Thesis For The Lottery By Shirley Jackson

The Lottery was a short story by Shirley Jackson. In a small village of about 300 , on every June 27th, they have a lottery. The Husbands pick a slip of paper from an old black box, then wait to open the paper till announced. After the papers were opened, whoever had a black dot on the paper would “win” the lottery. In this case, Mrs. Hutchinson was declared the winner. She had received many “congratulations.” In the short story, “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson, the symbolism and theme appeared to have been very shocking, the title had meant something a little different than what the reader had in mind.

The definition of theme is the message about life or human nature that is “the focus” in the story that the writer tells (Literary 2). The

first example of a theme in the story is, Always read what you sign up for, if not you’ll be played. When I had first read the title, thoughts were that the lottery was a short story based upon a person that had won the lottery in real life. The first example for the theme in this story, is when the narrator states, “Although the villagers had forgotten the ritual and lost the original black box, they still remembered to use stones” (Jackson, page 7). This shows that, in this lottery the villagers were using stones for every other lottery they’ve had. Stones are considered a weapon, that can seriously injure someone, in this case, Mrs. Hutchinson was the injured one.

Another theme is, You never know what the Prize will be.

The second example for the theme is when the character states, “”It isn’t fair, it isn’t right”, Mrs. Hutchinson screamed, and then they were upon her” (Jackson, page 7). This illustrates that Mrs. Hutchinson is terrified of her surrounding. She screams of fear, because the villagers remembered to have stones, meaning some kind of threat is going towards Mrs. Hutchinson. From one of my sources, the publisher states that, “In the case of both the lottery cash, paper can mean fortune, either good or bad - and it’s disturbing how much life (and wealth) can be left up to the gambles of chance” (Shmoop, page

1).
The definition of Symbol is, Person, place or thing that represents something beyond itself, most often something concrete or tangible that represents an abstract idea (Literary 2.). In this short story, “The Lottery”, the symbol would be the black dot on the paper. Whoever has the black dot on the paper is stoned to death. The definition of lottery, in this short story would be, death. The black dot on the paper, represents the end of your life, like the way a period ends a sentence. Sadly the lottery winner gets stoned to death by the villagers, including her own and family and friends. My first example of symbolism in the short story is when the narrator states, “A stone hit her on the side of the head. Old Man Warner was saying, “Come on, come on, everyone”” (Jackson, page 7). This proves that the villagers were attacking Mrs. Hutchinson with the stones, which is why she screamed in horror. In this case the villagers were stoning her to death. One stone had been hit to her head didn’t stop them. The villagers had been upon her to keep hurting her till she couldn’t take no more and died. After the villagers were done with the stoning, they would return back to their normal lives.

Another Symbol in this short story is, The pile of stones the children were playing around.

The second example for symbolism would be when the narrator states, “Tessie Hutchinson was in the center of a cleared space by now, and she held her hands out desperately as the villagers moved on her. “It isn’t fair,” she said” (Jackson, page 7). This shows that the villagers were preparing themselves to stone Mrs. Hutchinson. As the villagers were surrounding her, Tessie tried to protect herself by putting her hands out, and telling them that it wasn’t fair. From another one of my sources the publisher states, “Stones are also significant as murder weapons because the first human tools were made of stone; this lottery really does seem to have its ancestors in the earliest type of violent human ritual”(Shmoop, page 1).

The definition of Irony is, a technique that involves surprising, interesting, or amusing contradictions or something else. My first example is when the narrator states, “It had a black spot on it, the black spot Mr. Summers had made the night before with the heavy pencil in the coal company office”(Jackson, page 7). This shows that Tessie was trying not to let anyone see her paper, because she saw that she was the

winner.
In this case, the short story was Dramatic Irony, meaning a character in the play or story thinks one thing is true, but the audience or reader knows better (Literary 2). The Irony in this story is when a character is stoned to death by the villagers and family, and how the crowd is affected by the Hutchinson family. As I read the story, I knew she was going to get stoned, but she didn’t and that’s why she exclaimed the lottery wasn’t fair. My second example of dramatic Irony for this short story is when the narrator reads, “The crowd was quiet. A girl whispered, “I hope it’s not Nancy,” and the sound of the whisper reached the edges of the crowd” (Jackson, page 6). This quote shows how the crowd fears, as the Hutchinson family was going on stage to raffle once again. It wouldn’t be right to stone a child, but stoning isn’t the right thing to do either or at all. The villagers had been whispering because they didn’t want anything to happen to them too. They wouldn’t risk getting involved with a stoning.
In conclusion, the symbolism and theme appeared to be shocking because, Jackson had made the title so literal, that the readers, would’ve assumed that this short story would have meant a good ending, a lifetime memory. It was more like a You win, You lose. In this case, she won, but lost her life. The results of the short story were shocking, who knew lotteries would cause things such as being stoned to death. And so ending this, the symbols, themes, and irony conclude this research paper and tie everything in place.