The Lottery

Below is one of our free research papers on The Lottery. If the term paper below is not exactly what you're looking for, you can search our essay database for other topics.
The Lottery

The Lottery, a short story written by Shirley Jackson, is a tale of disturbing evilness. The setting is a small
village consisting of about 300 residents. On June 27th of every year the members of the community hold
a village-wide lottery in which everyone is expected to participate. Throughout the story the reader gets an
odd feeling regarding the residents. Although they are gathering for a lottery drawing there is an air of
nervousness about the event. From start to finish there is an overwhelming sense that something terrible is
about to happen due to the authors in depth use of foreshadowing.
    The first hint that something strange is happening
is brought to our attention in the second paragraph.
After Jackson describes the summer morning, she alludes to
the children gathering in the Village Square, but they are
acting quite strange. "Bobby Martin had already stuffed
his pockets full of stones, and the other boys soon followed
his example…eventually made a great pile of stones in one
corner of the square and guarded it against the raids of
the other boys" (Text, 782). The first question we must
ask is why are the boys piling stones up in the village
square? At the very least we know that the stones will
play an important role in the final outcome.
    Each following paragraph contains subtle clues as
to what is going to unfold. After all of the children
have gathered the men begin to fill the square, followed
by all of the women. ...

Login

Join

It's completely free!
Get instant access to all our essays.

Join Now!

Submitted by: digitalessays
Date Submitted: 07-16-04 7:02pm
Category: Arts
Words: 951
Pages: 3.8