Use Of Imagery In Shirley Jackson's The Lottery

“The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson is a haunting tale about a peaceful village with a dark secret. Every man, woman, and child must enter the lottery to win the prize. However, the reward is being stoned to death. The poor victim of the lottery is Tessie Hutchinson. Jackson purposely misled the readers for most of the story. Only towards the end is when she reveals the horrifying truth. A repeating major theme in this work is manipulation through tradition. This theme can be seen using several examples of imagery. The story starts off with a pleasant and vivid image. “The morning of June 27th was clear and sunny, with the fresh warmth of a full-summer day; the flowers were blossoming profusely and the grass was richly green.” (Jackson Paragraph 1). All these details paint a clear image of a summer day in the village. Through this imagery, the author sets up a ploy that tricks readers into thinking the story is innocuous. This scene drives the audience away from guessing the theme in the beginning, only to foreshadow it later.

It is very old, even rebuilt over time. The passage states that it is even older than the oldest man in town. The box is described as “no longer completely black but splintered badly along one side to show the original wood color, and in some places, faded or stained.” (Jackson Paragraph 4). This shows that the box is archaic, and has been used several times. The black coloring of the box also foreshadows what happens later in the story, as black sometimes represents death. The people of the village have continued to use the box to follow the tradition of using it ever since they came to the land. The black box is an object of how people can even do inhumane things in order to maintain