'Symbolism In The Lottery'

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Symbolism and Its Importance In a story, symbolism is an important key that adds to the story to make it more interesting. Symbolism is one of the biggest keys to a story. Symbolism gives a deeper meaning and goes beyond the literal importance. Symbolism is important in many different stories. Such stories as “The Lottery”, “The Necklace,” and “Jury of Her Peers,” all portray symbolism sometime throughout the story. In the short story “The Lottery”, Shirley Jackson uses symbolism to give a deeper meaning to her horrifying story. In this story, we get reminded how cruel society can be, but yet we are so blinded to realize the majority of cruelty that happens around us. Usually, most people love to win the lottery, however in this story,…show more content…
The title of this short story simply represents symbolism: a diamond necklace in this story is the primary symbolic item. The necklace is used to represent beauty in real life, however in this story it was used to represent wealth and high social status. Madame Loisel needed the necklace because she didn’t own a pair of jewels and felt it was “humiliating” to look poor around rich women. She thinks having this necklace will catch the attention of these important women. It represents her social class. However, since she becomes greedy, it leads to her doom. She borrows the necklace from Madame Forestier for a party, but when she gets home she misplaces the necklace and is forced to borrow a great amount of cash to buy a replacement. The necklace in this story can be deceiving. Throughout the story, all the characters think that necklace is attested, however Madame Forestier reveals at the end of the story that it is actually an imitation. In reality, Madame Forestier was only middle class, and not a rich person that everyone…show more content…
In this story, Susan Glaspell uses symbolism shows the role that women were expected to play in this particular society. Character names throughout the story are also used to symbolize different things, as well as the bird, phone, and setting throughout the story. In this story, the bird is symbolic of Mrs. Wright. It symbolizes her because she is very timid and caged. Women were very hesitant to speak and act in ways men told them not to. Throughout the entire story, the men are absolutely disrespectful towards the women, but the women never stand up for themselves. The birdcage is another symbol, this symbolizes feeling trapped due to the fact of no opinion and not being able to express their feelings because of being timid. “..kind of like a bird herself-real sweet and pretty, but kind of timid and fluttery"(Glaspell) represents how others described her. The bird is cage liked Minnie is in her relationship. Minnie Wright’s name is symbolic because she feels like her voice is small and isn’t ever
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