A Formal Approach To The Lottery

Taking the Same Chance: A Formal Approach to “The Lottery” How would one handle the knowledge that today was the day in which someone amongst the community, including oneself, would undoubtedly die? In Shirley Jackson’s, “The Lottery” tradition calls for an annual sacrifice in order to keep a town’s crops plentiful. While this may seem extreme, the idea of allowing such things to continue based on the notion that it is the way things have always been done is none too absent in most areas of the world. Jackson creates an exaggerated illustration of the dark consequences of carrying on tradition without question through the use of foreshadowing, symbolism in regards to the story itself, and symbolism in relation to everyday life. Jackson uses foreshadowing in order to make the reader feel uneasy and question what the winner of the lottery’s fate will be. To begin, the village in which the story is set is gathered together for a seemingly innocent event. However, something seems slightly off as “their jokes were quiet and they smiled rather than laughed” (127). Due to the fact that the villagers are more withdrawn than they apparently are usually (as denoted by the phrase “rather than”) the reader questions why a societal event is causing such a reaction. Furthermore, when the conductor of the event does …show more content…
However, it is more than just a fictional tale of a make-believe place where unspeakable things happen. It is a statement on the refusal to question such cultural and religious normalities despite the potentially horrific consequences. It is an all too common occurrence to people of all nationalities, religions, and heritages that can be easy to ignore when it is something an individual has been raised seeing as typical. No one is exempt from the profound message Shirley Jackson has woven into her tale, “The