The Lottery is a short story by Shirley Jackson about tradition, family, and death. The story begins by telling us about the morning of the mysterious “lottery”. The morning is described as “clear and sunny,” and the author continues to tell about what a nice day it was. The lottery has been long lived in this town, as well as the surrounding ones, and the lottery in this town in particular is run by Mr. Summers and Mr. Graves; these men work very hard to make sure that the rituals are preserved to satisfy those like Old Man Warner who cling to the tradition. The town gathers together to begin the lottery. Mr. Summers approaches the front of the group of people with a black box with hundreds of slips of paper inside and a three-legged stool
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The first example is the way that the author describes the day. As we know, the story ends in an extremely shocking murder; however, the author explains the day as very bright and beautiful and the people as quite boisterous and happy. The author could have easily described the day as dark and dreary to foreshadow tragedy later on, but instead, she intentionally describes it as cheerful to add to the shock experienced by the reader at the …show more content…
Jackson seems to have carefully chosen her character’s names in order to foreshadow the events that are to follow. The sir name of the man who runs the lottery is “Summers.” The lottery takes place in the summer and his name adds to the seeming jubilance of the occasion. His assistant is named Graves; this clearly foreshadows the death to come. In addition to the men who run the lottery, there is also symbolic meanings to many of the names of the citizens who attend it. First, there is Dickie Delacroix. Literary critic Helen Nebeker pointed out that the name “Delacroix” means “of the cross” in French. There is also the highlight of the story- Tessie Hutchinson. Her name may have stemmed from Anne Hutchinson, who was banished from the Puritan Church because she was believed to be a nonconformist. Anne begged and argued to the church leaders, but, much like Tessie, could not persuade
The first example is the way that the author describes the day. As we know, the story ends in an extremely shocking murder; however, the author explains the day as very bright and beautiful and the people as quite boisterous and happy. The author could have easily described the day as dark and dreary to foreshadow tragedy later on, but instead, she intentionally describes it as cheerful to add to the shock experienced by the reader at the …show more content…
Jackson seems to have carefully chosen her character’s names in order to foreshadow the events that are to follow. The sir name of the man who runs the lottery is “Summers.” The lottery takes place in the summer and his name adds to the seeming jubilance of the occasion. His assistant is named Graves; this clearly foreshadows the death to come. In addition to the men who run the lottery, there is also symbolic meanings to many of the names of the citizens who attend it. First, there is Dickie Delacroix. Literary critic Helen Nebeker pointed out that the name “Delacroix” means “of the cross” in French. There is also the highlight of the story- Tessie Hutchinson. Her name may have stemmed from Anne Hutchinson, who was banished from the Puritan Church because she was believed to be a nonconformist. Anne begged and argued to the church leaders, but, much like Tessie, could not persuade