The Lottery Rhetorical Analysis

Jesus of Nazareth, the King of Parables and all things righteous, was an advocate for those persecuted unjustly. In the book of John, a story of mercy and self-revelation breaks the norm when Jesus spoke up for a prostitute, stereotyped as one of the “worst” sinners during that time. The Pharisee’s had the intention to stone the prostitute because they followed the Old Law given by Moses declaring to stone those who have committed sexual sins, but Jesus comes out of the crowd of people and says, “He who is without sin among you, let him throw a stone at her first,” and quickly enough all of the Pharisees dispersed (NJKV, John 8:1-11). Similarly, The Lottery is a short story that also invokes thoughts about self-revelation, mercy, and the stoning

of humans; but unfortunately, this story has a different ending. Shirley Jackson, the author of The Lottery, was a famous writer of short stories that share the genre of horror and mystery. Over time, Jackson’s stories have caused readers and writers alike to analyze the purpose behind her subliminal messages and creative style of writing. Cleanth Brooks and Robert Penn Warren are two authors that have written their own interpretation of the story where they conceptualize multiple purposes behind The Lottery in their book Understanding Fiction. Brooks and Warren describe how The Lottery reveals to the reader how a cruel act can be kept from seeming cruel by the fact that is has been sanctioned by custom and long tradition.
In The Lottery, Jackson creates an influential setting that sets the tone for the rest of the story that takes place on a nice summer day in a small New England Village. The village is described to be fundamentally conservative, old fashioned, and maintains a relatively small population of people. The characters are briefly described as folk people, only having a few main characters known as Mr. Summers, the conductor and leader of the lottery, Old Man Warren, the most conservative and eldest member of the village, and Tessie Hutchinson, the victim of the lottery. Jackson starts off the story with a very calm tone as she illustrates a town square full of people congregating casually each bringing their collection of stones, the kids were playing, women were gossiping, and men were discussing farming and taxes. The story continues as Mr. Summers starts counting off the men of the household and their families, similar enough to doing a consensus of the village. During this time some of the folk people start to say, “Some places have already quit the lottery” but are instantly shot down by Old Man Warren when he says “Nothing but trouble in that, pack of young fools” (Jackson, 3). Mr. Summers stands up on a wooden stool and brings out a black box that has tried to be persevered over the years for the purpose of holding the wood chips that are given to each person of the household, but over time the box had been damaged lacking its color and the village choose to substitute the wood chips with sheets of paper. Tessie Hutchinson shows up late for the lottery but just in time for the men to do the drawing of the sheets of paper. Ironically enough, Tessie’s husband pulls the paper that has a little black dot on it, signifying that a member of their family would be lucky enough to “win” the lottery. Tessie tries to speak up against the unfairness of the drawing, but ultimately has no voice because she also pulls from the black box the paper that has the black dot, resulting in her casual death. The village then uses the stones they were previously collecting to stone her, concluding the annual lottery.
Brooks and Warren descriptively give the short story credit as a quality piece of work and they also state, “...(Jackson) has been rather careful to allow a good deal of flexibility in our interpretation of the meaning.

Yet surely a general meaning does emerge” (Brooks and Warren, 74).  The Lottery often uses irony and symbolism in the characters and the plot to create an analytical point of view for the reader. This method of writing causes the reader to inquire about the true purpose behind the assumptions made; In other words, this purposeful style of writing allows the reader to “put the two and two together” to not only question the story, but to also question ourselves as if we were in the story.

Jackson’s plot in The Lottery does not give a huge climax or even resolution to show the reader where the flow of action might be heading, rather she leaves it simple to allow the reader to make inferences based off general psychology. The story being titled “The Lottery” associates itself with something good or rewarding, but then reflects a major usage of irony as you continue reading and discover that the lottery is actually a very terrible thing. Irony is then reflected again when sanctification of a cruel act. The cruel act of stoning an innocent human out of a random drawing annually has b the

story
Such as including only a few people that question the lottery’s influential purpose if other villages have given it up and the only one who defends the lottery is Old Man Warren; This signifies that the characters are blind to follow becauand compromise theirpeoplewhich causes the
Jesus’ simple act of standing up for what He believed in made all the difference, the persecutor was convicted because their eyes were opened to their own wrong-doings and the victim was graciously saved.