Creative Use of Symbolism and Irony in Shirley Jacksons...

A lottery has always provided a sense of hope and adventure to people, but the lottery takes on an entirely different significance in Shirley Jackson’s â€Å"The Lottery†. The story takes place in a village of roughly three hundred people. Everyone in the village gathers at the center to take part. One representative from each family comes up, to take a piece of paper from an old, black, wooden box. The Hutchinson family has the black dot; each family Hutchinson member then comes up to pick another piece of paper. Mrs. Hutchinson has the second black dot; she is made to come to the center of the circle, and she is stoned to death by the crowd. Shirley Jackson illustrates clearly the brutality in human nature. By using creative symbolism, irony†¦show more content†¦The box becomes shabby and faded, which represents how the ritual is outdated and barbaric. There is also another clue suggesting death, and it is the last name of one of the characters: â€Å"†¦Mr. Graves made up the slips of paper and put them in the box...† (55). His name is Graves, implying that someone in the story may be going to a grave, which of course, means death. Shirley Jackson does a beautiful job of incorporating irony into the story. The name of the man that runs the lottery is Mr. Summers. Summer is thought to be a fun, happy, time of the year when people relax and do what they please. Nothing about this man is happy, so it’s ironic his last name is Summers. The elderly are usually thought to be wise, however, â€Å"†¦Old Man Warner, the oldest man in town†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (52), is superstitious and ignorant. He calls a village that gave up the lottery a â€Å"Pack of crazy fools† (55), when in actuality, it makes sense to give up the lottery. The final bit of irony is in the title itself. The title is â€Å"The Lottery†. People want to win the lottery. People purchase tickets even though they probably won’t win. In this story, the last thing people want to do is win the lottery. Mood is the way the author makes the reader feel in a literary work. The mood is mysterious and centers around the uncertainty of what the lottery is. The reader starts to wonder when characters are not happy about winning the lottery: â€Å"You didn’t give him time enough to take anyShow MoreRelatedThe Lottery : Symbolism And Symbolism973 Words   |  4 PagesAfter reading The Lottery you might think about what you are actually winning in a lottery type setting. In the story which is enriched with irony and symbolism. As a reader interpreting the uses of each of these is crucial on discovering the full story. The shabby black box represents both the tradition of the lottery and the illogic of the villagers’ loyalty to it. The black box is nearly falling apart, hardly even black anymore after years of use and storage, but the villagers are unwillingRead MoreANALIZ TEXT INTERPRETATION AND ANALYSIS28843 Words   |  116 Pagesfor they introduce us to information that would otherwise be unavailable and thus increase our knowledge and understanding of present events. Evaluating Plot Having studied a given story or novel, to see how the author has arranged and made us use the elements of plot, we should be ready to evaluate his or her success. The customary test of a plot’s effectiveness is its unity: the degree to which each episode and the place it occupies in the narrative structure of the work bear in some necessary