The Lottery Short Story

Different literary devices are used to make books and stories more descriptive and interesting. In Shirley Jackson’s short stories, “The Lottery,” and, “The Possibility of Evil,” she uses these literary devices in her writing. There are several examples of her using irony, imagery, and tone . Shirley Jackson uses these words to improve her short stories and to make them more fascinating for the reader.

3 stories of “Dip in the pool”, “The surgeon”, and “Galloping Foxley” are evident example of situational irony. This makes them to entertain and makes the reader to have originality, and imagination.

In the two short stories, “The Lottery” and “The Possibility of Evil”, by Shirley Jackson, the literary elements of irony, mood, and foreshadowing are shown throughout the story. The use of these elements help to show how the two stories are both similar and different. The feeling of evil throughout both stories is present, but only in the slightest of ways until the end. The three elements help to show the significance and message of each story.

Short Stories often contain literary elements that pull the story together. Examples of this is in the short stories “The Possibility of Evil” and “The Lottery” both by the author Shirley Jackson. These two short stories use literary elements that can be compared and contrasted throughout their plots. In these short stories, Shirley Jackson uses irony, characters, and mood.

In Shirley Jackson’s short story “The Lottery,” she uses many examples of irony. Irony is the use of words that are the opposite of their usual meaning or what is expected to happen. The use of irony plays an important role in delivering Jackson’s sarcasm. The author holds our attention all throughout the story and builds our suspense by using irony with the characters and events that take place. Some instances of irony that she uses during the story to hold our attention are: The title, the weather, the stones, the lunch and even some of the characters.

In her short story, "The Lottery," Shirley Jackson uses conformity and rebellion to convey the main theme, which is that blindly following tradition can have negative consequences. The village members show this through their actions while carrying out this “lottery” that they have done for generations. One character, Tessie, is the outlier who is a rebellion compared to the other villagers. Her character’s actions contrast the other villagers, and make what they are doing seem much more irrational. It also shows how the majority refuses to hear what one who deviates from the norm has to say. This allows them to remain in a bubble and continue to live out the same customs year after year.

Last but not least, ironic devices appear throughout the entire story. An example of irony can be found in one of Miss Gates' lessons about democracy and dictatorship. She says "Over here we don't believe in persecuting anybody. Persecution comes from people who are prejudiced. Pre-ju-dice,". It is ironic that she can recognize the persecution of the jews, yet cannot recognize the persecution that happens in her own country- the persecution of the African-Americans. Irony brings about some additional meanings to a situation. Ironical statements and situations in literature develop readers’ interest. Irony makes a work of literature more intriguing and forces the readers to use their imagination and comprehend the underlying meanings of the

As Alanis Morissette describes in the song “Ironic”, an old man turned ninety-eight. He won the lottery and died the next day. Isn’t it ironic? As stated in Cambridge English, irony is a method of writing in which there is a noticeable , sometimes humorous, and the difference between what is said and the intended meaning. Numerous examples of irony are used in American literature to bring stories to life and create a theme. In this paper, three different examples of irony will be discussed to show how the author provides richness to the literature and creates a theme.

dramatic irony is used all along the short story as a way of reminding us the

Irony is the “literacy language or literary style in which actions, events, or words are the opposite of what readers expect” (McWhorter 986). In the short story, “The Story of an Hour,” the author shows irony throughout to create a dramatic effect. She starts the story off with talking about a woman, Mrs. Mallard who has just lost her husband in a railroad accident. Throughout the start of the story, many details are revealed through dramatic iron and situational irony.

There is a lot that goes into a fiction story, especially for the writer of the story. Most readers don’t look closely enough at a story to realize how much truly goes into it. Two of the aspects that go into writing a fiction story include, Characterization and Setting, both of which play a major role in the Stories; Young Goodman Brown by Nathaniel Hawthorne and The Lottery by Shirley Jackson. Jackson and Hawthorne use setting and characterization to convey and reinforce the idea that things are not always the way they seem and everything is not always right in the world.

The perception of others correlates with how an individual interprets the standpoints of other people. As stated by Barbara Jordan,“We, as human beings, must be willing to accept people who are different from ourselves.” To reiterate, individuals are obligated to tolerate people different from themselves; meaning that the perception of others should not associate with discrepancy. Although the distinctive views of others are difficult to grasp, it can be inferred that denial of these views promotes disunification of a society. On the other hand, Jordan encourages the growth of a society through the tolerance of different viewpoints. In order to promote virtue in society, individuals must first embrace beliefs that contrast theirs’ otherwise society becomes divided and dysfunctional. This is evidently depicted through the three essential concepts of ideological tolerance, physical tolerance, and psychological tolerance.

Dramatic Irony: In the short story "Young Goodman Brown," Nathaniel Hawthorne used dramatic irony to foreshadow dark events that would occur later that night through Faith's dreams. The reader can assume that Faith's nightmares anticipate Goodman Brown's unholy actions in the

In the short story "The Lottery" by Shirley Jackson the towns citizens have a yearly "lottery" where the winner is stoned to death. The authors tone could be found as strange because of these instances. The theme of this story though is that all traditions are not that superb especially about killing people. This book has caused some major controversy on the mental health of the author and were outraged by it. So that’s why the book was written, to make others understand that some traditions where pretty awful. So that is why that I am covering this story.

Your family’s trust is in you. Your community has been doing this tradition for years and every year your family has gotten out of it. This moment could break your family apart forever. You pull a slip of paper out of the box, with a sense of relief it doesn’t have the black dot on it. This short story explains how you need to live for today, because you don’t always know what is going to happen tomorrow. Narrative elements in “The Lottery” that contribute to the theme are setting, symbolism, and characters.