The Lottery Symbolism
In Shirley Jackson's short story "The Lottery" symbols are used to enhance and stress the theme of the story. A symbol is a person, object, action, place, or event that in addition to its literal meaning, suggests a more complex meaning or range of meanings. (Kirszner & Mendell 330) The theme of the story is how coldness and lack of compassion can be exhibited in people in situations regarding tradition and values. That people will do incredibly evil and cruel things just for the sake of keeping a routine. Three of the main symbols that Shirley uses in the story is the setting, black box, and the actual characters names. They all tie together to form an intriguing story that clearly shows the terrible potential if society forgets the basis of tradition. The story also shows many similarities between the culture of the village, and the culture of Nazi Germany. How blind obedience to superiors can cause considerable damage to not only a community, but the entire world. Symbolism plays a large role in "The Lottery" to set the theme of the story and make the reader question traditions.
One of the main symbols of the story is the setting. It takes place in a normal small town on a nice summer day. "The morning of June 27th was clear and sunny, with the fresh warmth of a full summer day; the flowers were blooming profusely and the grass was richly green." (Jackson 347).This tricks the reader into a disturbingly unaware state,
and to believe the lottery is something wonderful like it is today. The small town atmosphere and beautiful summer day symbolize the idealistic picture most Americans have of what is right and good about this country. This is reinforced by the fact that the lottery is held in the same place as many of the town's celebrations such as the square-dances, teenage club, and the Halloween program, and clearly shows how easy it is for people to clear their conscience of such horrible actions by being able to have such joyous occasions in the same place. The attitude and actions of the characters slightly allude to the reader that something is amiss, but causes little cause for concern or suspicion. The children were playing and building rock piles. The men were talking about rain, taxes, and tractors while the women gossiped. But there was little laughter between the adults, and they stayed completely away from the rock piles.
The setting of the story helps to magnify its impact on the reader because it is set in a small town similar to the one many of us may know of, and that is symbolic of everything that we consider to be right in America. The story begins on a wonderful summer day in a small town. The author describes the day as very joyful but strikes a contrast between the surroundings of the town and the atmosphere of the people gathered in the square. The atmosphere is sober, where the adults ?stood together, away from the stones in the corner, and their jokes were quiet and they smiled rather then laughed."(268) This, in just the third paragraph, is a indication through symbolism of the townsfolk?s sober mood that something was amiss. The setting for the lottery also takes place in the same place as the square dances, the teen-age club, and the Halloween program.(268) This unifies our lives with those of the story sense we can relate to those types of events, and is symbolic in showing that even though this dastardly deed happens here that it is still the main place of celebration. Showing how easy it is for us, as human beings, to clean our conscientious by going back to a place that, on June 27, is a place of death and make it a place of delight.
The use of symbolism is often a common practice within literature. Symbolism is used in the instance of an object or action being presented through a text with the purpose to reveal a deeper meaning behind that which is displayed. Symbols may represent ideas, objects, beliefs, and so on. Shirley Jackson is one such author who has used symbolism within her literature with one case being her short story, “The Lottery.” In Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery” symbolism can be seen in many instances in which Jackson is able to address the ways of which society behaves when placed under a common belief and tradition. She accomplishes this by focussing her symbolism towards seemingly commonplace aspects within the story.
Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery” is a chilling tale of a harsh ritualistic gathering conducted by people of a small village. The word lottery would typically remind someone of a drawing to win a cash prize. A better comparison to the story would be the lottery used to select troops for the Vietnam War; a lottery of death. Another would be the human sacrifices the Aztecs willingly made long ago.
box. We do not always enjoy change, even if it might prove beneficial to us.
The short story “ The Lottery ” the author Shirley Jackson uses symbolism and imagery to develop a theme the brings forth the evil and inhumane nature of tradition and the danger of when it’s carried out with ignorance.
Shirley Jackson’s short story, “The Lottery”, uses symbols to develop the theme in effort to help others see the problems that arise from blindly following their superiors. This was most likely in response to World War Two, which had ended a few years before. A symbol is a person, place, object, action, or event that can be understood on two levels: its literal meaning, and a more complex meaning or range of meanings. It’s often used to enhance the theme, or the underlying message behind the story. Jackson uses the symbolism in the setting, the shock that comes at the end of the story, and the character of her protagonist, Tessie Hutchinson to tie together to form an intriguing story that weaves together to demonstrate why blind submission
Shirley Jackson takes great care in creating a setting for the story, The Lottery. She gives the reader a sense of comfort and stability from the very beginning. It begins, "clear and sunny, with the fresh warmth of a full-summer day; the flowers were blossoming profusely and the grass was richly green." The setting throughout The Lottery creates a sense of peacefulness and tranquility, while portraying a typical town on a normal summer day.
A main element of writing of The Lottery by Ms. Jackson is symbolism. The symbolism that winning the lottery is always good for the winner and provides some sort of benefit or prize. As well as an annual event that celebrates a bountiful harvest, a celebration by the town’s people with no discernable idea of what it means or what is about to occur. Participation is a ritual and mandatory for all community members where all are eager to play from community to household to individual. Few people seem to object to the tradition, few question the ritualistic stoning of the “winner” the cruelest of the cruelest ways to die and ways for anyone to kill another human being. A person must be within a few feet to really make their rock count, they must look at and acknowledge the individual and throw the stone with purpose and forethought without any hesitation or remorse. A barbaric ritual, at best. That people can do this to each other, year after
As in World War II, the unwillingness of bystanders to defend and question the rights of innocents can lead to devastating consequences, a similar narrative is told in, “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson. Shirley Jackson uses different types of literary elements to develop a theme to her story. In the story, a community comes together every year to randomly pick someone’s name for sacrifice. Although some people are against this sacrifice, they don't stand up and instead they follow the terror of tradition. There is a universal presence of evil inside everyone, that is covered up by goodness, which Shirley Jackson portrays by using irony and imagery.
To begin, the first symbolic tradition is the black box. The black box represents the lottery because every person in the town has to draw a slip of paper from the box; however, each paper is blank except for one piece. In the story they talk about replacing the black box every year when they have their lottery. For instance, “Mr. Summers spoke frequently to the villagers about making a new box, but no one liked to upset even as much tradition as was represented by the black box.” (Jackson 134). The black box was one of the symbolic traditions that
To a first time reader, Shirley Jackson's “The Lottery” seems simply as a curious tale with a shocking ending. After repetitive reading of Jackson's tale, it is clear that each sentence is written with a unique purpose often using symbolism. Her use of symbols not only foreshadow its surprise and disturbing ending but allows the reader to evaluate the community's pervert traditional rituals. She may be commenting on the season of the year and the grass being “richly green” or the toying with the meanings of the character's names but each statement applies to the meaning and lesson behind her story.
Shirley Jackson’s famous short story, “The Lottery,” was published in 1948 and remains to this day one of the most enduring and affecting American works in the literary canon. “The Lottery” tells the story of a farming community that holds a ritualistic lottery among its citizens each year. Although the text initially presents audiences with a close-knit community participating in a social event together on a special day, the shocking twist at the work’s end—with the death of the lottery’s “winner” by public stoning—has led to its widespread popularity, public outcry and discussion, and continued examination in modern times (Jackson). One potential critical theory that can be applied to Jackson’s “The Lottery” is the reader-response approach. This analytical lens is a “theory ... that bases the critical perspective of a text on ‘the reader’ and his or her personal interpretation” of that text (Parker 314). Reader-response criticism was coined by literary critic Louise Rosenblatt in the mid-20th century. It soon served as a cornerstone of literary movement in the 1960s and 1970s that later became intrinsic to the study of other schools of literary thought today. In using reader-response theory to examine “The Lottery” in a contemporary context, one might perform reading surveys and metacognitive questionnaires to determine whether the short story still proves resonant and thought-provoking. Therefore, just as “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson evoked an explicit and even fierce reaction in the past, so too does the use of reader-response criticism today help reveal that the short story may still hold the ability to sustain both its rising tension and surprising turn at the end.
The Lottery by Shirley Jackson, is a short story about an annual lottery draw in a small town. The story sets place in a small town in New England. Every year a lottery is held, in which one person is to be randomly chosen to be stoned to death by the people in the village. The lottery has been practiced for over seventy years by the townspeople. By using symbolism, Jackson uses names, objects, and the setting to conceal the true meaning and intention of the lottery.
for summer break, letting the reader infer that the time of year is early summer.
Schaub, Danielle. "Shirley Jackson's Use of Symbols in 'The Lottery..'" Journal of the Short Story in English 14 (Spring 1990): 79-86. Rpt. in Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism. Ed. Thomas J. Schoenberg and Lawrence J. Trudeau. Vol. 187. Detroit: Gale, 2007. Literature Resource Center. Web. 21 Jan. 2014