The Lottery
"The Lottery" is a short story by Shirley Jackson. Every year this village has a lottery on June 27th. The only problem is that the winner gets stoned to death. Also, to much surprise everyone comes to participate with no questions why they are even still having such a thing. "The Lottery" can be analyzed by examining the elements of irony, symbolism, point of view, and theme.Several things in this story are ironic. First, the title itself is ironic. Usually when someone thinks of a lottery they think about money or other good prizes, not dying. Another ironic thing is that the village was in a great season. The day is described as "The morning of June 27th was clear and sunny, with the fresh warmth of a full summer day; the flowers were blossoming provusely and the grass was richly green." By that statement we can infer that the village was having a prosprous year. Usually when times are tough people seem to get mad and then maybe someone might die. It's hard to believe with everything going so well that they would want to kill someone. Lastly, Mrs. Hutchinson was so busy doing the dishes the morning of the lottery that she was a few minutes late to the lottery. Its ironic that she was more wo
In those instances people did not think there was anything wrong for a long period of time. She would let us know from the start what the lottery is and how unfair it is. The theme can relate to most of us, and how we accept what was taught to us. The story is told in the omniscient point of view. The people in the village did not think that there was anything wrong with having the lottery. Its human nature that people are creatures of habit. The tradition itself has lost a few formalities, they no longer said a chant, and a ritual salute was no longer practiced. For change usually to occur there needs to be a leader and there is not anyone who is strongly in favor of doing away with the lottery in this village. The story connects the two by saying "Although the villagers had forgotten the ritual and lost the original black box, they still remembered to use stones. It is such a shock to learn how this lottery is actually the killing of someone. Even though the narrator does not give an opinion he lets the reader hear characters in the story opinions', for example when Mr. By examining irony, symbolism, point of view, and theme one can gain a better understanding of "The Lottery.
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