The Lottery as an Allegory

A detailed Summary of The Lottery as an Allegory


Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery" is an excellent example of an allegorical short story. In this story, the reader learns of a town's "lottery" that takes place once a year, every year. It has been a tradition in this small rural town for many years and the villagers never question these activities, they just blindly go along with it. But what the reader doesn't know is just what kind of prize the winner is going to obtain. Jackson's use of symbolism is shown through the description of the characters, significant objects, and the actions in the story. These elements are used to represent the death that is associated with the lottery.

The first allegorical use is seen through the description of the characters. Everything about them is symbolic. For example the names of the characters sugg


The actions involved with the lottery are symbolic also. At the beginning of the story the reader learns that the children are gathering stones into a big pile. This represents just how unconscious their actions are. The village is blind to it's own motives. Tessie was fine with the lottery until it was she who was the chosen one. Tessie becomes the scapegoat for the village. She is a symbol of disobedience and the other villagers must stone her to death to stop further outbreaks of rebellion against the lottery. They are unable to articulate their rebellion because the massive force of ideology stands in their way. "Although the villagers had forgotten the ritual and lost the original black box, they still remembered to use stones." (238) The tradition is so old that all they care about is stoning the victim without thinking about

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Approximate Word count = 563
Approximate Pages = 2 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: English

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