Liturary Devices in "The Lottery"

Essay by UnrulyXCollege, UndergraduateA-, April 2004

download word file, 1 pages 3.0

The short story "The Lottery" by Shirley Jackson uses the literary elements plot, setting, character, and symbol to express the theme. The theme of "The Lottery" is that tradition helps to unite the community but it is best to allow some traditions to die.

The setting is a small village. Everyone in the village knows each other. The lottery is preformed in the town square. The people gathering together as a mob make the act of killing one of their town's people easier.

The plot of the story is everyone assembling into the town square in order to be part of the lottery. The lottery has been a tradition as long as anyone in the town can remember. Know one knows why they perform the tradition. All they know is that who ever gets the slip of paper with the black dot on it must be stoned to death.

The characters in the story play a significant role in the development of the theme. The characters in the story are all in favor of the lottery. Each character has their own reason why the lottery is important. Old Man Warner feels that if the community were to stop the tradition it would loose its values. Mrs. Delacroix represents the part of society who feels tradition must be preformed under any circumstance. She does not hesitate to stone her friend to death. The community seems to feel that if the lottery were ended that they would loose apart of their society.

The box is the center of the tradition. The black box is a symbol of death. The community gathers around the box. Everyone in town focuses on the box and must draw a slip of paper out of it. The people know that the box decides...