The Deadly Lottery

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The Deadly Lottery


“The Lottery” is a short story by Shirley Jackson. Every year this village has a lottery on June 7th. 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 7th 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 worried about leaving dirty dishes that she was about dying, especially since she was the one who was picked.


The black box is a symbol in “The Lottery.” The black box is a symbol of their tradition of having the lottery. Both the box and the tradition are old. The box is faded, worn, splintering, and contained a piece of the original box. The tradition itself has lost a few formalities, they no longer said a chant, and a ritual salute was no longer practiced. 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.” Even though the box is worn and the ritual changed it still happens every year.


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The story is told in the omniscient point of view. Using a third person point of view is important in “The Lottery” so that the reader can read the story without personal feelings added. The narrator tells the story with no emotions or value judgments. Even though the narrator does not give an opinion he lets the reader hear characters in the story opinions’, for example when Mr. Adams tells Old Man Warner “That over in the north village they’re talking of giving up the lottery.” The narrator lets the reader know that some people in the village think that maybe they should do away with the lottery without putting personal feelings in it. The story would also not be the same for instance if Mrs. Hutchinson was telling the story because then there would be no surprise at the end. She would let us know from the start what the lottery is and how unfair it is. Using this point of view it leaves it up to the reader to form his or her own judgments about the lottery.


The theme of the story is that people can accept any horrible thing as long as they think it is normal. Throughout history people have been racist, killed people because of religion, race, or power. In those instances people did not think there was anything wrong for a long period of time. When something is taught and is learned then people do not question it. Its human nature that people are creatures of habit. It is hard for people to accept change. The people in the village did not think that there was anything wrong with having the lottery. No one tried to stop the lottery or save Mrs. Hutchinson. Even her husband and her children showed no emotion knowing that she was about to die. By that we see that tradition really does blind people to seeing the harshness of reality. People also look up to older and wiser people in a community. Old Man Warner was the oldest man in the village and had participated in seventy-seven lotteries. When Mr. Adams told him about how another village was talking of doing away with the lottery he responded by saying “Pack of crazy fools.” Obviously Old Man Warner was not interested in giving up the tradition. 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.


By examining irony, symbolism, point of view, and theme one can gain a better understanding of “The Lottery.” Looking back at the story one can see how very ironic the story is. It is such a shock to learn how this lottery is actually the killing of someone. This act is so horrifying yet no one seems to question why he or she is still participating. This shows us how strong our traditions can influence are decisions. The theme can relate to most of us, and how we accept what was taught to us.





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