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Which part of "The Lottery" foreshadows the lottery's essential nature?

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The part of the story "The Lottery" that foreshadows the essential nature of the lottery is when Mr. Martin and his son hesitate before choosing a slip of paper from the ominous black box. This hesitation reveals the sinister nature of the lottery.

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Part of the success of this story and the shock of its ending lies in how subtly Jackson weaves in her foreshadowing that this is not simply a benign lottery. The boys gathering piles of rocks are ominous, as is the following reaction, which occurs as Mr. Summers places the black lottery box on the stool:

The villagers kept their distance, leaving a space between themselves and the stool.

This detail is subtle, but in a short story, every word counts, and we might wonder why the villagers want to keep away from the stool.

After that, Mr Summers, asks, "Some of you fellows want to give me a hand?" We learn that

there was a hesitation before two men, Mr. Martin and his oldest son, Baxter, came forward to hold the box steady on the stool while Mr. Summers stirred up the papers inside it.

Again, this is a...

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subtle detail, a mere "hesitation" before people volunteer to help with a task that involves touching the box. It is easy to miss, but the dread the villagers have about being near the box foreshadows the barbaric ritual that is to come.

As the lottery begins, most of the crowd is "quiet, wetting their lips, not looking around." This nervous fear also foreshadows what is to come.

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Since by definition foreshadowing involves suggestions, or hints, of what is to come in a narrative, it typically occurs in the exposition of a short story or in the early chapters of novels. Often the foreshadowing is so subtle that a reader does not recognize it until reading further in the narrative; indeed, such is the case in Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery." For, she camouflages the horror to come with distracting details. Interestingly, Jackson uses foreshadowing from the exposition and through the rising action of her story, ending only at the climax.

Here are some examples of the subtle foreshadowing of the terrible conclusion:

  • The children, recently released from school for the summer, feel uneasy about their liberty. They gather together quietly for a while, seemingly because they are not yet accustomed to their freedom from class, but later the reader realizes their discomfort is for another reason.
  • Bobby Martin "had already stuffed his pockets full of stones, and the other boys soon followed his example." This action hints at the stoning of Tessie Hutchinson
  • The men gather, but their "jokes were quiet and they smiled rather than laughed." Again there is a discomfort and uneasiness suggested.
  • The women call to their children, who come "reluctantly." Only Bobby Martin runs "laughing back to the pile of stones," an action which later reveals his sadistic nature.
  • Mr. Summers, who "had time and energy to devote to civic activities," arrives in the square with an old wooden black box, which seems ominous, as it later proves to be.
  • Since names are often used in foreshadowing, the name of the postmaster, Mr. Graves, hints at the dark ending, as does Mrs. Delacroix, with croix meaning "cross" in French. Tessie is not crucified, but she is certainly becomes the sacrificial victim just as many martyrs of early Christianity were.
  • "A sudden hush fell on the crowd" as Mr. Summers "cleared his throat and looked at the list." Jackson's diction here expresses again a certain uneasiness and foreboding about Mr. Summers's forthcoming duty.
  • After Mr. Summers gets everyone's attention, there is "a long pause, a breathless pause" and "[F]or a minute, no one moved...."
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What are the hints in the story "The Lottery"?

In spite of the beautiful setting that Jackson opens with in "The Lottery," it is very quickly clear that there are dark currents in the story.

By the second paragraph, we have boys stuffing their pockets with stones and creating large piles of stones, along with younger girls clinging to the hands of their older siblings.  Rocks and stones are not the stuff of a charming village. In most cultures, they symbolize some sort of violence.  Piles of rocks are used to mark graves in some cultures, as well.  And little girls who live in a safe and happy society have no reason to cling to the hands of their siblings.

In the third paragraph, we see some tension in the villagers.  People are smiling rather than laughing and the jokes are "quiet."  One child who has been running and laughing is called "sharply" by his father, and he joins his family after this reprimand.  There is something about this occasion that suppresses any happiness in the villagers, some tension that is running through the crowd.

In the fourth paragraph, Mr. Summer appears with his black box and three-legged stool.  A black box, rather than a white box or even a red box, is significant.  Black is the color, in western cultures, at least, of death and evil.  Nothing good is going to come from a black box. The stool is reminiscent, at least to me, of the ducking stools used to try witches in New England, a sort of old-fashioned form of water-boarding.  We also learn in this paragraph that the villagers preserve a distance between themselves and Mr. Summers. We wonder why, and we assume that Mr. Summers is going to be doing something that is not good for the villagers.  

All of these hints are on the very first page of the story. We begin to wonder what this lottery is all about, why there are stones standing by, why people are somber and tense, and what the black box is for.  You may be able to find further hints on the second page, too.  By the time Tessie is stoned to death, we are no longer very surprised. 

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In Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery," how does the author foreshadow the ending?

Another example of foreshadowing, if not of the specific ending then at least of some sense of the danger ahead, is when the narrator describes the men of the village as they gather in the square. The narrator says that 

They stood together, away from the pile of stones in the corner, and their jokes were quiet and they smiled rather than laughed.

The fact that the men try to avoid the stones which the boys are piling up already might make us wonder why they would. Stones are only stones, unless they are used for something unpleasant. Further, their jokes are quiet and they do not laugh aloud, only smiling at most. Something is clearly dampening their spirits and it seems to be connected with the reason for the gathering.

Later, when Mr. Summers arrives with the black box and three-legged stool on which to put it, "there was a murmur . . .  among the villagers" as though the sight of him or the ceremony over which he is to preside is somehow disturbing to them. Then, the narrator tells us, 

The villagers kept their distance, leaving a space between themselves and the stool.

There is also some hesitation when Mr. Summers asks for assistance, implying that people didn't want to touch the box or stool either. Why would grown men and women back away from such innocuous-looking objects? Again, they must represent or call to mind something very unpleasant, and that unpleasant thing is foreshadowed by details like these.

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In "The Lottery," Jackson foreshadows the stoning of Tessie Hutchinson early in the story. If you take a look at the second paragraph, you will see that she uses imagery to do this. Bobby Martin, for example, is described as stuffing stones into his pockets. There are also other boys who select the "smoothest and roundest stones." In the same paragraph, a group of boys make a large pile of stones and guard them against the "raids" of other boys.

Similarly, in the third paragraph, Jackson describes how the men stand together, away from the pile of stones.

By highlighting the collecting and gathering of stones, Jackson subtly hints at the violence which takes place at the end of the story; specifically, the singling out of Tessie Hutchinson and the use of these stones to kill her.  

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One of the great aspects of this story is that there is so little foreshadowing, that the ending is so unexpected.  In retrospect, however, the reader can find small little clues that the author leaves to foreshadow the ominous reality of the lottery. 

The first clue occurs right at the beginning of the short story as the boys:

"made a great pile of stones in the corner of the square and guarded it against the raids from the other boys."

Jackson also mentions that:

"Bobby Martin has already stuffed his pockets full of stones, and the other boys soon followed his example, selecting the smoothest and roundest stones."

The inclusion of these details makes the reader ponder the purpose of the stones.  Most readers would not come to the conclusion that the boys would use the rocks to kill someone, but would probably conclude that perhaps they were going to go skip rocks down at the lake or something. 

The ritual aspects of the lottery process also suggest something unusual, the fact that the box is locked in the coal company office coupled with the proceedings where the official leads a chant.

The nervous reactions of the crowd to the drawings also make the reader sense that the lottery holds some darker meaning or purpose.  For example, when the Watson boy draws for the first time, he "blink[s] his eyes nervously" and a few voices in the crowd reassure him:  "Good fellow...glad to see your mother's got a man to do it."

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What details foreshadow the ending of "The Lottery"?

To me there are a few details that stand out as elements of foreshadowing after I have read the entirety of the story.

First, the stones that the children were playing with in the beginning seemed so simple and purposeless. By the time the resolution of the story is complete, I know their purpose.

Second, the fact that Tessie Hutchison is late always made me wonder until I get to the very end. Of all the people, why is she late? I wonder, would it have had as great an impact if a different person were late? Probably not.

Third, the references of the old man who suggests that the lottery has to be done because it has always been done makes me think evil. It makes me think of the things in our society we do just to do them, not so much that they are right. This makes me wonder what the great evil is going to be in the end.

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