The Lottery

A detailed Summary of The Lottery

The Winning Ticket: Irony in "The Lottery"

The short story, "The Lottery", by Shirley Jackson, is a twisted tale of a small farming community that is far from normal or peaceful. Jackson, continuously uses the setting to creates a mood of peacefulness and tranquility. This creates an image of a typical small farming community on a normal summer day. This setting foreshadows an ironic ending that is far from normal or peaceful. "The Lottery", by Shirley Jackson, displays numerous examples of irony throughout the setting in telling the tale of a small town's strange and brutal annual ritual.

Shirley Jackson, begins her story by establishing the setting. She tells what time of day and what time of year the story takes place. It is important to focus on what a typical day is in this small town. The time of day is set in the morning and the time of year is early summer. School has just recently let out for summer break, and children are getting used to the newly found freedom and the prospect of all of the adventures to be had. Jackson describes the town as that of any normal rural community. She describes the grass as "richly green" and that "the flowers were blooming profusely" (247). These descriptions of the surroundings give

The introduction of the black box is a key turning point for the setting. At the beginning of the story, it symbolizes a mystery, but by the ending the box symbolizes doom. Someone's fate lies in the black box. The black box symbolizes darkness and fear and maybe even death to the villagers. Black has always been a symbol for death, and the color of the box is no exception to this rule. A definition of the color black is "marked by the occurrence of disaster" . This is evident in the fact that "the villagers kept their distance" from the black box (264). The black box used to hold the lottery slips "had been made with some pieces of the box that had preceded it, the one that had been constructed when the first people settled down to make a village there."(265) The box also represents the traditions and rituals of the community. No one questions the origin of the box, but accepts it as part of their lives.

In the first paragraph, Jackson describes the town in general. She puts in perspective the location of the town's square "between the post office and the bank" (263). This aides in visualizing what a small town this is, since everything seems to be centralized at or near the town square. This is also key in that the town square is the location for the remaining part of the story. She creates a comfortable atmosphere while describing the people of the town. The children are gathering together and breaking into "boisterous play" (264). They are described as gathering rocks, which is a normal action of many children. The men as gathering together and talking about "[...]planting and rain, tract

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Approximate Word count = 1086
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: Novels