Abe Morales
10th P.
Honors Biology
10-6-15
A Poisoned Chalice
Have you ever tasted a food that at first glance you thought was going to be good but then as you actually tasted it, it's not as good as you thought it would be, or even a movie in which you thought at first was going to be hysterical but actually ended up being boring. Well in “The Lottery” something very similar took place. “The Lottery is about a small village in where the villagers gather together and participate in an annual lottery that has been run for years. The event is held by a man named Mr. Summers who holds every big event in the village. The way this lottery is run is that Mr. Summers calls every head of the house in the village towards a black box where there are …show more content…
Later in the story we realize that this is no usual lottery prize where you win big bucks, but something awfully terrifying that no man in this world would want. The reason the author uses this big event is to inform us, readers, the dangers of sticking to tradition and our past just because it happened back then, he also shows us that change is not bad but can be for the better of us and society. Shirley Jackson uses both foreshadowing and symbolism to convey the readers that rituals and tradition shouldn’t just keep going on just because they have been in the past, and to also make changes in society for the better of the people.
Shirley Jackson initially uses foreshadowing in “The Lottery” to hint the readers what the brutal resolution would be, which would reveal the striking dangers of tradition. The earliest and most obvious source of foreshadowing we see in “The Lottery” is in the first page on paragraph two when “The children assembled first, of course...eventually made a great pile of stones in one corner of the square and guarded it against …show more content…
The first symbolic device in “The Lottery” is the black box seen on page 1 paragraph 1, “Mr. Summers spoke frequently to the villagers about making a new box, but no one liked to upset even as much tradition as was represented by the black box”(Jackson, 1). Here the author states that Mr. Summers recommended making a new black box because the one they'd been using had been worn out and rusted, but the villagers did not want to replace it because it would change a part of their tradition of the annual lottery. This shows the readers that the villagers were very strict and devoted to their tradition and not even the smallest things could be changed about it. What we learn from this example is that some things changed or not really does not matter because if the villagers would have gotten a new box it really would not have had changed anything to their ritual. Additionally, Shirley Jackson uses another form of symbolism in “The Lottery” and it's found right in the title! The Lottery symbolizes what the villagers morally accepted and what they did not question to be wrong with how this lottery was being run. The title is also ironic because we find out later in the story that the prize isn't what the prize is in today's society, but it would be a punishment. We find out that the prize isn't an award someone would want when Mrs. Hutchinson
10th P.
Honors Biology
10-6-15
A Poisoned Chalice
Have you ever tasted a food that at first glance you thought was going to be good but then as you actually tasted it, it's not as good as you thought it would be, or even a movie in which you thought at first was going to be hysterical but actually ended up being boring. Well in “The Lottery” something very similar took place. “The Lottery is about a small village in where the villagers gather together and participate in an annual lottery that has been run for years. The event is held by a man named Mr. Summers who holds every big event in the village. The way this lottery is run is that Mr. Summers calls every head of the house in the village towards a black box where there are …show more content…
Later in the story we realize that this is no usual lottery prize where you win big bucks, but something awfully terrifying that no man in this world would want. The reason the author uses this big event is to inform us, readers, the dangers of sticking to tradition and our past just because it happened back then, he also shows us that change is not bad but can be for the better of us and society. Shirley Jackson uses both foreshadowing and symbolism to convey the readers that rituals and tradition shouldn’t just keep going on just because they have been in the past, and to also make changes in society for the better of the people.
Shirley Jackson initially uses foreshadowing in “The Lottery” to hint the readers what the brutal resolution would be, which would reveal the striking dangers of tradition. The earliest and most obvious source of foreshadowing we see in “The Lottery” is in the first page on paragraph two when “The children assembled first, of course...eventually made a great pile of stones in one corner of the square and guarded it against …show more content…
The first symbolic device in “The Lottery” is the black box seen on page 1 paragraph 1, “Mr. Summers spoke frequently to the villagers about making a new box, but no one liked to upset even as much tradition as was represented by the black box”(Jackson, 1). Here the author states that Mr. Summers recommended making a new black box because the one they'd been using had been worn out and rusted, but the villagers did not want to replace it because it would change a part of their tradition of the annual lottery. This shows the readers that the villagers were very strict and devoted to their tradition and not even the smallest things could be changed about it. What we learn from this example is that some things changed or not really does not matter because if the villagers would have gotten a new box it really would not have had changed anything to their ritual. Additionally, Shirley Jackson uses another form of symbolism in “The Lottery” and it's found right in the title! The Lottery symbolizes what the villagers morally accepted and what they did not question to be wrong with how this lottery was being run. The title is also ironic because we find out later in the story that the prize isn't what the prize is in today's society, but it would be a punishment. We find out that the prize isn't an award someone would want when Mrs. Hutchinson