本站原创摘 要 ：“The Lottery” is a famous short story by American writer Shirley Jackson. The theme of the story is to criticize old beliefs and rituals that were governing people’s mind and behior. The short story achieve this through characterization and the application of symboli.
摘 要 ：《彩票》是美国作家雪莉·杰克逊的一篇著名短篇小说,它通过生动的人物刻画和象征手法的运用,揭示了禁锢人们思想和行为的荒诞传统和仪式,批判美国当代社会信仰缺失状态下人性的沦丧.
关 键 词 ：theme, Characterization, symboli
关 键 词 ：主题；人物刻画；象征主义
作者简介：郭妮（1981.8-）女,湖北武汉人,湖北师范学院外语学院英语系讲师,英美文学硕士,研究方向为美国文学.
[中图分类号]：I106[文献标识码]：A
[文章编号]：1002-2139(2012)-11-0014-02
The lottery was not a funny thing in which everybody can try his luck, but a very cruel and hey thing, for the selected person will bee a sacrifice and be stoned by other villagers.
Shirley Jackson wrote the story to criticize old beliefs and rituals that were governing people’s mind and behior through characterization and the application of symboli.
The lottery, as a ritual, governed the mind and behior of most of the villagers like a hard and fast rule, with the exception of a few. They were so submissive to it that they would rather bear the annual torture of waiting for the result of the lottery and viewing the inhuman scene in which a member of their own munity was stoned,than do something to change the ritual.
Children, the first characters appearing in the story, were the most innocent and naï,ve group of people in the village. Thus it is natural that they regarded any gathering as fun. It was also possible that their parents had taught them the lottery was good for their harvest. However, would it be fine for the children to see one of their old acquaintances or elder friends or even their own parents be stoned Wouldn’t they feel miserable But none of the children was aware that the lottery was not really a fun thing and they took it as a game and arrived at the lottery ahead of time. One of them stuffed his pockets full of stones and all the other boys followed suit. They even selected “the oothest and roundest stones”. Their behior should be attributed to the ignorance of the adults.
Men in the village talked and iled instead of laughed when they waited for the lottery. From “their jokes were quiet” we can see they were either too timid to make any noise or very obedient and respectful to the ing lottery. All that some of them could do is to plain and detest in their hearts and not to show their true feelings towards the annual public affair.
As a representative of the older generation, Old Man Warner insisted on not only carrying out the lottery every June, but also operating it seriously. He firmly believed in the ridiculous old saying that “Lottery in June, corn be hey soon.” He was unsatiied to see Joe Summers, the host of the lottery “up there joking with everybody”. Also he prided in his long history of participating in the lottery. He said, “Seventy-seventh year I been in the lottery” as he went through the crowd, so that he can convince everybody the importance and respect of the lottery demanded.