The Importance Of Irony In Shirley Jackson's The Lottery

“The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson presents irony throughout the story by showing the effect of how tradition can change a town, which also shows how government has control of the people. The town itself represents our country’s government and how much control they have over the people. Certain people throughout the story represent those in power in government and how power is distributed throughout a country, or in the story throughout a town. The objects that the people in the story obtain represent the traditions that are within this country, which are deemed important. Government is the reason that a country functions the way that it does, because of the control that it has in people’s daily lives, those who are in power, and the traditions that government see as important. …show more content…
In “The Lottery”, all the town people must participate in the annual lottery. There is not an option to skip it, unless for a health reason. Which in this day and time, that would be equivalent to working on a jury. Peter Korensko, an analyst for short stories, states, “The fact that everyone participates in the lottery and understands consciously that its outcome is pure chance give it a certain “democratic” aura that obscures its first codifying function” (Korensko 30). The lottery takes place with the use of a black box, which is a resemblance of the laws in which everyone must follow in the country. The box sits on a three-legged stool, which represents the three branches within the government, the executive, judicial, and legislative branches. All branches must uphold the laws, just like the stool had to hold the