Literary Devices In The Lottery

Figurative language is a strategy that authors have used over the years to give the reader different perspectives on the piece that they are reading about. In her short Story, “The Lottery”, Shirley Jackson writes about a small town that has a tradition known as the lottery. The way that the lottery works, is that there is black box with pieces of paper in it. The pieces of paper have the family names of every family in town. The last name standing then has to go into an elimination round with the people within the family. Each family member draws out of the black box, and the family member that pulls the slip of paper with the black dot gets stoned to death. In her short story, Jackson utilizes symbolism in the form of Old Man Warren, the black box and the pile of stones to demonstrate how tradition can be blinding without even knowing it.

In both “The Lottery” and “The Possibility of Evil” Jackson uses irony. In “The Lottery” she uses irony by taking something that most think is positive and giving it a negative connotation. She does this by writing “The lottery is conducted… by Mr.

To illustrate, in the stories “The Lottery” and “Possibility of Evil” by Shirley Jackson there is a plethora of correlating similarities between the two genuinely intriguing story lines. Furthermore, detailed writing is often fascinating to read and allows the reader to vividly imagine the characters and the setting of the story, which is precisely the reason why the settings and characters in Shirley Jackson’s short stories “The Lottery” and “ Possibility of Evil” are easy to vividly imagine and understand.

In “The lottery” Shirley Jackson uses foreshadowing to hint at the stoning that happens at the very end of the story. For example in the text it says “--eventually made a great pile of stones in one corner of the square and guarded it against the raids of the other boys.” (Jackson). This quotation shows that the kids are making piles of stones for a future use that we don’t know about until the very end of the story. This quote also shows how the kids make a big pile of stones and if they are making a big pile of stones then they would have to have a huge use for them later. Therefore the children are making piles of stones for something that happens later in the story. Jackson’s use of foreshadowing in “The Lottery” contributed to the story

Deliberate authorial choices become crucial in getting the readers attention in a said literary work. Authors spend their whole career developing techniques to create a style that is their own. Shirley Jackson shows the reader her talent in writing a pessimistic short story that she is most famous for. Her famous short story “The Lottery” is one to keep the reader interested not only in the content but in the way she presents it and the emotional toll that it has on the readers. The story follows a town which partakes in a ritualistic lottery. Each household draws from a black box and whomever draws the black circle wins. The family who wins draws again and the winner of the family gets stoned. Jackson presents an pessimistic story which

Symbolism is a literary technique that many writers like to use. In short, it is the use of symbols to represent qualities or ideas. This is largely the case in Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery.” “The Lottery” is a short fiction that uses many techniques of symbolism to define itself as a darker, yet meaningful short story. The symbolic messages within “The Lottery” include the atmosphere, the characters of the story, and the black box.

1.  "The Lottery" is set in a village with a population of three hundred people on a "clear and sunny, with the fresh warmth of a full-summer day". The opening the story leads the reader to believe that it is lighthearted and fun however, reading further in it is revealed that the lottery is a raffle for death by stones. At first the mood is peaceful and almost playful but, shifts into a dark and horrifying mood towards the end of the story. The authors tone stays the same the whole time, the narrator seems almost indifferent towards what is happening.

Deliberate authorial choices become crucial in getting the readers attention in a said literary work. Authors spend their whole career developing these techniques to create a style that is their own. Shirley Jackson displays her talent to the reader in her writing of a pessimistic short story that she is most famous for. Her famous short story “The Lottery” is one to keep the reader interested not only in the content but in the way she presents it and the emotional toll that it has on the readers. The story follows a town which partakes in a ritualistic lottery. Each household draws from a black box and whomever draws the black circle wins. The family who wins draws again and the winner of the family gets stoned. Jackson presents an pessimistic story which reveals all the story’s meaning at the end. It is through her deceiving style, her deliberate technical choices, Shirley Jackson first lulls her reader then shocks them as she reveals a story that takes a look at following blindly and the danger of misinterpreting religion and traditions, that is a result of evil hiding in the ordinary elements of life.

In “The Lottery” we can tell that the winner faces a grim fate before it actually happens in the story. For example, at the beginning of the story we see children taking care to gather stones and pile them in the corner of town square where the lottery takes place. When Bobby Martin (a young school child from the village) and his friends, Bobby, and Harry Jones, and Dickie Delacroix head to town to town square the text says, “Bobby Martin stuffed his pockets full of stones, and the other boys soon followed his example, selecting the smoothest, roundest stones...eventually making a great pile of stones in the corner of the square” (Jackson). The young boys are gathering stones to place in the town square. Bobby and his young colleagues do this

To start with, some plot elements give away many clues about what the lottery actually is in the beginning of the short story, such as, children gather to make piles of rocks and families protesting that some towns are dropping this tradition, thinking it is an act of murder, yet this village still believes it is not. For example, Mrs. Adams states, "Some places have already quit lotteries.", (4).The people were cheerful and unaffiliated before the lottery, but later on we begin to see that once a family is chosen, they begin to protest that this event is unfair.

Almost everyone has made a sacrifice in their lifetime that benefits others around them. These sacrifices can be hard to make, since the individual does not receive any satisfaction, but it may be necessary to forgo something to benefit other members of society. These sacrifices can be forced upon an individual by the majority, or can be voluntarily made. If making sacrifices for the greater good is the way a certain group has always done it, then it is accepted from the viewpoint of enculturation, or the adaptation of a society’s members to the norms shared by a culture. Individuals will continue to make these sacrifices so they don’t interfere with concept of normality within their society. This is evident in a few of the works of literature that the class has gone over: The Lottery, The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas, Battle Royal, Equus, Harrison Bergeron, and Huckleberry Finn are all pieces of literature that include various types of sacrifice being made to benefit the greater good.

One of most interesting parts of "The Lottery" by Shirley Jackson is simply trying to understand what the symbols in the story mean. These symbols included the lottery, the tools used in the lottery and even the people of the town.

In the aim of portraying a specific message or analogy through their writing, authors include analogies and historical background to speak on an issue or topic prevalent in their communities or societies as a whole. Authors decide on literary concepts and elements that they believe allows them relay their message to their audience. This is the case for Shirley Jacksons “The Lottery.” Through implied criticism of tradition and society Shirley Jackson is able to speak on her society.

The short story "The Lottery" by American writer Shirley Jackson uses a number of elements the are typical of narratives. "The Lottery" makes use of suspense; Jackson shows the entire town through the process of the lottery drawing and then focuses on the process for the Hutchinson family. Jackson also makes use of foreshadowing; at the beginning of the story she gives details about children collecting stones. The symbolism that Jackson was trying to suggest within the story was that when there is a corrupt or unfair way of being people will willfully follow and accept it without question if it has been around long enough. The suggested themes within the story could be violence; having a small town that stones its people for tradition is not

Would you believe that there once was a village that takes place in a yearly lottery, while they knew the awful outcome of this event? The Lottery by Shirley Jackson is a story about a town that blindly follows a tradition of a yearly stoning of a villager in the village. The village sacrifices an innocent villager to ensure that they get another good year of crops. The village is stuck following this tradition because they are forced to believe that this is a sacrifice for a good reason. Jackson uses multiple literary elements in her story that underlines the overall theme. Jackson uses the setting in the beginning of the story. She uses setting to create a mood of happiness and tranquility. Irony is seen with Tessie Hutchinson and symbolism with the black box. She uses literary elements to display to the audience the theme of The Lottery.