Use Of Situational Irony In The Lottery By Shirley Jackson

When most people play the lottery today, they think about having wealth. Generally, people who win are happy about it whether they win one dollar or a million. The lottery in our society has grown to support education and it is often worth several million dollars. Usually, the winner of the lottery gains a lot of recognition for the money they win. But what would happen if there was a small town where people held a yearly lottery in which the “winner” was the member of the town who was not sacrificed? This question is answered in Shirley Jackson’s short story, “The Lottery.” In reading this story, and reading literary criticism about the story, there were many symbols and much symbolism in this story.

One example of irony in “The Possibility of Evil” is that throughout most of the short story, Miss Strangeworth, the protagonist who writes judgemental letters to people, is portrayed as a friendly lady, but by the end it is shown how rude she truly is. This example reveals that Shirley Jackson is using irony to appeal to the reader because it tricks the reader into thinking that Miss Strangeworth is nice when really she is not, which keeps the reader on their feet. In “The Lottery” the author also uses irony to make the story more entertaining. The story is ironic because the title has a positive connotation, connected to winning money, but in the story, winning the lottery is actually a way of choosing a human sacrifice in the town. Shirley Jackson perfectly tells the story by slowly revealing the irony in it. In the beginning of the story, she wrote, “Bobby Martin ducked under his mother’s grasping hand and ran, laughing, back to the pile of stones” (Jackson 3). This gives a hint to the irony that is exposed by the end and also makes the reader question the story. “The Lottery” and “The Possibility of Evil” both appear to be innocent storylines, but Shirley Jackson uses irony to change that and give a twist to both narratives.

The best feeling one can experience is winning a prize. For example, when one wins the lottery, one is excited, however not the lottery in the story “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson. The lottery in this story represents a certain kind of irony known as situational irony. Now, this is not the only example of irony included in this story there are also examples of verbal irony and dramatic irony. In The story “The Lottery” there are countless instances of situational irony, verbal irony, and dramatic irony that presents readers with the barbaric ways of the town and allows readers to have an insight on the town’s issues.

What makes stories special is the ability to portray meaning between the lines. Every author has their own characteristics and spin that they incorporate into each of their pieces. These can include character genre, symbolism, plot structure, and irony. Shirley Jackson writes an ironic story about a small village who partakes in an annual lottery. The village looks forward to this day and moods are always high. However when the reader gets to the end of the short story they are shocked to find the lottery is a drawing for who in the village gets stoned to death. In The Lottery, Jackson surprises her readers by putting an ironic twist at the end of her tale, by filling the story with warming articulation, light hearted characters, but

When writing, authors use various writing techniques and devices to better their story. From onomatopoeia, and similes, to mood and setting, these devices are what make the stories we read astounding. Atmosphere specifically is imperative to a great writing piece as it is prevalent throughout the entire story. From the first three words to the last three words, the reader is focused on the mood they are interpreting from the storyline. In “The Lottery” written by Shirley Jackson, the mood is what makes the story so amazing and helps us understand the theme.

The use of Satire/Irony within literature establishes situations where the unlikelihood of the occurrence of an event will happen. Jackson’s manipulation of his story, The Lottery, provides an unexpected twist to what one may seem to be a normal subject. Northrop Frye’s The Singing School, suggests that all stories are told in either one of four ways: Comedy, Romance, Tragedy or Satire/Irony (Frye 18). The use of Irony and its conventional associations eludes the reader from interpreting a story as a Romance, but instead give the reader a reversed twist. This use of ironic convention in literary work is seen through Shirley Jackson’s short story, The Lottery; the story of Tessie

Within the first few lines of Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery" we are faced with such adjectives as clear, sunny, fresh and warmth. She goes on to paint a picture of small children just out of school for the summer, as the townspeople gather for the annual Lottery. This leads us to believe that the rest of the story is as cheery as the summer day initially described. We as the readers are virtually unaware of the horrible senseless events that lie ahead. Through the use of symbolism Shirley Jackson reveals the underlying decay of ethics that results from an empty ritual followed by narrow-minded people.

     Irony is a main theme in Shirley Jackson’s short story “The Lottery.” The irony in the story can be separated into three main

    "The Lottery," a short story written by Shirley Jackson, is a tale about a disturbing social practice.  The setting takes place in a small village consisting of about three hundred denizens.  On June twenty-seventh of every year, the members of this traditional 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 and their annual practice.  Not until the end does he or she gets to know what the lottery is about.  Thus, from the beginning of the story until almost the end, there is an overwhelming sense that something terrible is about to happen due to the Jackson's effective

In the short story, “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson the change in tone shifts over time starting with a gleeful and sunny beginning turning to a ghastly and horrifying story towards the resolution. The author shifts her tone in order to make a more dramatic ending that will stick with the reader, the ending transforms the short story from realism to symbolism so that the readers can further use this story in a real world context.

In her story “The Lottery”, Shirley Jackson manages to catch the readers’ attention and ultimately shock them with an unexpected ending; all of which help her emphasize her critique toward the dark side of human nature and the evil that resides, sometimes, in those who we less expect it from. Jackson uses symbolism throughout the story that helps her set the mood and also makes the readers wonder and analyze the senseless violence and cruelty in their own lives.

Society today sees the lottery as an easy way to win a ginormous amount of cash just by buying a little slip of paper with a combination of numbers. The irony that Shirley Jackson uses in her short story, The Lottery, is used to the extreme by not only the title being ironic, but also within the story. The lottery is seen as a way to gain cash, but the ironic part of the title is that the reader sees it and thinks that the story will be about someone winning a big prize, yet the winner is sentenced to being stoned to death. Within the story, Shirley Jackson writes about how one member of the community ultimately chooses who wins the lottery. Another ironic thing about someone chooses the winner is that one of the communities sons picked his own father to win the lottery. Linda Wagner-Martin analyzes The Lottery and its irony by writing, “Bringing in the small children as she does, from early in the story (they are gathering stones, piling them up where they will be handy, and participating in the ritual as if it were a kind of play), creates a poignance not only for the death of Tessie the mother, but for the sympathy the crowd gives to the youngest Hutchinson, little Dave. Having the child draw his own slip of paper from the box reinforces the normality of the occasion, and thereby adds to Jackson's irony. It is family members, women and children, and fellow residents who are being killed through this orderly, ritualized process. As Jackson herself once wrote, "I hoped, by setting a particularly brutal ancient rite in the present and in my own village, to shock the story's

Shirley Jackson, the author of the short story “The Lottery” is an unusual story of a town caught in a trap of following tradition. Shirley Jackson uses many symbols in the story to relate to the theme. By doing this it helps the reader understand the story and the message she is trying to get across. Jackson uses tone, setting, and symbolism to conduct a theme for her readers. By doing this she creates connections to the theme by using the black box and old man Warner as a symbol.

The black box is not only Alliteration, but it is also a symbol in “The Lottery”. Martine Ma declares, “The black box holds the key between life or death for every single one of the townspeople”. Inside the black box is a “slip of paper” (Jackson1870) with “a black spot” (Jackson1870) that would declare the death of a villager and the sacrifice for the harvest. The black box also represents ‘evil’ in “The Lottery”. Seth Cassel stated, “The villagers have become entranced in the gruesome tradition of stoning people.” Proving that the black box has manipulated the townspeople into killing their fellow villagers because of the lottery the black box

Irony: the use of words to convey a meaning that is the opposite of its literal meaning or a technique of indicating an intention or attitude opposite to that which is actually or states (Dictionary.com). Through small and witty one liners, or a bigger dramatic irony situation contrasting two very different things, irony can be very beneficial for the reader to understand the story. Both of these stories have a corrupt dystopian society that the main character tries to draw attention to and through the use of irony, the author can portray the corruptness to the audience. Irony is used in many pieces of literature mostly for a comedic element, but in the context that it is used in both “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson and