Similarities Between The Lottery And The Interlopers

“The expected is just the beginning. The unexpected is what changes our lives.” said by Grey’s anatomy actress Meredith Grey. The stories that are being compared are from two well known authors, H.H. Munro (Saki) and Shirley Jackson. Saki wrote a story about two enemies who have a generational family feud over a piece of land called “The Interlopers” and things take an unexpected turn for the worse in the end and Jackson’s story was about a village acting out their annual activity, “The Lottery”, which also takes an unexpected turn like “The Interlopers”. The authors of “The Interlopers” and “The Lottery”, by Saki and Shirley Jackson, use the literary elements of pacing, foreshadowing, and structure of text to build suspense and tension and

Saki and Jackson both pace the story in a slow manner, making situations in the stories seem so suspenseful that it keeps the audience wonder what to expect next, even though the unexpected is what changes us forever. In “The Interloper” it states, “The two stood glaring at one another for a long silent moment. Each had a rifle in his hand; each had hate in his heart and murder uppermost in his mind.” (Paragraph 4, Sentences 1 and 2). The “long silent moment” adds on suspense as Ulrich and Georg hate each other and the hate is strong. Even though the reader is not there with them, they can almost feel how suspenseful it is plus all the tension just by how Saki words the sentences. In “The Lottery” it states, “By now, all through the crowd there were men holding the small folded papers in their large hand. turning them over and over nervously.” (Lines 294-298) The men of the village seem nervous, as if they knew whoever was chosen they were in for something. Which is what caused all the tension around them. These quotes add on to the slow pacing of the stories as readers can visualize, and almost feel what is going on in the story while still wondering what will happen next. After pacing, readers can next explore how Saki and Jackson also use foreshadowing for their stories to create the effect of surprise, although in

The authors used pacing, foreshadowing, and structure of the text to help create the effect of surprise. Pacing and structure of the text are important because they are basically how fast the text progresses and how the text is structured like chronological order, which is how Saki and Jackson structured their stories. Foreshadowing is also important because Saki and Jackson used it to hint at things that will happen later on in the story. The Lottery and The Interloper are both similar, but they are also different because even though we see suspense in the story along with that effect of surprise, the literary elements are used in different ways since the author’s have different techniques and skills. The unexpected is what keeps life going, and the unexpected is what we see in “The Interlopers” and “The Lottery”, expect the unexpected is what people will say but in truth everything isn’t like