The Ritual In Shirley Jackson's The Lottery

Shirley Jackson’s short story “The Lottery,” tells us how the people of the town get together on June twenty seventh every year to perform a ritual that was started back in the day by their ancestors. The children would gather to the town square first and start piling up rocks in a corner. After the children the men would show up and then the women would show up last. Mr. Summers would call each family in alphabetic order to draw a slip of paper from the box, for the ritual. Once everyone had a piece of paper in their hands, they would look at the slips, who ever had the black dot got stoned to death. The theme of the short story is cult ritual, cause the entirety of the story reflects on their ancient ritual they have carried from the ancestors.

Jackson uses foreshadowing when Tessie says to Joe, “wouldn’t have me leave m’ dishes in the sink, now would you Joe?” (Jackson 1263). Later in the story she is chosen to be the sacrifice upon drawing the black dot from the black box. The dishes would have been left dirty in the sink, and Tessie would not want them to be unfinished in case she was chosen. Another piece of foreshadowing is when the boys are gathering up rocks and piling them in the corner of the town