Suspense And Reasoning In The Lottery By Shirley Jackson

“The Lottery” is a fictional, short story written by Shirley Jackson which produces different types of suspense and reasoning. “The Lottery” is a fictional, narrative,about residents of a small village gathers in the town square to take part in the lottery run by Mr. Summers who takes charge in big municipal events. Mr. Summers calls forward the head of the household (usually the men) to draw out of a small black wooden box where in the box lies slips of papers of families names. Bill Hutchinson is the lucky person to get chosen from all of the families that drew. Since there's five family members in the Hutchinson family, Mr. Summers places fives slips of names in the black wooden box and the whole family has to draw out of the box. Each family member draws out and the lucky person with the black dot was Tessie Hutchinson (Mrs. Hutchinson).It comes down that the prize lottery winner gets stoning, Tessie starts protesting as the villagers start attacking her. In “The Lottery” Shirley Jackson produces a fictional short story by using literary devices which include theme,symbols, and irony throughout the whole story to compose the suspense and reasoning in “The

Lottery”.
One literary devices Shirley Jackson first introduces is irony. Irony is a technique that involves, or amusing contradictions or contrasts. An irony of a situation is when an event occurs that directly contradicts expectations.(“A Glossary of literary Terms” Page 1).Irony is an unrevealed theme used as the story goes along. Shirley Jackson introduces the setting as “clear and sunny” day but tragical the story ends with the cruel death of a housewife. For example Jackson states from “The Lottery” “... of June 27th was a clear and sunny, with the fresh warmth of a full-summer day…” ( The Lottery S Jackson Pg. 1)
The plot twist as a whole in “The Lottery” is filled up with ironic twists( Schmoop Pg.1) The whole intention of a lottery is to win something out of it, but as we read the story we believe that at the end of the story the winner is going to receive a prize but the outcome becomes a tragic ending the winner will be stoned to death by the rest of the villagers. However the story has evolved in a different perspective where, the lottery isn’t about money it’s about death in this case. By using a suspicious title ( The Lottery), Shirley Jackson creates suspense and by that she catches the reader’s attention. According to the text Shirley Jackson states,“ Mr. Dunbar has small stones in both hands, and she said gasping for breath “ I can’t run at all.You’ll have to go ahead and I’ll catch up with you.” The children has stones already. And someone gave little Davy Hutchinson a few pebbles.” ( S. Jackson Pg. 7)
Another literary device used in “The Lottery” to develop this short story is theme. The theme that was used was traditions, society and class. Theme is the message about life or human nature that is “ the focus” in the story that the writer tells. ( A Glossary of Literary Terms Page. 3) The theme in the story is classified as “ The Lottery theme of society and class.” Based in the story “ The Lottery” is placed by traditions is stated in the story “... by Mr. Summers. Who had time and energy to devote to civic activities? In the story “ The Lottery” becomes an annual tradition. “ The Lottery also becomes a way of analyzing “ tradition” social and gender divisions : the random distribution of papers means some families are fortunate and others aren’t.” ( The Lottery Theme of Society and Class Pg. 1 ). The author states “ The people of the village began to gather in the square, between the post office and the bank, around ten o’clock.”(S. Jackson Pg 1) The passage states that the is a small town and has a general local necessities for a small village.
A second example is tradition.

Tradition is a customs and beliefs that have past down from generation to generation. Tradition is usually describe as the “backbone” of every culture, its what keeps the societies alive as generation pass down. “... in some towns there were so many people that the lottery took two days.” (S.Jackson)Also in “ The Lottery” Shirley Jackson mentions, Mr. Summers is the person who runs all town events. “ The Lottery was conducted- as were square dances,the teen club, the Halloween program- by Mr. Summers, who had time and energy to devote to civic activities. (The Lottery page 4) Usually having someone that holds events in the town is similar to a Mayor in our society today, this which appears that this short story has traditions and customs they follow in their small

village.
“The Lottery” is filled with lots of themes that go on throughout the story and one that plays a big role is class. Class is doing something with elegancy or having high standards. In “ The Lottery” the author mentions that the village isn’t your average, popular, rich- high standards. The village is somewhat a little poor and has low income. Stoning is known as one of the oldest form of execution. In “ The Lottery” it states that families would get randomly choose to get the consequence and is a way of getting rid of people. Like Tessie Hutchinson( the mother) she gets chosen to get stoned to death. Nonetheless like Mr. Summers the head of all town events nevers gets chosen to get but into the lottery due to his popularity and him being well known for hosting events that took place in the town square. This example shows how having class, Mr. Summers having high standards and being well- known doesn’t have to get put into the lottery rather than other families who might end up losing loved ones.
Finally the last literary device the author uses to create her short story is symbolism. Symbolism is a person, place, or thing that represents something beyond itself, most often something concrete or tangible that represents an abstract idea. ( A Glossary of Literary Terms). In the beginning of the story it starts with the weather being “sunny and clear”,“... morning of June 27th was clear and sunny, with a fresh warmth of a full- summer day; the flowers were blossoming profusely and the grass was richly green…” ( The Lottery S. Jackson Pg.1) The first thing that the readers learn from the first paragraph is it takes place in the month of June. The month of June is known for bright sunny days, the weather nice and warm. This symbols that something “ good” is suppose to happen in the town or they might be a lucky winner for the so called “lottery”.
The last example used for symbols is stoning. Stoning was a method used for execution its one of the oldest and most common method used to kill people. “ This means that no single person has passed judgement or has to carry the guilt for taking a life alone”. ( From Understanding the Symbols in The Lottery Page 1) Considering that person to get stoned by all of the villagers was Mrs. Hutchinson( Tessie Hutchinson). She was a woman and she was chosen to get stoned. This shows that women pretty much had no choice when it came to execution. In addition Mrs. Hutchinson( Tessie Hutchinson) being the woman that got chosen by “ The Lottery” was important. Shirley Jackson was in a way of putting herself “ symbolically into the place of the victim”. Tradition also comes back into play that has “ subverted the natural instinct that men have to protect women”.(Understanding the Symbols in The Lottery Pg.1)This short story also made the victim of the lottery someone who was hurt by tradition in the nonfictional world as well” (Understanding the Symbols in The Lottery) In the story the author states “ Tessie Hutchinson was in the center of a cleared space by now, and she held her hand out desperately as the villagers moved in on her. “ It isn’t fair,” she said. A stone hit her on the side of the head…” ( The Lottery S. Jackson Pg. 7)
In conclusion, “The Lottery” is a literature, fictional short story written by Shirley Jackson. “ The Lottery” is composed of different types literary devices such as theme,symbols and irony. Shirley Jackson uses these literary devices to create the suspense and the reasoning in the story. I really enjoyed reading this story and overall I really liked it. I would recommend this short story to other students and adolescents.