the lottery

the lottery


Sophomore English
10/23/13
“The Lottery”
In Jackson’s short story “The Lottery” foreshadowing is used to show the death of an average villager. In the beginning of the story the children are gathering stones; this is an example of fore shadowing because it hints that the stones will somehow be involved later on (Jackson 1). After you find out what the stones are used for you see how twisted it is that the children had gathered them. The society is clearly a dystopia. When Tessie arrives late to the lottery this foreshadows that she will be chosen as the winner, due to the irony of her finishing up her house hold chores (Jackson 2). Tessie displays a dedicated house wife. If Tessie had stayed home she most likely would not have been stoned. Tessie’s reaction to being chosen foreshadows and shows that the lottery represents something bad, not something of good luck and fortune (Jackson 4). The lottery is a twisted asset of the village. The people live in fear of winning the lottery. Through these examples from Jackson’s short story the use of foreshadowing is apparent.
In this short story there are many examples of irony. The name of the name of the story “The Lottery” itself displays irony this represents irony because we typically associate the word lottery with things such as wealth, and luxury, but in this case winning is bad (Jackson 1). One could mistakably assume, at the beginning of the story that the lottery is a good thing. Later finding out what the lottery was turned this tale very dark (Jackson1).Old man warner says that the lottery keeps them civilized, when in fact there is nothing civilized about it(Jackson 4). This town’s tradition should be ended. The town also sees this practice as “fair”. Tessie arrives late to the lottery this is ironic because if she had not shown up it is a possibility that she would not have been chosen (jackson2). The town shows no remorse towards Tessie being chosen for the stoning. The outcome of the story could...

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