"The Lottery" Literary Analysis

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"The Lottery" Literary Analysis
Shirley Jackson's short story "Lottery" was published in The New Yorker in 1948. It tells the story of a small village in America that holds on to a traditional practice named the lottery. It comes ones in a year in June and involves sacrificing one of the members to ensure the harvest is heavy. Most community members participate in the lottery because it is a tradition going on for a long time, yet they do not even know its significance. The readers know the event's significance through Old Man Warner, who says it is meant to appease the gods to ensure heavy harvests. Jackson uses irony, foreshadowing, suspense, and symbolism to create a sense of horror in an innocent story. The black wooden box, the gathering of stones, and the surprise ending where Mrs. Hutchinson is sacrificed show the horror Jackson creates.
The black wooden box symbolizes a coffin, a sign of death and horror. The black wooden box is old and passed on through generations without being replaced. It is from the box where people draw papers that determine the fate of the community members. At the end of the short story, the importance of the box in the lottery dawns on the reader (Du Bose 2). The papers are only drawn from the box on a three-legged stool. This creates a judgment center scenario where the box is the judge that sentences one to death when they "win" the lottery. In the end, the winner dies instead of celebrating. Thus, the horror in the story.
The stone gathered around the venue of the event creates suspense for the reader. Traditionally, stones are used as weapons for defense or attacking an enemy. A reader wonders about the use of the stones when the ch...