The short story “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson is an American gothic, written in the 1940’s that keeps the readers on the edge until the very end of the story. The readers go through an entire ritual, hearing names and watching the men approach with a black box to select papers. Jackson never tells us what the lottery is about, or mentions any kind of prize or purpose. To keep suspense throughout her story, Jackson uses the setting, point of view (P.O.V), conversations, diction, and title choice as tools to keep the end a surprise.
To begin with, the setting is wisely described by Jackson: nice summer day, early summer, in the morning, small village of 300, everybody knows everybody, rural environment etc… These are things that aren’t normally associated with crime. Summer and morning, for example, are associated with unconstrained growth. “The flowers are blossoming profusely… grass is richly green” (Jackson 436). These are the first few words of the story and they describe growth, which is beautiful and positive. Because we get the first impression of the story as positive, we are blinded to see the reality of the situation that will unfold. There are some discreet clues that foreshadow a stoning, …show more content…
Summers confuse the readers because summer is a season of growth and life not of death and crime. Along with his name, “Summers”, his character in the story is rather dark when analyzed in depth; in charge of the lottery and takes care of the black box (black representing decay, death and negativity), has no children and owns a coal company (no children representing an absence of life and coal, being black, also represents an absence of light/life). Readers do not suspect this character to be dark because Mr. Summers organizes civic activities such as; square dances, the teen club and the Halloween program, which are all fun things. Consequently, readers assume the lottery is another one of Mr. Summers’s fun civic
To begin with, the setting is wisely described by Jackson: nice summer day, early summer, in the morning, small village of 300, everybody knows everybody, rural environment etc… These are things that aren’t normally associated with crime. Summer and morning, for example, are associated with unconstrained growth. “The flowers are blossoming profusely… grass is richly green” (Jackson 436). These are the first few words of the story and they describe growth, which is beautiful and positive. Because we get the first impression of the story as positive, we are blinded to see the reality of the situation that will unfold. There are some discreet clues that foreshadow a stoning, …show more content…
Summers confuse the readers because summer is a season of growth and life not of death and crime. Along with his name, “Summers”, his character in the story is rather dark when analyzed in depth; in charge of the lottery and takes care of the black box (black representing decay, death and negativity), has no children and owns a coal company (no children representing an absence of life and coal, being black, also represents an absence of light/life). Readers do not suspect this character to be dark because Mr. Summers organizes civic activities such as; square dances, the teen club and the Halloween program, which are all fun things. Consequently, readers assume the lottery is another one of Mr. Summers’s fun civic