Literary Analysis
People usually see the lottery as a fortunate event for themselves, winning large sums of money, free vacation trips or a free vehicle. That is not the case in the Lottery, a short story written by Shirley Jackson an intelligent and influential author from the 20th century. Once a year the villagers gather in the town’s square to play the lottery every summer as a civic duty, unfortunately the winner of the lottery is stoned to death by the rest of the villagers. The townspeople have been practicing the “lottery” for over seventy years to control the population of the village. Jackson is able to include significant literary elements in the short story by using symbolism, point of view, and setting to portray an uncivilized …show more content…
Dating back to historical and religious text stoning was one of the first ways to murder someone if proven guilty or as a tribute for a community tradition. In the Lottery, when Tessie Hutchinson got stoned to death, this displayed a perfect example as a tribute even the children were getting “the smoothest and roundest stones” (Jackson 95) to participate in the mandatory ritual. Along with the stones, the black box used during the annual lottery also represents death. The exterior of the box is painted black with original wood showing in certain areas and stained in different spots. This shows that the box has been used many times in the inhuman tradition, but when “Mr. Summers spoke frequently to the villagers of making a new box” (Jackson 96) no one wanted to disrupt the tradition. Furthermore, symbolism was used for the names of the characters in the short story. One of the more obvious names is Mr. Grave, foreshadowing the death of Tessie Hutchinson when she got stoned to death. In addition, Mr. Summer’s an antagonist in the short story he represents the irony of the evil that awaits its place in the short story. Summer is usually thought to be delightful and the sun shining for the children to play in the lush green …show more content…
In the beginning of the short story Jackson is able to establish the setting by describing the atmosphere of the small town. “The morning of June 27th was clear and sunny, with the fresh warmth of a full-summer day; the flowers were blossoming…” (Lottery 94) this is able to show the reader that it is an ordinary day in a small town. Jackson also describes how school had just recently got dismissed for summer vacation, letting the reader infer that the time of year is early summer. Jackson being able to include all these great details was able to make a resemblance of small town America. Jackson did not want to target “small town America”, but to point out that inhumanity can exist anywhere in the world including developed countries
People usually see the lottery as a fortunate event for themselves, winning large sums of money, free vacation trips or a free vehicle. That is not the case in the Lottery, a short story written by Shirley Jackson an intelligent and influential author from the 20th century. Once a year the villagers gather in the town’s square to play the lottery every summer as a civic duty, unfortunately the winner of the lottery is stoned to death by the rest of the villagers. The townspeople have been practicing the “lottery” for over seventy years to control the population of the village. Jackson is able to include significant literary elements in the short story by using symbolism, point of view, and setting to portray an uncivilized …show more content…
Dating back to historical and religious text stoning was one of the first ways to murder someone if proven guilty or as a tribute for a community tradition. In the Lottery, when Tessie Hutchinson got stoned to death, this displayed a perfect example as a tribute even the children were getting “the smoothest and roundest stones” (Jackson 95) to participate in the mandatory ritual. Along with the stones, the black box used during the annual lottery also represents death. The exterior of the box is painted black with original wood showing in certain areas and stained in different spots. This shows that the box has been used many times in the inhuman tradition, but when “Mr. Summers spoke frequently to the villagers of making a new box” (Jackson 96) no one wanted to disrupt the tradition. Furthermore, symbolism was used for the names of the characters in the short story. One of the more obvious names is Mr. Grave, foreshadowing the death of Tessie Hutchinson when she got stoned to death. In addition, Mr. Summer’s an antagonist in the short story he represents the irony of the evil that awaits its place in the short story. Summer is usually thought to be delightful and the sun shining for the children to play in the lush green …show more content…
In the beginning of the short story Jackson is able to establish the setting by describing the atmosphere of the small town. “The morning of June 27th was clear and sunny, with the fresh warmth of a full-summer day; the flowers were blossoming…” (Lottery 94) this is able to show the reader that it is an ordinary day in a small town. Jackson also describes how school had just recently got dismissed for summer vacation, letting the reader infer that the time of year is early summer. Jackson being able to include all these great details was able to make a resemblance of small town America. Jackson did not want to target “small town America”, but to point out that inhumanity can exist anywhere in the world including developed countries