In Shirley Jackson’s deceiving short story “The Lottery,” an annual lottery is held by the community of a small town. Making the story deceiving, Jackson ends with the townspeople stoning the “winner” of the lottery to death. The annual lottery is a tradition the town has held for as long as the townspeople can remember. Although tradition has often been perceived as a positive idea, in “The Lottery,” it is the opposite. Tradition has caused the townspeople to become violent and inhumane, and the lottery has become a ritual of murder. The imagery in Jackson’s short story reveals the natural cruelty of humanity and humanity never being able to overcome it.
At the end of the story, imagery is used to reveal the true embodiment of human brutality. …show more content…
Jackson describes them kindly “good humoredly” greeting one another, patiently waiting, and following the instructions as given (261). Tessie Hutchinson, the future winner, shows up just in the nick of time for the ritual to be commenced, and is playfully greeted by Mr. Summers in which she responds: “Wouldn’t have me leave m’dishes in the sink, now, would you, Joe?” (261). Once at the end of the story, it is obvious how ironic her response was to Mr. Summers. Cleaning her house was Tessie’s last act of kindness to her family, as if knowing there was a possibility she would not return and did not want to leave the house a mess. Once Tessie is introduced, the story continues at a faster pace that can be seen as foreshadowing her death. Since the reader has already been introduced to the winner, it seem as though Jackson wrote it to just introduce her and kill her. It as if the townspeople just want to hurry and get the deed over with now that the reader who the victim will be. The last line of the story proclaims that “…they were upon her” (265). No longer are they polite, but are now barbaric and have reached the point of no
At the end of the story, imagery is used to reveal the true embodiment of human brutality. …show more content…
Jackson describes them kindly “good humoredly” greeting one another, patiently waiting, and following the instructions as given (261). Tessie Hutchinson, the future winner, shows up just in the nick of time for the ritual to be commenced, and is playfully greeted by Mr. Summers in which she responds: “Wouldn’t have me leave m’dishes in the sink, now, would you, Joe?” (261). Once at the end of the story, it is obvious how ironic her response was to Mr. Summers. Cleaning her house was Tessie’s last act of kindness to her family, as if knowing there was a possibility she would not return and did not want to leave the house a mess. Once Tessie is introduced, the story continues at a faster pace that can be seen as foreshadowing her death. Since the reader has already been introduced to the winner, it seem as though Jackson wrote it to just introduce her and kill her. It as if the townspeople just want to hurry and get the deed over with now that the reader who the victim will be. The last line of the story proclaims that “…they were upon her” (265). No longer are they polite, but are now barbaric and have reached the point of no