Allegory And Irony In Jackson's The Lottery

Steven Baynes

Martin M/W

English 101

2/1/16

Short Story Analysis: The Lottery

In The Lottery, Shirley Hardie Jackson uses symbolism, allegory, and irony to advance the theme of the human mind as it struggles to come to terms with death in life in the midst of tradition.

A main element of writing of The Lottery by Ms. Jackson is symbolism. The symbolism that winning the lottery is always good for the winner and provides some sort of benefit or prize. As well as an annual event that celebrates a bountiful harvest, a celebration by the town’s people with no discernable idea of what it means or what is about to occur. Participation is a ritual and mandatory for all community members where all are eager to play from community to household to individual. Few people seem to object to the tradition, few question the ritualistic stoning of the “winner” the cruelest of the cruelest ways to die and ways for anyone to kill another human being. A person must be within a few feet to really make their rock count, they must look at and acknowledge the individual and throw the stone with purpose and forethought without any hesitation or remorse. A barbaric ritual, at best. That people can do this to each other, year after

year for generations, not knowing why they do it, when it started or why they continue the tradition.
Allegory is also seen in The Lottery, the rocks that are collected by the children at the start of the story represent in the larger stones that will be thrown at the end of the story.

Those stones will kill Tessie as part of a superstition-driven yearly ritual that is done as means to ensure good crops. The old saying, "Lottery in June, corn be heavy soon" (215) is the mantra that keeps this tradition alive. While the people in this town have an inkling that this traditional or ritual is going out of favor in other towns, they keep it alive out of a sense of tradition. The fact that everyone in the town must participate in the eventual stoning is important as it serves to eliminate any one person from being guilty of killing the winner of the

lottery.

Irony is an extremely big part of The Lottery. One example would be the fact that the villagers are taking part in a lottery which suggests that they are going to win a prize, when in reality they are gambling with death. There is also a point in the story where the villagers are discussing one of nearby villages giving up the lottery and one of the characters "Old Man Warner" says "Next thing you know, they'll be wanting to go back to living in caves." (215) This is ironic because Old Man Warner is alluding to cavemen, who would do something barbaric like stone people to death. There is also the fact that Jackson sets up the whole story as if it were a cheerful, everyday event when it is the complete opposite.
The human mind can comprehend ideas and issues of various levels of complexity and traditional thinking even when they can find no anchor in historical or ritual fact. The Lottery by Shirley Hardie Jackson seeks to explore that ritualistic following of traditions by individuals and society by providing a short story about a shocking and disturbing event carried out by the people of the village. The story revolves around the villager’s belief that randomly selecting an individual to be stoned will result in a bountiful corn harvest for the village. All villagers, young and old, must participate in the Lottery as contestants and rock throwers, if not selected. They are taught that this is a tradition for good crop harvest, a ritual that must be carried out for an abundant annual harvest. This tradition has been carried out for generations however not many of the current towns people are familiar with the details or can remember all the ritualistic details but participate anyway. This blind obedience can be applied to anyone and most everyone throughout history in a multitude of events.