THE LOTTERY BY SHIRLEY JACKSON Literary Devices Notes

Annotate: • To take notes as you read (mark up your text). • Highlighting or underlining alone is NOT annotating.

ANNOTATION KEY: q. S=Setting q. F=Foreshadowing q. I=Irony q. SYM=Symbolism q. T-W=Theme: Role of women q. T-R=Theme: Ritual without meaning q. T-MV=Theme: Mob Violence

Setting: (S) • Time and place • Underline, circle or highlight all references to setting AND write an “S” in the margin next to that passage.

Foreshadowing: (F) • Hints in the story about what might happen later.

IRONY: (I) • When something is different than what you expect it to be. • Can overlap with other literary devices.

SYMBOLISM (SYM) • Something that represents something else.

THEME (T) • A message the author wants you to get from the story; a point the author is trying to make. A story can have several themes.

Theme #1: Role of Women (T-W) • Jackson wants us to pay attention to the way women act and are treated in this story. This was a comment on society at the time the story was published (1948).

Theme #2: Ritual without Meaning (T-R) • Jackson wants us to think about times when people blindly follow traditions without pausing to think of the meaning behind them.

Theme #3: Mob Violence (T-MV) • Jackson wants us to think about the fact that when people are in a group, they may do things that they would never do alone. This “mob mentality” makes it easy to avoid taking personal responsibility for our actions.

Annotating leads to…. . better reading, thinking, writing.