The Lottery-Point of View Essay
Imagine a place where being stoned to death is normal. Imagine a place that has been following the same revolting tradition for over eighty years. Who could tolerate this brutal act and not even have enough courage to try and change it? The citizens in Shirley Jackson’s story are guilty of this. In “The Lottery”, Shirley Jackson shows how it might feel to be standing amongst the towns people, wondering if they are to be the lucky ones. To understand the feelings of the townspeople in “The Lottery”, Jackson used the objective point of view in third person. She described what happened as if she were in the scene with her characters. The narrator took on the role as an observer, standing to the side and watching the story unfold. The people of this town act as if what is happening is totally natural and should happen everywhere. Even the character named Mrs. Hutchinson who found the dark, black circle on her paper and who “won” the lottery seemed to just sit on the stool and take the beating. Although she protested, she st
ill understood that that was just the way it happened. This point of view may be harder to understand since we can not see into the minds of characters and we do not know exactly how they feel about the whole situation, but this view also has its advantages. To see into the mind of one character is only being connected with that person and their feelings. To be able to look onto the whole setting and make the story your own, allows one to think more critically. This story does not just affect one person. It has a bigger impact than just that. It affects the whole town. Everyone is going through the same ordeal and emotions, and as the word speaks for itself, the “lottery” is totally random. Not one person has more of a chance of being chosen than any other person. Even though the one who is picked is drawn randomly, the people of the town have other ideas. The people of the highest social class are the most powerful. Those that do the least work are the ones that the town guesses to be chosen. Once all the heads of the family
Some topics in this essay:
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Shirley Jackson,
Shirley Jackson’s,
,
“the lottery”,
jackson readers,
shirley jackson’s,
social class,
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feel situation,
shirley jackson,
black dot,
objective view,
third person,
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Approximate Word count = 707
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)
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