The Lottery

“The Lottery” is an extraordinary story filled with mysterious traditions that are held in high honor. In her story, Shirley Jackson uses foreshadowing to open the reader’s mind to the ides that things are not always as innocent as they appear and beneath that innocence evil can arise.
Shirley Jackson at the beginning of the story lets the reader make his or her own interpretation of what seems to be an innocent game. She tells the reader that the boys from the town “made a great pile of stones in one corner of the square”(Jackson500). Since the atmosphere seems joyous with children laughing and playing the reader is left to feel that nothing out of the ordinary is taking place. When the reader finds out that the adults go no where near the corner that the stones are in and that the boys are putting some in their pockets for an event that is going to take place later an easy feeling is lef...