “and guarded it against the raids of the other boys.” (Jackson, page 1) When villagers started to gather in the town square, “They stood together, away from the pile of stones in the corner…” (Jackson, page 1) The actions of the villagers and the boys foreshadow that something dangerous is going to happen involving

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Within this source it has a list of sub headings that cover symbolic meaning of the lottery, the lottery box, stoning and considering the authors background. The sub heading about the author Shirley Jackson provides me with some very crucial information around the long standing traditions of what the whole story really meant and the back ground of the author when she wrote this short story. Ironically Shirley Jackson was a women during the 1948 period in America. Which began to part the puzzle for me on the ideologies used in the story that contrasted America at that present time. For e.g. whether it was segregation, the lack of free voting rights or any of the many other traditions which still exist primarily because they have always existed.

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In all books authors use figurative language to create suspense and get the reader interested. In “The Lottery,” by Shirley Jackson, a small village gets together on June 27th every year to do the “lottery.” Generally people think of the lottery as being a good thing. In this book, however; if you win you die. One member of each family in the village must walk up to a black box alphabetically, select a piece of paper, and return to their spots.

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Symbolism in stories is used to represent an idea or a concept that differs from their literal meaning. Shirley Jackson utilizes symbolism within her short story "The Lottery" which takes place in a small town of 300 people, who are preparing for a lottery to occur. Jackson's use of symbolism is supposed to show us that not all tradition is positive and leaves us content. Jackson displays the dark side of tradition within "The Lottery" by using symbols such as the characters behaviors, the black wooden box, and the stones. Throughout the story, we are introduced to a variety of characters each of whom gives the reader a queasy feeling.

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In contrast, the villagers are reaching the black box “humourlessly” and “nervously” with hesitation as the paper took out of the box. Moreover, the fact that the villagers “beamed and laughed, turning around to the crowd and holding their slips of paper above their heads” when they got a blank piece of paper, drives the reader to wonder the unusual fact of the lottery behind the box.

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“The Lottery” is a short story written by Shirley Jackson. It was originally published in 1948. This is a few years after the end of World War Two, which probably influenced Jackson into writing this short story. “The Lottery “was very different from anything that had been published in America up to this point. Shirley Jackson incorporated a couple of themes into the story that she felt, needed to be exposed so society could better itself.

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Jackson allows the readers to think that this event is a joke because these kids are picking certain stones for an upcoming murderous event and to see that the children are easily following the elders’ steps. Another example would be “the black box” and the black spot on the “fatal slips of paper”. The description of these two objects is very symbolic to death and evil. Starting of with the box, it’s described as being_ “splintered badly,… and in some places faded or stained” which symbolizes the individuals family falling apart due to the fact of the death of the person. The black spot on the “fatal slips of paper” represent darkness and evil since the color of the dot is black and it also symbolizes the person who gets stoned to death during the lottery next.

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The black box is the manifestation of such conformity. It is described as old and worn, but the villagers do not want to “upset events as tradition as was represented by the black box.” (The Lottery, pg. 222) It was long used, and the villagers believed that some of the pieces from the original lottery box were used to create that one. The symbolism Jackson uses is relative to life while the symbolism that D. H. Lawrence uses in “The Rocking-Horse Winner,” is purely fictional.

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In both stories "The Lottery" and Nathaniel Hawthorne's "Young Goodman Brown" shows that different tone, setting and literary elements. "The Lottery" and Hawthorne's "Young Goodman Brown" are two short stories that use different ways to get to the same purpose, which would be a dark, disturbing place. Both stories are very dark, and sinister, but one story keeps the person who reads unaware to the tragic event that is being set up, while the other story lays it out very clearly and without a doubt for the reader to believe from the beginning. In “The Lottery,” Jackson demonstrates a feeling of harmony and easiness.

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In “The Lottery”, there are many scenarios which turn out to be ironic. This includes the setting and actions of the characters in the story. This irony is done to shock and surprise the reader about how the story ends. At the beginning, the setting is described to be very welcoming, “The morning of June 27th was clear and sunny, with the fresh warmth of a full summer day” (Jackson). This quote from “The Lottery” shows how the author used beautiful imagery to convey a positive mood and scenario to start off the story.

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Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery" is a short story about a villages tradition of a lottery that leads to the death of a town member. Jackson uses literary elements such as symbolism throughout the story to convey the message of how cruel people in a society can be towards each other. In "The Lottery", Shirley Jackson uses symbolism of a Tessie Hutchinson, black box, and Old Man Warner to strengthen the theme of tradition and corruption within human society.

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The Lottery's use of Symbolism The short story, Lottery written by Shirley Jackson delineates a tradition which involves the whole city to be present, where one person chooses a name out of the black box and the whole town throws stones at that one person, this occurs every June 27. Through her story she was able to use “The Black Box” and “The Lottery” as a way of symbolism 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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“The Lottery’s” opening lines read: “The morning of June 27th was clear and sunny, with the fresh warmth of a full-summer day; the flowers were blossoming profusely and the grass was richly green. ”(Jackson 309). From this line, one can conclude that Jackson is trying to portray the village as a quaint and nice place where townsfolk gather, and no harm occurs. However, this strays far from the truth. As the story continues, the gathering abruptly changes and ultimately leads the townspeople to commit violence and murder.

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also it seemed like she was trying to avoid showing up to the lottery .Therefore it is obvious that she doesn’t even want to be there which hints that there is something dark behind the Lottery. Jackson’s use of foreshadowing in “The Lottery” contributed to the story by hinting that there is something much darker and eerier than we expect about this village and its tradition of the

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