Foreshadowing In The Lottery

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When people think of a “lottery,” it always involves a grand prize. Something like money or cars. In Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery” the “grand prize” being awarded is not one's everyday prize of money or cars. It is actually opposite of what one really thinks a prize is. In the end of Jackson’s short story, the “prize” is being stoned to death by the entire village. Shirley sets up the resolution by foreshadowing events throughout the story. It is not until the resolution that readers find out what the “lottery” really is.
The title of this story is ironic and sets for a dramatic resolution. It is Jackson’s constant foreshadowing that put readers at an uneasy space after reading this story. Miriam Friend, a reader of the New York Times in 1948, when this story was published said “I frankly confess to being completely baffled by Shirley Jackson’s ‘The Lottery,’ ” (qtd. in The New Yorker). She and …show more content…

Then goes on to talk about this traditional lottery,
“[I]n some towns there were so many people that the lottery took two days and had to be started on June 26th, but in this village, where there were less than three hundred people, the whole lottery took less than two hours..” (290).
The very first thing that happens to prepare for this lottery is the children being gathered. Jackson foreshadows the tragedy firstly by saying, Bobby Martin had “his pocket full of stones,” then the other little boys followed his lead by gathering the “smoothest and roundest stones” (290). As a first time reader one would not have any ideas of the selecting of the stones. Moving forward all villagers gather to began the lottery.
Readers get a sense of the tradition aspect of the lottery once the black box is brought into the

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