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The Lottery

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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, follo...

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Submitted by: 123student
Date Submitted: 02-12-08 7:07am
Category: Miscellaneous
Words: 951
Pages: 3.8