The Lottery By Shirley Jackson Literary Devices

“THE LOTTERY” ANALYSIS

Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery” is a short story about a village stuck in a loop of undying tradition. Jackson uses language and literary devices to portray society as comfortably ignorant.

The portrayal of comfortable ignorance first happens by Jackson’s use of flowery language that distracts readers from the grim symbolism and the foreshadowing of the story's ending. Flowery language such as, “flowers were blossoming profusely and the grass was richly green” sets a wholesome scene in which danger seems nonexistent (Jackson). Though, this short story is laced with foreshadowing--hinting at the story’s ghastly ending; for example, “Bobby Martin had already stuffed his pockets full of stones, and the other boys soon

followed his example.” The “stones” foreshadow the ending of the story in which a woman is randomly persecuted and executed by way of stoning, while “the other boys” that are following “his example” foreshadows a key theme in the story about mob mentality (the influence of people by their peers) (Jackson). These rhetorical tactics being paired in a way where the flowery language distracts from the foreshadowing portrays the comfortable ignorance of--not so necessarily the short story’s society (while it is definitely depicted as comfortably ignorant), but the reader’s society. This is due to how in reading of this story we discard the underlying symbols of abnormality in the story, as in Earl F. Martin’s scholarly article comparing Tessie Hutchinson from “The Lottery” and capital punishment, “The most intriguing and brilliant aspect of Mrs. jackson’s story is that even the most attentive reader can fail to see that evil is unfolding on the page,” Martin even presents a comment by Shirley Jackson, “[The number of people who expected Mrs. Hutchinson to win a Bendix washer at the end would amaze you,” Martin’s work acknowledges the same ideas of an comfortable ignorance in the reader and through the process of Jackson’s writing(Martin).
Other than language and foreshadowing, Jackson portrays a theme of societal comfortability in ignorance through symbolism.

“The Lottery,” possess many important symbols to support the theme, “The Lottery’s” paraphernalia being one. The first article of “The Lottery’s” paraphernalia is the “black box,” the “black box” is used for drawing the “slips of paper” that marks one participant for death by stoning--though the “black box” was not the “original paraphernalia” used in play during “the lottery,” it has come to serve the purpose; this box of death represents tradition and appealing to its lost ways, as depicted here, “Mr. Summers spoke frequently to the villagers about making a new box, but no one like to upset even as much tradition as was represented by the black box.” This quote not only shows that the “black box is a symbol of tradition, but it also indicates that the villagers are reluctant to change tradition--even if the change was replacing a ”black box” that serves as a replacement to the long-lost original. The villagers are stuck in the chasm of comfortable ignorance; they sulk in the ignorance of traditional ways and find comfort in the monotony of them. Another example of this is random persecution, symbolized by the “slips of paper”--the “slips are paper” are used as the indicator of victimization; every villager in “The Lottery” must draw a “slip of paper” and the one villager who draws a slip with a “black spot” on it is punished by death. Random persecution helps to underline the idea that the village in the lottery is comfortably ignorant; villagers are comfortable in the fact that they did not pull the “black spotted” slip and they are ignorant in their will to put a random individual to death for no reason--when no one needs to be

executed.
Shirley Jackson utilizes multiple means of literary devices and language to portray a theme of comfortable ignorance, the same comfortable ignorance that is prevalent in today’s society. Jackson portrays this theme as a message to ridicule the actions that we become too comfortable with doing--and too ignorant to realize what they are doing.