The theme in this story is people should not believe and or copy others just because they do it. In the lottery, Shirley Jackson used a lot of irony in the short story. One piece of irony is that it’s a dystopian book because in the story at the beginning they were all happy and cheering and when the lottery was mentioned they said, “seems like there’s no time at all between lotteries any more”in page 197 line 23. This shows how they are so used to the lottery. But the lottery they have is different then our type of lottery where everyone has to participate but instead of getting money or a prize they get killed by stones. “Mrs Delacroix selected a stone so large she had to pick it up with both hands and turned to Mrs. Dunbar. “Come on” she said, “hurry up”. “This is a direct quote”(199). This was a hint that she was going to get stoned to death. Another type of irony Shirley Jackson used was trying to avoid suffering. …show more content…
“This is a direct quote” (1977). This shows how some other towns are planning on canceling the lottery because it does not affect the harvest and it is meaningless to keep the tradition going, but they only do it because it was a tradition that has been going on for more than 70 years and the old people of the town do not want to break it up. We get a hint that it’s about a harvest “lottery in June, corn will be heavy soon”. “This is a direct quote” (1977). This is a subtle hint. That the lottery was for the harvest so that they could feed the people of the town. One other way Shirley Jackson used