The Lottery

Kayla Elliott

Ms. Pitrucha

English 1302

11 February 2015

“The Lottery”

        The short story “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson is about the pervasive notion of death each year that the villagers partake in as a ritual. By using three literary elements the author gives the reader the ability to comprehend the story. To prove the pervasive theme of death the author uses irony, imagery, and symbolism. Jackson uses names, objects and the setting to conceal the meaning and intention of the lottery.

        The names of each character have a significant meaning to the lottery. The author uses the symbolic names to indicate and foreshadow what will happen later on. She uses the name “Dellacroix”, the mean of this is “of the cross” in French. Jackson goes on to tell the reader how the villagers are miss pronouncing this character’s name, therefore provoking the Christian symbol. Mr. Summer’s conducts the lottery and his assistant is Mr. Graves, this hints that there is going to be a grave in the summer.

        Irony is thematic through “The Lottery”. This is shown through the winner getting stoned as a prize of drawing the black dot, the nonchalant attitude of the villagers, and the contradiction of character Tessie Hutchinson.  The “winner” of the lottery gets stoned to death is ironic because the winner actually loses. “Tessie Hutchinson is in the center of a cleared space by now, and she held her hands out desperately as the villagers moved in on her” (Jackson, 610). Tessie is the “winner” of the lottery and now is going to die because she drew the black dot. The villagers do not seem to think stoning someone to death at a ceremony is a big deal. This is ironic because the villagers act nonchalant about the lottery and make it seem like killing one of their own is normal. The story states, “guess we better get started, get this over with, so’s we can get back to work” (606). The villagers do not seem to be worried about one of their own going to die. They are only worried about going back to work and moving on with their day. Another example of irony in this story is how the Hutchinson family, along with the rest of the villagers, agree with how the lottery is run and how the lottery ends. Tessie Hutchinson is the winner and who is about to die. “‘It isn’t fair, it isn't right,” Mrs. Hutchinson screamed and then they were upon her,” (610). The last sentence of the story is also ironic because Tessie is now saying the lottery is unfair. She is contradicting herself by saying it is unfair only because she got picked for the lottery and is about to die.

        The author uses imagery in “The Lottery”, by describing the black box, the children gathering stones, and Mr. Summers. “The black box grew shabbier each year; by now it was no longer completely black but splintered badly along one side to show the original wood color, and in some places faded or stained” (605). The description of the black box gives you the image of how old and worn down the box is. The explanation of how the splinters are bad draws an image of this box being overused and old. Also the author gives great detail on how the box is not black anymore. At the beginning of the story, the imagery used to describe the children gathering the stones and casually playing while doing so, seems so innocent until the reader finds out what the stones are for. The author grabs the reader’s attention of the reader by showing the children’s tasks and explaining that they are out of school for summer. Saying that the children are out for summer draws a picture of happy children running and playing around. The author states, “before they broke into boisterous play,” describing the children playing while gathering stones (604). Mr. Summers is viewed as an important member of the town. The image the author draws for the reader is, “a round-faced, jovial man and he ran the coal business” (605). The reader can picture him as a round faced hardworking man. The imagery of this story, really interests the reader and keeps them curious the whole time.