The Truth Uncovered The Lottery by Shirley Jackson

A small town with big problems is a great way to describe the kind of town used as a setting in â€Å"The Lottery†. The town is a covered up mess and consists of horrible, low-down events. For example, some member of the town just cold-heartedly devoured a member of their own community. It all began when the villagers of the small town gathered together in the town square on a beautiful, sunny day for the town’s annual lottery. The author of this short story, Shirley Jackson, is an American author from San Francisco who received an increasing amount of attention from literary critics. Shirley Jackson develops her theme that things are not always as they seem in he short story â€Å"The Lottery† through the use of mood, symbolism, and characterization. The use of symbolism in the short story is a huge factor considering the three-legged stool, the black box, and the stones being used in the story to represent something. First the three-legged stool represents thre e aspects of Christianity trinity, God the father, God the son, and God the Holy Spirit. â€Å"The use of the stool to support the black box thus represents the manipulation of religion to support collective violence† (Nebeker). Next the black box represents tradition. â€Å"No one liked to upset even as much tradition as was represented by the black box† (Jackson 5). Lastly the stones represent a token of preposterous time. Being stoned is a horrible way to think of dying. It is also always a very publicized death .The stones were notShow MoreRelatedA Rose for Emily, A Worn Path, and The Lottery1175 Words   |  5 Pagesâ€Å"A Rose for Emily,† â€Å"A Worn Path,† and â€Å"The Lottery† by William Faulkner, Eudora Welty, and Shirley Jackson all have similar writing styles in their literature. In these three short stories the authors all use contrasting nature within their literature to predict the outcome and to learn for the upcoming events in the readings. The authors take subliminal phrases and subliminal symbolic text to have the reader become more attached and understand more of what the characters, setting and theme of theRead MorePersonal Freedom And Its Impact On Society 4015 Words   |  17 Pagesand in the society of the World State everyone needs to be happy without the worry of any influential negative sources coming. In The Lottery written by Shirley Jackson, the people in the short story follow tradition and central authority without any knowledge of what is going on around them. In the middle of the story, the â€Å"original paraphernalia for the lottery had been lost long ago, and the black box now resting on the stool had been put into use even before Old Man Warner, the oldest man inRead MoreLogical Reasoning189930 Words   |  760 PagesLas Vegas Far too many authors of contemporary texts in informal logic – keeping an eye on the sorts of arguments found in books on formal logic – forget, or underplay, how much of our daily reasoning is concerned not with arguments leading to truth-valued conclusions but with making choices, assessing reasons, seeking advice, etc. Dowden gets the balance and the emphasis right. Norman Swartz, Simon Fraser University v Acknowledgments For the 1993 edition: The following friends and