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. The names of each character hold significant meanings to the lottery. Jackson uses symbolic names to indicate and foreshadow what will come to be after the lottery is conducted happens. The name “Dellacroix” (Jackson, 2) is the meaning of “Of the cross” in French. In this sentence, “Summers” (Jackson, 4) is the sir name of the conductor of the Lottery. The lottery happens during summer, and Mr. Summer’s assistant is “Mr. Graves” (Jackson. 4). This hints that there will be a “Grave” during “summer”. The author uses names to augur the winner’s prize: a violent stoning from the townspeople. The objects in the story also represent religious and symbolic meanings to the lottery. This sentence “ Bobby Martin had already stuffed his pockets full of stones, and the other boys soon followed his example, selecting the smoothest and roundest stones;” (Jackson,2) shows that young kids were picking up smooth stones. Most rocks are jagged, knife-like, and tapered. The reason they were picking up the smoothest stones because jagged rocks would most The author paints a picture of a town where “flowers were blossoming profusely and the grass was richly green.” (Jackson, 1) . Jackson wants the readers to believe that the town was ordinary and innocent, but ends with a shocking ending of a terrible stoning. A lot of the readers were shocked, they thought that Jackson’s story was fiction, but Religious Persecution happens in every part of the world, and readers were not able to accept the horrific
“The Lottery” is a short story about an event that takes place every year in a small village of New England. When the author speaks of “the lottery” he is referencing the lottery of death; this is when the stoning of a village member must give up his or her life. The villagers gather at a designated area and perform a customary ritual which has been practiced for many years. The Lottery is a short story about a tradition that the villagers are fully loyal to and represents a behavior or idea that has been passed down from generation to generation, accepting and following a rule no matter how cruel or illogical it is. Friends and family become insignificant the moment it is time to stone the unlucky victim.
Shirley Jackson's 'The Lottery', is a story that is filled with symbolism. The author uses symbolism to help her represent human nature as tainted, no matter how pure one thinks of himself or herself, or how pure their environment may seem to be. The story is very effective in raising many questions about the pointless nature of humanity regarding tradition and violence. 'The Lottery' clearly expresses Jackson's feelings concerning mankind?s evil nature hiding behind traditions and rituals. She shows how coldness and lack of compassion in people can exhibit in situations regarding tradition and values. Jackson presents the theme of this short story with a major use of symbolism. Symbolism shows throughout the setting of 'The Lottery,' the objects, the peoples actions, and even in the time and the names of the lucky contestants.
Shirley Jackson explains the setting, “The morning of June 27th was clear and sunny, with the fresh warmth of a full summer day; the flowers were blossoming profusely and the grass was richly green” (Jackson). This sets a pleasant theme for the beginning of the story. Villagers converse and gather at the town square like it is part of their daily routine. Children gathered stones as if they were playing a game. Mr. Summers runs the drawing of the lottery. Tessie is the unlucky person, she draw the piece of paper with a black dot on it. The children and other adults pick up the stones and continued to stone Tessie. This story misleads readers into thinking the townspeople are gathered to draw for a lottery receiving money or some reward. Instead, the winner is stoned to death. Why did this just happen? As a reader you never figure out why. Readers could infer different situations. Is it a public offering to some deity or person? Old man Werner explains the significance of the lottery, “Lottery in June, corn be heavy soon. First thing you know, we’d all be eating stewed chickweed and acorns. There’s always been a lottery” (Jackson). Old Man Werner gives light to the meaning of the lottery, he believes that the lottery helps the growth of crops. The lottery seems to be a tradition, and done annually in June. This act of public execution shows us
“The Lottery” written by Shirley Jackson is a short story about an annual lottery held in a small village amongst the three hundred villagers. A lottery is usually associated with cash prizes or free trips, but in this story, the winner of the lottery is rewarded by being stoned to death by the townspeople. “On a late summer morning, the villagers of a small New England town gather to conduct their annual lottery” (Mazeeno 1). As the villagers gather in the square, everyone is chipper and anxious to get the lottery over with. Mr. Summers conducts the lottery and other civic activities in the town, so he calls everyone up to come pull a piece of paper out of the black box. There is a piece of paper for everyone in the village, but there is only
“In a simple allegory, characters and other elements often stand for other definite meanings, which are often abstractions” (Kennedy 234). Since everyone in the town is involved in the stoning, they do not view their sacrifice as murder, but as something needed to be done. “‘All right, folks,’ Mr. Summers said, ‘Let’s finish this quickly.’” (Jackson 259). The young boys in the town are excited about the lottery, but the girls stand off to the side because it is in a boy’s nature to be brutal, yet the women of the town seem just as excited as the boys, and the men calm down as the girls. “The boys’ eager and childish cruelty will turn into the sober reluctance of their fathers, whereas the childish apartness of the girls will become the grown women’s blood lust” (Whittier 357). Most people associate winning a lottery as coming into a large sum of money; but on the contrary, the winner of this lottery must pay with their ultimate sacrifice. “Lottery in June, corn be heavy soon” (257). Jackson’s use of allegories is sublime, drawing her readers to the central
The stones in this story can represent and symbolize something that is heartless, hard, and has no emotion such as the people of their society. Even the little children of the society are “brain washed” by the tradition of the lottery
The outcome of the lottery can be subtly be prophesied because Jackson’s placement of symbolic characters throughout the text. Any character, major or minor, whose very existence represents the main idea or an aspect of society is symbolic. “Old Man Warner warns us about the primordial
In the story, Mr. Summers and Mr. Graves are basically the two men in charge of making sure the lottery is conducted each year. Mr. Summers’ name seems to represent the time of the year the lottery is conducted. Mr. Graves represents the grave the chosen lottery victim will be sent to, as he has no problem administering death to those close around him.
Written by Shirley Jackson, “The Lottery” is a short story about a town that hosts an annual lottery that decides which person is stoned by the rest of the town. Jackson slowly and subtly builds the suspense throughout the story, only resolving the mystery surrounding the lottery at the very last moment, as the townspeople surround Tessie with their stones. The symbolism utilized helps demonstrate the overall significance of the story, such as the lottery itself. The lottery shows the way people desperately cling to old traditions, regardless of how damaging they may be. In addition, it can show how callous many will act while staring at a gruesome situation, until they become the victims. Jackson’s story presents the issue regarding the habit
"The Lottery", a short story, by Shirley Jackson is a very suspenseful yet shocking read, which focus on how tragic it can be to blindly follow a tradition. The story is set in a small town, on the summer morning of June 27th. The story begins with the towns people gathering in the town square to carry out a lottery. The author explains that this is a long standing tradition in the local towns, where people gather every year to conduct a lottery. However, as the story progresses the reader come to realize that this story is not as simple and straight forward as the title suggests. Rather, it is dark and horrifying cautionary tale about repercussions of blindly following traditions and how this problem is exacerbated due to societal pressures.
...this situation to be a truth in any city in the world. So in this Jackson shows how setting is used to magnify the darkness in all of human hearts.
The narrator of the story and its point of view are important to understand the theme of the story. Jackson does not mention who is the narrator of the story, but it seems the narrator is a woman who is Jackson herself, and she is part of the society because she knows the townspeople’s character and the event that happens in the town. Although the narrator is part of the society, she seems to be a trustworthy narrator. She tells the story in third point of view with an objective omniscience. She does not bias to any character and describes the story based on what she sees. The point of view in the story is important because it leads the reader to think the reason why the townspeople conduct such a horrible tradition which is one part of the theme of the story. The theme might change if the narrator tells the story in different point of view because she will not tell the story in objective view.
In the story, Jackson introduces characters whose names are very symbolic to the story. The ultimately foreshadow the climax of the story. There is Mr. Summers who conducts the lottery. His name is significant because the lottery takes place on a warm summer day. There is also Mr. Graves who is the postmaster. He helps Mr. Summers prepare the names for the lottery and helps him conduct the lottery. His name is significant because it foreshadows that there will be a grave because at the end of the lottery some one will die. Mr. Graves is also one of the first people in front of the crowd ready to throw stones. He is ultimately sending her to her grave. This hints that there will be a death during the summer, which is the end result of the lottery drawing.
Throughout the story, Jackson shows, with the use of symbolism and foreshadowing, that blindly following a tradition can have horrific consequences. All the objects connect with the ending. Since the villagers unquestionably accepted the tradition, they have allowed murder to become embedded in their town.
Even though the story took place in the United States, where democracy is the primary form of government, the villagers in “The Lottery” are forced to join and follow the tradition. As a wealthy coal business owner and the official of the lottery, Mr. Summer is the authority figure in the village. He has the power to command and manipulate the villagers by exploiting their desire to preserve the lottery tradition. Jackson explicitly reveals that Mrs. Hutchinson’s lottery paper “[has] a black spot on it, the black spot Mr. Summer [has] made the night before with the heavy pencil in the coal company office” (Jackson 7). Since Mr. Summer is the government official of the lottery, he is able to mark the winning lottery paper to avoid picking it himself; therefore, eliminating his chance of becoming the winner. This passage demonstrates the dictatorship and corruption of Mr. Summer. The passage is also consistent with the characteristics of dystopian literature. The villagers are not only controlled by the tradition, but their lives are also in the hands of a corrupted official. Mr. Summer is trusted and seen as a leader by many villagers because he “[has] time and energy to devote to civic activities” and can provide employments due to owning a coal business (Jackson 1). Being a leader, Mr. Summer is expected to be honest, kind and selfless; however, he is cruel and manipulative according to his