Explication on The Lottery

The opening scene in The Lottery, by Shirley Jackson, has multiple attributes that are significant to the story’s entirety. Jackson uses imagery, tone, and diction in the scene to help reveal the overall theme of The Lottery, which is tradition within society.

This opening scene has quite a bit of imagery. The first example of imagery used in this scene is very happy and light, “the flowers were blossoming profusely and the grass was richly green.” (Gioia 390). This gives the reader a happy view, and makes the reader think this may be a happy and light story. The second example of imagery is a lot darker, “The black box grew shabbier each year; by now it was no longer completely black but splintered badly along one side to show the original wood color, and in some places faded or stained.” (Gioia 391). The imagery seems to have changed from light and happy to dark. This is telling the reader that the story as a whole might not be happy. The change in imagery reflects with the change in tradition within society. As the story progresses, it is apparent that the lottery itself is a tradition. Although, this tradition is going through a change because the villages around this village are dropping the tradition completely. This is showing the change in society, where even though the lottery is a tradition, it is beginning to seem inhumane to society. Therefore, the imagery shift reflects the shift in the tradition and society within the overall story.

There are two different strong tones within the opening scene. The first tone is a very fun, and happy tone, “Bobby Martin had already stuffed his pockets full of stones, and the other boys soon followed his example, selecting the smoothest and roundest stones;… eventually made a great pile of stones in one corner of the square and guarded it against the raids of the other boys.” (Gioia 390). This is in the second paragraph of the story. The first impression of this quote is that it seems as though the boys are playing a game, in which they find good rocks and collect them. At this point in the story the reader does not know what these rocks will be used for, therefore there is a more innocent impression. The end of this scene ends with a sadder tone, “‘Well, now,’ Mrs. Simmers said soberly, ‘guess we better get started, get this over with, so’s we can go back to work.’” (Gioia 349) Automatically this changes the tone of this scene, and now the reader might begin to wonder what exactly everyone in the village is gathering for. These two tones attributes to the tradition of this society and shows that although at first this tradition might have been good, that now it has grown somber and unwanted by the society within the village.

Lastly Jackson has specific word choices within the diction of this scene. The second sentence starts with the kids gathering, “School was recently over for the summer, and the feeling of liberty sat uneasily on most of them” (Gioia 390). With liberty meaning being free within society, this seems like a very interesting word choice for this story. This relates to the theme because the kids are felling liberty, or freedom, yet they are in a society that they are forced within a tradition to stone one person once per year. Therefore, the people in this society are not free at all. Another example of Jackson’s choice in diction is, “They stood together, away from the pile of stones in the corner, and their jokes were quiet and they smiled rather than laughed.” (Gioia 390). This line is describing the men waiting for the lottery to begin. The part of this line that stands out is, “they smiled rather than laughed”, this is showing that unlike the kids they know what if going on, and that is why they are not laughing. Even though they are not laughing, they are smiling. This seems to be showing that even though they are sad they are still smiling, because this is tradition, and that means that it will continue as so. That relates to the ending of the story, where even though Tessie does not want to be stoned, the whole town does anyway because it is tradition.

Overall this opening scene in The Lottery has many significant parts, and literary devices that reflect the story as a whole. Together this scene can help draw the conclusion that the stories theme is tradition within society.

I took a picture of my roommate doing a scratch ticket. This made me think of the gamble that everyone in this village (and the neighboring villages) went through every year; knowing that on June 27th they would have the drawing for the lottery.

For this image, I decided to take a picture of me drawing Tessie's name as if I was drawing for the lottery. I made the over all image very dark, to recreate the mood in the story when Tessie does get drawn. I did have some light (by candlelight) in the photo to represent that the tradition will keep burning on until the village stands against it.

Works Cited

Gioia, Dana, and Gwynn R.S. The Art of the Short Story. Lamar University, 2006.