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  • Essay / Literary Analysis of The Lottery by Shirley Jackson

    Have you ever wondered what you would do if you won the lottery? The main theme of The Lottery is to blindly follow tradition. In history, there is an annual tradition of people going out and joining the traditional lottery. The author develops the theme of blindly following tradition, no matter how bad it may be. The author also developed the theme by using the same old black box, but not the original, to symbolize the tradition that does not change. The author made the theme showing that all is not what it seems. In the story, the author foreshadows the ending by adding "he made a big pile of stones in the corner of the square and protected it against raids by the other boys." Most people assume that stones are used to kill someone, and would probably think they are used to skip stones. There was some hesitation when asking city members for help. Implying that they were afraid to touch the box. The author also uses foreshadowing when Tessie began to feel something strange or odd about the lottery, and the story ends with Tessie being stoned to death. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essay Another example is the reaction of adults to children collecting stones, stacking them and guarding them. For example, “Bobby Martin ducked under his mother's gripping hand and ran laughing to the pile of stones.” The adults were not fazed by these actions and continued as if everything was normal and let them run off to guard the pile. All these little examples hinted at what was going to happen at the end of the story. The story itself is very ironic, for example, the lottery being generally thought to be about money, when it's actually about being stoned to death. When people first read this story, they get excited, wonder who is going to win a huge amount of money, and start thinking about what they would do if they won that money. The townspeople hope they won't be chosen in the lottery and want the day to end or, together, stop it from happening. To quote the article, “Bill Hutchinson stood quietly, looking at the paper in his hand. Suddenly, Tessie Hutchinson shouted at Mr. Summers. "You didn't give him enough time to get the paper he wanted." I saw you. It wasn't fair!'". It is also ironic how everyone seems to care about each other, but without hesitation, they accept tradition and accept the fate of the victor. Another literary device is imagery. The images first depicted were calm and peaceful, then started to become strange and dark. It is also shown that people are trying to finish the lottery quickly to get home on time for dinner. Another example is Old Man Walter, the story mentions that he has been participating in the lottery for 27 years now. This is another example that shows that everyone in town blindly accepts the lottery tradition. also have no problem entering the lottery repeatedly According to the story, "It's been seventy-seventh year since I entered the lottery," said old man Walter as he walked through the crowd 'Sixty. -seventeenth time'. In conclusion, several literary devices were shown in the story, such as foreshadowing, irony, and imagery. The irony was demonstrated by describing that the story would be about winning the lottery and getting huge amounts of money. When he..