The Lottery Movie Analysis

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In the short story “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson, we are told the story of a seemingly picture-perfect 1960’s town, with laughing children and a Chevy in every garage; but as we read on, learn of the neighborhoods morbid annual tradition. Both the short story and the film adaption wonderfully captured the dark essence of the story, and clearly depict the macabre atmosphere of the annual “lottery”, however I believe that both mediums carried very different imagery, creating a unique experience in their own right.

First, let’s review the film adaption of “The Lottery”; directed by Larry Yust, (1969). The choice of costumes for the film was concise with the style and clothing of the current time period, effectively demonstrating, perhaps not the realistic wardrobe of the 1960’s, but definitely the idealistic and advertised apparel. However, this choice in costume could have been improved by going for the look of the time period of the story, 1948. The set of the film is an open, grassy clearing next to what
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The symbolism in this story is astounding, and truly supports my theme interpretation. The lottery box is black; black in many cultures symbolizes feelings of despair, hopelessness, and death. Not only that, but the names in the story have great meaning too, such as Mr. Graves, symbolizing the killing and ritual murder, or the Delacroix family, meaning “of-the-cross”, represents the perversion of the cross and the hypocrisy of religious sacrifices when the villagers pronounce the name “Dellacroy”. Old Man Warner in both the original short story and film adaption juts in his opinion about the lottery, reminding everyone that the lottery is important, providing no other reasoning besides the comfort and routine of tradition, further supporting my