The Lottery

16 Pages 3968 Words

Also, Shirley Jackson maintains the comfortable atmosphere while introducing the residents of the town. First, she describes the children assembling and breaking into ,,boisterous play"(ebd.). She lets appear the men as gathering together and talking about ,,planting and rain, tractors and taxes"(ebd.). Finally, she describes the women of this community as ,,exchanging bits of gossip"(ebd.) which is a common stereotype.
Again, she creates a mood for the reader of small-town-residents on a normal summer morning.
Up to this point in the story Shirley Jackson has not pointed out anything out of the ordinary which would reflect an ironic ending. Upon further reading of the story, Shirley Jackson gives the reader small hints about the unusualness of this town. She points out key buildings that surround the town square, but fails to describe a church or a courthouse which are common buildings to all communities. This way there seems to be no governing body for this town such as a court or a police station. Also, it is odd for these people to celebrate Halloween but not Christmas, Easter or Thanksgiving. These are the largest holidays that "normal" people celebrate, whereas Halloween implicates a certain proneness to shady activities. In addition, she points out the fact that the children are building "a great pile of stones in one corner of the square"(ebd.). She allows the impression of the children as normal children gathering rocks, yet they create a massive pile of stones in one corner, as if they are working and are not gathering these rocks for enjoyment as most children would. ,ChildŒs play` as the reason for that also gets undermined by their clearly goal-directed acting.
In contrast to the first paragraph these points might shake the readerŒs belief into an intact world and make him consider that this town is not quite normal.
The introduction of the black box then is the obvious key turning point for the setting. The ...