The Lottery

In the short story “The Lottery” Shirley Jackson portrays an average New England town with typical farm citizens embarking on a disturbing evil. On June 27th of every year the members of the community hold a village wide lottery in which everyone is expected to attend. At first we do not know what the lottery is, all we know is that it is held every year and that there is a “winner”. Jackson tries to set up the story as that there would be a positive outcome; however, this description of the setting foreshadows exactly the opposite of what is to come. From start to finish there is an overwhelming sense that something terrible is about to happen. The author also goes into great detail of describing the surroundings of the town from what kind of day it was to what the black box looked like. In Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery”, Jackson focuses on religion, the views of the townspeople, and descriptions certain symbols.

We can see that in this story religion plays a major factor in the outcome of the story. At first the townspeople seem to be of Christian background because the story is describing characteristics we have in today’s society. Later on in the story we start to see more of a Pagan influence. We first

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The symbols in “The Lottery” play an important part in the story, even the ending of the story. The Lottery tries to blend Christian faith and Pagan beliefs. The Children in the beginning of the story gives some foreshadowing to what is going to happen in the end. Also this is the first indication of what the lottery is used for, which these people think that sacrifices must be made in order to have a good planting season. These children symbolize perceived states of happiness in the story. The main symbol in the story is “The Black Box”. The townspeople reluctantness to stand up and oppose the lottery is also another reason the story turns out like it does. By these actions you can see the primitiveness of these people, even though the story describes the society we would live in today. Jackson makes it easy for us to imagine the children’s “boisterous play” (255) and the children are described in depth. “The Black Box grew shabbier every year; by now it was no longer completely black” (259) this shows how the old traditions are fading and the foundations in which the lottery started are no longer there. Through out the story you can see signs of the lottery losing support. Also this story can relate to modern times by how we treat other human beings. After reading the first three or four sentences of The Lottery it is evident that something very strange is going on in the tiny little village.

Approximate Word count = 832
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)

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