preview

Foreshadowing In The Lottery

Good Essays

The short story “The Lottery” was written in 1948 by Shirley Jackson. It was first published in a popular magazine, The New Yorker (Kirszner & Mandell 419). The story starts out on a pleasant summer day but has a much darker ending. This instantly caused mass confusion and anger by most of the magazine's readers. Some readers even canceled their subscription to the magazine. Although the readers demanded answers, Jackson refused to give any explanation of the story. The best explanation was from a literary editor of the San Francisco Chronicle, who was also confused by the story. Jackson explained that the story was written to shock the readers by dramatizing the pointless violence and inhumanity in their own lives (The New Yorker). This …show more content…

Foreshadowing first occurs when the children gather in the village square and sit quietly before beginning to play: “School was recently over for the summer, and the feeling of liberty sat uneasily on most of them; they tended to gather together quietly for a while before they broke into boisterous play.” (Jackson 420). The children sitting quietly indicates that they might be nervous about what is to come. The children soon begin picking up stones and placing them in their pockets. This foreshadows the stoning of the lottery winner. When the lottery begins, Mr. Summers arrives carrying the black box, and Mr. Graves follows him into the town square. This foreshadows that on this summer day, a death will follow: “Mr. Graves followed him carrying a three-legged stool, and the stool was put in the center of the square and Mr. Summers set the black box down on it.” (Jackson 420). Mrs. Hutchinson arrived late to the lottery because she forgot the date. This foreshadows her being chosen by the lottery because it singles her out in the story. Mrs. Hutchinson is the only one who arrived late to the village square (Jackson …show more content…

When something is a tradition, it is less likely to be challenged as people have grown accustomed to it. No one in the story has moved to end it because the majority of the people in town swear by the tradition and think it could be bad luck to end it. This evident by Old Man Warner stating, “Pack of crazy fools, listening to the young folks, nothing’s good enough for them...there's always been a lottery.” (Jackson 423). A similar tradition known as college hazing is a ritual among college fraternities. The hazing process involves a student being humiliated and punished in some form (hazing). The students participate in the hazing because it has been a tradition among college fraternities for generations. The victim must comply with the hazing process if they want to join the fraternity even if it means a result of great

Get Access