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

: 

S

=Setting 

F

=Foreshadowing 

I

=Irony 

SYM

=Symbolism 

T-W

=Theme: Role of women 

T-R

=Theme: Ritual without meaning 

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.