The Lottery was written in 1948, which one would think the interesting stories of that time would no longer be interesting to us and otherwise outdated. However “The Lottery” continues to be anthologized even today in the 21st century. The question is why? What makes it so special? The answer, “The Lottery” has an important theme of blindly following tradition. In todays society we can think of it not as following tradition per say, but following the lead of other people; bullying is a relevant example of this. Additionally, a very pertinent element of “The Lottery” is Jackson’s use of foreshadowing. These two elements along with symbolism, help to concrete the reason why this story has been brought about for centuries and continues to make
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(Eichenbaum 9) In addition, Jackson’s use of the concrete universal is very prominent in which the reader must understand the denotation referring to the “individual thing or the ‘collective’ things to which the term may refer”, both in her setting and characters (Wimsatt 1). In order to understand the foreshadowing and the theme that Jackson is trying to convey you must understand a general basis of symbolism, which is a literary element that puts an emphasis on a certain piece of the story. Symbolism is very heavy in “The Lottery” and falls in line with foreshadowing; most of the foreshadowing used is portrayed by symbolism. Additionally, the theme of blindly following tradition is important because it explains why people often do things without having a meaning to other than the fact of everyone else is doing it. The Lottery is a significant piece of literature because it was as if when she wrote the story in 1948, she knew that the theme of blindly following a rule or tradition because of other people and peer pressure would be always be present. If this is the case, she was right the presence of peer pressure and following someone simply because it’s the ‘norm’ is espicially present in
(Eichenbaum 9) In addition, Jackson’s use of the concrete universal is very prominent in which the reader must understand the denotation referring to the “individual thing or the ‘collective’ things to which the term may refer”, both in her setting and characters (Wimsatt 1). In order to understand the foreshadowing and the theme that Jackson is trying to convey you must understand a general basis of symbolism, which is a literary element that puts an emphasis on a certain piece of the story. Symbolism is very heavy in “The Lottery” and falls in line with foreshadowing; most of the foreshadowing used is portrayed by symbolism. Additionally, the theme of blindly following tradition is important because it explains why people often do things without having a meaning to other than the fact of everyone else is doing it. The Lottery is a significant piece of literature because it was as if when she wrote the story in 1948, she knew that the theme of blindly following a rule or tradition because of other people and peer pressure would be always be present. If this is the case, she was right the presence of peer pressure and following someone simply because it’s the ‘norm’ is espicially present in