The Lottery Symbolism Essay
Pointless Violence Under a Veil of Tradition in “The Lottery”: A Discovery Via the Tools of Irony and Symbolism Within the Framework of Formalism
The approach to literary criticism known as Formalism focuses on the literary text itself as the source for meaning, and deems the text as the only context a critic should turn to for research. It is a style of criticism that places emphasis on the literary tools and techniques in a text, apart from a text’s or authors historical context. The key to Formalism is structural and textual analysis. With the formalist assumptions that format and context are connected, and literature is ultimately symbolic, it is possible to extract meaning in the short story, “The Lottery”, by Shirley Jackson using …show more content…
John Ellis in “The Relevant Context of a Literary Text” dismisses the problem of allusions in formalism by stating that historical. Cultural and biblical allusions become part of a linguistic community’s shared meanings and associations. These allusions do not force the reader to go outside of the text to understand it, but rather to relate the text to the reader’s own frame of reference. As such, name symbolism in “The Lottery” help reveal the true nature of the story. Mr. Summer’s name suggests not only the setting of the story on a summer day and the happy associations with the season, but also further supports the cosmic irony especially when in conjunction with the name of Mr. Graves. Mr. Graves is the postmaster of the town, which could serve to also mean a grim reaper of death as he helps Mr. Summer conducts the ceremony. This symbol is made more ironical when looking at Mrs. Grave’s comment: “Time sure goes fast” (296). Old Man Warner stands for the tradition in the society and also for the superstitious warning that there may be unknown dangers were the tradition of the lottery to
The approach to literary criticism known as Formalism focuses on the literary text itself as the source for meaning, and deems the text as the only context a critic should turn to for research. It is a style of criticism that places emphasis on the literary tools and techniques in a text, apart from a text’s or authors historical context. The key to Formalism is structural and textual analysis. With the formalist assumptions that format and context are connected, and literature is ultimately symbolic, it is possible to extract meaning in the short story, “The Lottery”, by Shirley Jackson using …show more content…
John Ellis in “The Relevant Context of a Literary Text” dismisses the problem of allusions in formalism by stating that historical. Cultural and biblical allusions become part of a linguistic community’s shared meanings and associations. These allusions do not force the reader to go outside of the text to understand it, but rather to relate the text to the reader’s own frame of reference. As such, name symbolism in “The Lottery” help reveal the true nature of the story. Mr. Summer’s name suggests not only the setting of the story on a summer day and the happy associations with the season, but also further supports the cosmic irony especially when in conjunction with the name of Mr. Graves. Mr. Graves is the postmaster of the town, which could serve to also mean a grim reaper of death as he helps Mr. Summer conducts the ceremony. This symbol is made more ironical when looking at Mrs. Grave’s comment: “Time sure goes fast” (296). Old Man Warner stands for the tradition in the society and also for the superstitious warning that there may be unknown dangers were the tradition of the lottery to