Sometimes when reading a story, suddenly a shock appears. The shock usually is created in stories that seem to be normal but then take a turn in a different direction. In many forms of literature authors set up the story without ever letting the readers know that in the end of the story something completely different will happen. Authors create a shock value to make the story more interesting and to keep the audience wondering what will happen next and why something did occur. In "The Lottery" by Shirley Jackson and "A Good Man is Hard to Find" by Flannery O' Connor, both authors use different literary techniques to create a shock value that gets the theme of their stories across to the audience. In "The Lottery" by Shirley Jackson, Jackson uses setting and point of view to create a shock value that gets the theme of blindly following tradition across to the audience. Jackson introduces the setting of the story as a harmless, quaint, and little village on a nice summer day. Jackson writes, "The morning of June 27th was clear and sunny, with the fresh warmth of a full summer day..."(263). She describes a setting which conveys a happy mood. The positive description of the setting leads the audience to believe that the lottery that will take place will be completely opposite than what it really is. Jackson also describes the setting as being a small village. The population of the small village is key to the theme of following tradition. Tradition is key in small towns and villages. Traditions are what keep villages linked together. Jackson however uses the setting of the small village to poke fun of the way the characters in her story follow their own tradition. Tradition for the characters in this village is something they have be... ... middle of paper ... ... in life"(430), meaning killing has stopped bringing him happiness. O' Connors description of the grandmother and the Misfit creates a shock to the audience when both character become recipients of grace. O' Connor and Jackson both use different literary techniques in their stories to create a shock value that gets the theme of both of their stories across. The shock that is created in both stories really is a shock to the audience since the way the stories are set up, it is not expected. The audience did not expect the lottery in Jackson's story to be an event that stones humans. The audience did not expect both the grandmother and the Misfit to receive grace since both of their actions and personalities have been so cruel. Both authors create a shock because it not only helps relay the them but it also leaves the audience intrigued and wondering why in the end.
...re the reader is not able to make any solid connection with any of these characters. It is arguably only through the stories foreshadowing where both authors prepare us with little details like the mileage of the car written down by the grandmother in O’Connor’s story likewise the boys preparation of the stones in Jackson’s Lottery that would inevitably help the reader to comprehend how both these author’s reached the horrifically shocking climatic endings in both short stories. I believe the authors similar use of these three variables help the reader to understand the message being delivered through these stories of the human condition and its effects on a society that only embraces its traditional moral beliefs and values.
The setting of the story helps to magnify its impact on the reader because it is set in a small town similar to the one many of us may know of, and that is symbolic of everything that we consider to be right in America. The story begins on a wonderful summer day in a small town. The author describes the day as very joyful but strikes a contrast between the surroundings of the town and the atmosphere of the people gathered in the square. The atmosphere is sober, where the adults ?stood together, away from the stones in the corner, and their jokes were quiet and they smiled rather then laughed."(268) This, in just the third paragraph, is a indication through symbolism of the townsfolk?s sober mood that something was amiss. The setting for the lottery also takes place in the same place as the square dances, the teen-age club, and the Halloween program.(268) This unifies our lives with those of the story sense we can relate to those types of events, and is symbolic in showing that even though this dastardly deed happens here that it is still the main place of celebration. Showing how easy it is for us, as human beings, to clean our conscientious by going back to a place that, on June 27, is a place of death and make it a place of delight.
The first time I read “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson, I thought it would be about someone in a desperate situation who wins a large amount of money. However, after reading the story I was shocked and disgusted like millions of other readers because of what the “lottery” was all about. After my shock wore off I thought about why the author had chosen to be so cynical. It occurred to me that she needed to shock people into changing for the better. She believed that the biggest problem in her society were the people who would live their lives without thinking about changing themselves for the better. She stresses the importance of questioning the validity of everything as opposed to conforming blindly to the majority.
When Shirley Jackson published this story, the audience responded with negative feedback; it terrified the readers to read about such cruelty and inhumanity. Jackson wrote this story to show the reality of corrupt society and the underlying secrets of wickedness hidden in human nature. Through this story, people can see the truth and value of reality and realize that the world is full of immoral practices and beliefs. Jackson creates a parallel society that could be compared to the world and represented by certain events.
Many people consider “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson one of the best stories of the twentieth century. It is a compelling story that raises many questions and uses symbolism and metaphors to get its point across. Elton Gahr goes into great detail of these literary devices in his article “A Careful Look at The Lottery by Shirley Jackson.” Gahr begins by explaining foreshadowing. He explains that Jackson begins foreshadowing as early as the second paragraph. These details are key to the stories ending and “Most readers will miss the significance of those actions because they don’t understand them, but it makes the end of the story a realization rather than a surprise.” Gahr then goes into the themes of the story. One of the biggest themes being
Jackson rarely ends her stories with a resolution of the plot; instead, a dramatic incident or revelation serves to illustrate the irony she sees in the world. In her most famous short story, "The Lottery," Jackson takes pains to describe a village of hard-working, upstanding Americans.
In the movie version of “The Lottery,” the director chose not to emphasize the beauty of the day the lottery was held with his set or the comfortable nature of the people attending it. This dulled the effect of the ending, but it made the viewer more suspicious and uncomfortable through the movie. The director’s choice to make Mr. Summers a serious character instead of the “round faced, jovial man” in the text served to cause suspense to creep into the story but sacrificing the atmosphere created by his overly happy attitude. In the movie, the costumes of the characters were familiar and normal, which made their behavior more disconcerting. More changes from the short story occurred as the children were repeatedly shown gathering rocks. The movie adaptation turned it into a more significant event than Jackson, causing an ominous feeling in the viewer.
Over the years many critics have wrote articles on Shirley Jackson's numerous works. Many critics had much to say about Jackson's most famous short story, "The Lottery". Her insights and observations about man and society are disturbing; and in the case of "The Lottery," they are shocking. "The themes themselves are not new, evil cloaked in seeming good, prejudice and hypocrisy, loneliness and frustration, psychological studies of minds that have slipped the bonds of reality" (Friedman). Literary critic, Elizabeth Janeway wrote that, " 'The Lottery' makes its effect without having to state a moral about humanity's need to deflect the knowledge of its own death on a victim. That uneasy consciousness is waked in the reader himself by the impact of the story. Miss Jackson's great gift is not to create a world of fantasy and terror, but rather to discover the existence of the grotesque in the ordinary world. (Janeway).
In the story “The Lottery” written by Shirley Jackson, the author uses certain details, that in the end, add to the horror. One detail Jackson includes is the actions of the kids in the beginning. “Bobby and Harry Jones and Dickie Delacroix… eventually made a great pile of stones in the corner of the square and guarded it against the raids of the other boys.” depicts Jackson (1). This can be seen as adding to the terror of the end of the story because the kids seem to be treating the events to come as a game, even though the “game” may consist of them stoning their own parents or friends. Another detail in the story that leads to an even more frightening ending can be found within this quote, “Alright folks” Mr. Summers says “Let’s finish quickly”
In “The Lottery”, Jackson wrote about a special tradition of a small village. June 27th was warm and sunny, and it gave the impression like nothing could possibly go wrong. Everyone knows the lottery as an exciting thing, and everybody wants to win, but this lottery is unlike any other. This lottery was actually the tradition of stoning of an innocent villager; that year it was Tessie Hutchinson. Though the horrific ending was not expected, throughout the story Jackson gave subtle hints that this was not an average lottery. Jackson foreshadowed the death of Tessie Hutchinson with stones, the black box, and the three legged stool; she showed that unquestioning support of tradition can be fatal.
"The Lottery," a short story written by Shirley Jackson, is a tale about a disturbing social practice. The setting takes place in a small village consisting of about three hundred denizens. On June twenty-seventh of every year, the members of this traditional community hold a village-wide lottery in which everyone is expected to participate. Throughout the story, the reader gets an odd feeling regarding the residents and their annual practice. Not until the end does he or she gets to know what the lottery is about. Thus, from the beginning of the story until almost the end, there is an overwhelming sense that something terrible is about to happen due to the Jackson's effective use of foreshadowing through the depiction of characters and setting. Effective foreshadowing builds anticipation for the climax and ultimately the main theme of the story - the pointless nature of humanity regarding tradition and cruelty.
The setting in the beginning of The Lottery, by Shirley Jackson, creates a mood of peacefulness and tranquillity. The image portrayed by the author is that of a typical town on a normal summer day. Shirley Jackson uses this setting to foreshadow an ironic ending.
The Lottery was Shirley Jackson 's most recognized short story. Her story was written with a very bold plot. “ Shirley Jackson wrote of the essentially evil nature of human beings. "The Lottery," tells of a ritual in a typical New England town in which local residents choose one among their number to be sacrificed” this ritual supposedly helps the growth of their crops, and brings fertility to the people(Wanger-Martin). Though there is no actual evidence of ritual making a difference in prosperity. Later on it is even mentioned other villages have dropped the violent tradition. In the Lottery Jackson used a multitude of themes, and symbolism in hopes of leaving a lasting message for the readers. More themes than the ritual become prominent in the novel. For instance many critics agree that the lottery is a tale “which addresses a variety of themes, including the dark side of human nature, the subjugation of women, the dangers of ritualized behavior, and the potential for cruelty when the individual submits to the tyranny of the status quo”(Wilson, 139-146). All of these are strategically interwoven in the story. Jackson uses a variety of different themes to teach a lesson about man in The
In Jackson’s “The Lottery” (1948), she lulls the reader into thinking that the story is going to end on a positive note by using three aspects of literary devices: setting, symbolism and imagery. She uses setting to make the reader stray away from any negatives and start off the story on a positive note, symbolism to depict a positive scenery, and imagery in which she uses descriptive words or phrases for the reader to create mental images and distracts the reader from focusing on the main event of the story. In turn, the reader doesn’t anticipate the ending; resulting in a final effect of shock and horror towards the ending of the story.
The Lottery by Shirley Jackson is about how society runs towards violence to practice tradition whether it have a purpose and meaning or it is bizarre and pointless and people tend to look for such event to vent their rage and anger out towards others. The story is written based on irony, making the reader thinks that nothing is wrong and everything is going well in this little village. Jackson mostly uses situational irony throughout the story, surprising the reader by the characters actions and the event of the story. Irony in this story comes in different ways and in different parts throughout the story, starting with the title itself to the setting of the story, character actions plays a huge part and also the significance