The Lottery An Analytical View of Foreshadowing Shirley Jackson’s The Lottery is a classic example of clever foreshadowing. Jackson’s use of foreshadowing starts with very simple seemly unimportant details and evolves into undeniable facts that lead the reader against their own understanding of what is taking place in the story. Foreshadowing is a technique a writer uses to give an important detail in a manner in which the detail seems unimportant at the …showed first 75 words of 669 total…

…showed last 75 words of 669 total…in June, corn grow heavy soon.” Lastly, the reader’s fears are conformed when Jackson shows Mr. Hutchinson has to forcefully remove his wife’s paper from her hand. The story ends very disturbingly with Mrs. Hutchinson standing in a cleared space, pleading as the townspeople “were upon her.” Jackson’s clever use of foreshadowing in The Lottery was at times used against the reader, showing us how our own opinions can sometimes mislead us.