Irony And Symbolism In Shirley Jackson's The Lottery

“The crowd was quiet. A girl whispered, "I hope it's not Nancy"; not every winner of a contest receives a favorable prize (Backpack Literature 242). When reading the beginning of the fictional short story The Lottery, the title leads the reader to assume that one of the characters in the story will become lucky. The author reveals the hidden theme towards the ending when the story’ true meaning becomes apparent. The author Shirley Jackson gives the reader subtle symbolic hints that the small New England town has a ritualistic nature. When the reader reaches the ending of The Lottery; all of Shirley Jackson’s signals begin to come together similar to puzzle pieces. The reader realizes the irony in the story because the winner of the annual
For example, in the short story The Lottery, Shirley Jackson uses an object to emphasize symbolism; therefore, the black box reveals this symbolic importance because the specific box plays a part in the town’s yearly human sacrificial ritual called the lottery. “The black box grew shabbier each year”, Shirley Jackson goes into exceptional detail about the black box’s appearance to show the reader how long this particular black box has been a part of the town’s annual sacrificial ritual (Backpack Literature 237). The age of the box conveys to the reader that this town does not plan on changing or stopping this sacrificial ritual. The town continues this ritual practice because the town believes this ritualistic sacrifice secures the prosperity of the town’s crops. Shirley Jackson used character names to reveal symbolism, for example; the name Mr. Graves representing the death during the lottery, the name Mr. Summers represents the time of year the lottery commences, and the name Mrs. Delacroix means “of the cross” in French which represents the ritual. Shirley Jackson goes into detail about the Delacroix name being mispronounced as “Dellacroy” by the villagers which symbolizes the corruption of the lottery ritual (Backpack
The film The Thinning uses standard tablets as a symbolic object; some of the symbolism is not apparent until the ending of the movie. The tablets give a symbolic importance of the yearly testing ritual. All American schools hold annually testing to pick out the lowest scoring students, the American population removes the low scoring students by sending them away to become factory workers who manufacture the tablets used for the annual testing ritual. Once the students become factory workers also known as corporate slaves, then the corporate slave is no longer able to see their family or be a part of society. The film The Thinning uses symbolism and voice traits to communicate society’s corruption to the viewer the same way The Lottery conveys an identical message. The film The Thinning is a popular movie that is a valid representation of the short story The Lottery because the film carries a similar theme of ritualistic human sacrifice. The Thinning is about a new world order where the United States hosts an annual intelligence quotient test for all school children as young as kindergartners to as old as high school seniors. The significance of the opening and closing of the film The Thinning allows the viewer to grasp the overall moral lesson conveyed in the film. The beginning of the film uses symbolic traits and voice to convey a deeper meaning that is