The Lottery Short Story Analysis

Shirley Jackson is often regarded as one of the most brilliant authors of the twentieth century. Born in San Francisco in 1916, she spent the majority of her adolescence writing short stories and poetry (Allen). While she is known best for her supernatural stories, one of her most popular works is a short story called “The Lottery”. The lottery takes place in a small village in which once a year on June 24th, the town population is gathered. After the gathering, there is a drawing to see which family is chosen, after the family is chosen, another drawing takes place to see who is stoned to death. In the New Yorker's magazine book review hailed “The Lottery” as “one of the most haunting and shocking short stories of modern America and is one of the most frequently anthologized” (Jackson). This review stems heavily from Jackson’s brilliant use of irony, symbolism, and foreshadowing. However, perhaps what truly stands out is how Jackson is able to wrap all of those elements together as a way to show an overarching theme of the corruption that exists in human nature. While the real source of “The Lottery’s” inspiration is unclear, there has been heavy speculation that the roots lie heavily in the actions of the holocaust and the actions that took place during World War II. Regardless of the source material, a general consensus can be made that the plot of the lottery is a dark reflection of human actions.

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. 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 applies imagery in his story to make us mindful of the silly way of humankind in regards to convention and savagery. The story begins off on a lovely summer day in a residential community. The author describes the day as extremely enjoyable, however it soon changes the significance of the title and the ending has a twist. The lottery speaks

The literary element is whereas figurative language, irony, imagery, or foreshadowing would be considered literary techniques. In the short story that I have read in the beginning, there was an imagery that said, “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.” It is all so the setting of the story.

Shirley Jackson is known for her creative writing and plot twisting stories such as “The Possibility of Evil” and “The Lottery”. Jackson always finds a way to leave the reader somewhat confused and wanting to read more. In both of these stories it is a small town where everyone knows one another but something about each of these towns isn't right. In “The Lottery” it turns out that each year, one family, then individual from that family is chosen to be stoned to death for a sacrifice. Then in “The Possibility of Evil” it turns out that one old woman has been writing rude anonymous letters to the people of the town. In both essays Jackson uses many literary devices that help her create these stories that she is so known for. Some of the literary devices she uses are situational and verbal irony, and mood and foreshadowing. She uses a fair amount of all three of these throughout her short stories.

Shirley Jackson’s short story “The Lottery” and Emily’s Dickinson’s poem “Tell All the Truth but Tell it Slant” are great literary works to read. “The Lottery” is a story about a small town somewhere in New England which has an annual ritual every summer known as "the lottery". The poem “Tell All the Truth but Tell it Slant” is about telling the truth but tell it in a way that is indirect; meaning tell the truth but tell it in a way that would not mean anything hurtful. Although the two literary pieces bear some superficial similarities, there are also differences between “The Lottery” and “Tell All the Truth but Tell it Slant”. “The Lottery” and “Tell All the Truth but Tell it Slant” are similar because the symbolism that the two literary works are displaying are both

“The Lottery,” by Shirley Jackson, is a story about a small town that conducts an annual lottery and whoever wins dies. Throughout the story, Jackson employs the use of situational irony to emphasize her theme of not everything is as normal or good as it seems.

"The Lottery" by Shirley Jackson has many themes or message throughout its short story. It deals with blind faith, customs and traditions, the idea of scapegoat, the cruelty of human nature, crowd psychology, and even classic gender roles in many societies.

Tessie Hutchinson and Miss Strangeworth both are older women who live in small quiet towns. In the short stories “The Possibility of Evil” and “The Lottery” by shirley Jackson, both stories feature a female protagonist who face the “cruel” people of society to them. In the two short stories by shirley Jackson, there are many examples of literary devices that are the same in both stories such as, imagery and symbolism, but the short stories also have a difference in the choice of tone. The tone in both short stories have a rather dark or evil tone, but the sudden or gradual change is the difference.

Shirley Jackson, a novelist known for her distinctive short stories in the 20th century, was born on December 14, 1916, in San Francisco, California (Shirley Jackson Bio). Jackson enrolled in Syracuse University in 1937, where she started her career of writing many influential and widely-known short stories, yet one in particular stood out for its gruesome irony of life in the United States. In “The Lottery,” Jackson depicted a small town gathering for the annual lottery, where citizens participated in a raffle, resulting in the random execution of a member of the community. As a result, they would reap the benefits of the execution through their crops in the summer; however, throughout the story, the names of her characters and the objects she portray conveyed a meaning beyond the story itself. Jackson’s use of symbolism allegorically details the narrative’s significance to humanity.

Shirley Jackson was a successful horror fiction author because of the way she dissected her characters almost clinically. Although most of Shirley Jackson’s stories can be classified as gothic and supernatural, her characters are not odd or different in any way, in fact, they seem like normal people. In the story “The Lottery,” the characters are seen as ordinary people from an ordinary small town that engage in an annual tradition. According to Robert B. Heilman, the reader sees the characters of “The Lottery,” as decent,

Shirley Jackson’s story, The Lottery, gave an uneasy feeling to the readers right from the start. It was almost as if the audience already knew about the reality of the annual lottery. Jackson organized her story by beginning with a description of a “clear and sunny [morning], with fresh warmth of a full-summer day.” Typically, stories with that kind of setting tend to play out fairly nicely. Not this one. Later in the story the readers realize that the lottery winner isn’t about to receive a couple millions of dollars when the winner, Mrs. Hutchinson, starts protesting, “It isn’t fair, it isn’t right.” Jackson uses irony to point out how sometimes the winner ends up losing a lot more than the rest, and in this case, even their life.

What if you read something that made you question your entire life? How would you react? A suspenseful gothic thriller told in fewer than 4,000 words, filled with excitement and eeriness, leaving the reader speechless. The Lottery , a short story written by famous writer Shirley Jackson, created an uproar on June 26, 1948, when it was published in the magazine The New Yorker (Ball). The gothic thriller, set in an unknown time and place, shares the tradition of a small town, a little larger than three hundred people, in which a drawing is held once a year. In this “Lottery,” each family’s husband draws a slip of paper from a black box. The husband who selects the slip with a black spot on it, immediately becomes at risk of dying. He and his family then have a second drawing; the “winner” of this second drawing is to be murdered by the townspeople (“The Lottery Full”). Jackson composed this classic short story very easily. When asked about the writing process, she replied, “I had the idea fairly clearly in my mind when I put my daughter in her playpen and the frozen vegetables in the refrigerator and, writing the story, I found that it went quickly and easily, moving from beginning to end without pause” (“Shirley Jackson The”). The Lottery is a portrayal of the evil that existed in the world during the period that Shirley Jackson wrote this short story.

Shirley Jackson's 'The Lottery', is a story that is filled with symbolism. The author uses symbolism to help her represent the human race as cruel no matter how righteous he or she may see themselves, or how perfect their way of life may seem to be. The story is very effective in making the reader question the unnecessary nature humans express, especially when it comes to tradition or violent behavior. Jackson effectively expresses her beliefs concerning mankind’s true nature that is commonly masked behind tradition. The author portrays how inhumane and cruel people can be when it comes to their values and everyday life. Jackson presents the theme of this short story with a major use of symbolism. Symbolism is shown throughout the setting of 'The Lottery,' objects, contestant’s names and numbers.

Shirley Jackson’s short story "The Lottery" is about an unusual traditionalistic small town that ironically gives the lottery a bad meaning. In the beginning of the story Jackson makes sure to describe the setting of the story. Jackson starts the story off by saying "The morning of June 27th was clear and sunny, with the fresh warmth of a full summer day"(1). This quote is very misleading because Jackson gives her audience a false sense of a welcoming environment. The town seems to be stuck in this traditionalistic way of doing things. When you think of the lottery one automatically thinks of money, but this story focuses more on the tragedy of the town.