Free College Essays - Foreshadowing in Shirley Jackson's The Lottery:
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The Lottery: Foreshadowing
Every June twenty-seventh the villagers in the small town gather in the square for the annual ?lottery?. The children usually arrive first. They play and gather stones in preparation for the drawing. The husbands and fathers are the next to gather. They tell jokes, but ?they smiled rather than laughed.? The men do not seem to be as excited as the children are. When finally the women arrive, the families form into their respective groups and they wait for Mr. Summers?the lottery official?to commence the drawings. There are volunteers to hold "box" from which the ?heads of the families? draw the slips. One-by-one the papers are withdrawn from the customary box by chosen heads of the families.
As instructed by Mr. Summers, no one is allowed to view the slips until all the paper pieces have been removed. They are called up in alphabetical order until every family is represented by a slip of paper. Once the drawing has finished they are allowed to look at their paper slips to see who receives entrance into the next round of the lottery. On this day in the story, the one who holds the fateful slip of paper is Bill Hutchinson. With the next round, each of his family members is asked to draw their own piece of paper from the black box. The three children are the first to draw. Little Dave chooses a slip, then Nancy and Bill Jr. is the last of the children. Tessie Hutchinson?Bill?s wife?is the fourth to draw, with Bill being last of the family members to receive his fate. One at a time the pieces of paper are opened to reveal each person?s secret. The crowd voices their relief as the children?s papers show them to be out of prize contention. Bill then opens his slip to find that, he too, will not be able to claim the lottery winnings. Tessie?s paper is opened last, to reveal that she is the winner. She has the ?black dot? on her slip, which had been penciled in by Mr. Summers the night before. The crowd backs away from her and prepares to issue her the prize. They all grab stones, and as she cries ?It isn?t fair, it isn?t right?, they begin to pummel her to the ground.
I was utterly appalled and completely surprised when I was finished reading ?The Lottery?. Though there was excellent use of foreshadowing, I was still hoping for a different ending. When Shirley Jackson writes about the children gathering a pile of stones and filling pockets, it is fairly evident that the stones are going to be used in a manner not conducive to continued life. The fact that the men gathered away from the rock pile indicates to me, that they know that what is going to happen is wrong. They don?t have the enthusiasm of the children, who apparently are not mature enough to realize what they are doing. They think of it as a sort of a playtime. When Tessie is the last to show up for the drawing, I had a strong suspicion that she would be involved in the climax of the story. There could not have been any other use for Jackson?s emphasis on her Mrs. Hutchinson?s late arrival. I knew that she was going to be the one to meet her maker. Though I was resolved to the fact that she would be the one, I did not and still do not know why.
I cannot figure out the reason for the ritual stoning. It seems that they continue it only because they do not want to break tradition. This sacrificial act is never really justified. I thought at first, it is done to keep the population down. However, when the reasoning is given for switching to the paper pieces instead of wood ones, I cannot help but think otherwise. It is said that they switched to paper pieces because the town continues to grow and paper is easier to manage. Apparently, the village has accepted the fact that they cannot control the population. Why do they continue with the ritual? I remain confused as to the origin of the annual stoning. For what seem to be fairly modern people, I believe this is a very barbaric practice. Though this is sadistic tale and a bit hard to defend its practices, I judge that it is extremely well written and intrigues the reader to continue on to the end. Shirley Jackson does such a marvelous job with foreshadowing, that the outcome is revealed early in the story. Until the very end though, the reader continues to have hope that Mrs. Hutchinson is going to win the washer-dryer combo.
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