Anaylis: The Lottery

“The Lottery” is told in chronological order, starting with the townspeople gathering in the town square and ending with the winner of the lottery’s prize. The story is told in third person. The story’s narrator tells the story from an objective third person point of view, so the narrator does not tell the reader of the characters thoughts or emotion leaving the reader free to interpret them as he or she wishes. The third person point of view allows the story to be retold or reproduced, which makes the story in the past tense. Although, there is no actual discourse within the story, there is however, a level of discourse between the reader and the characters in the story. Because the “civilized” person would neve

The setting plays an important role in “The Lottery” and adds to the situational irony of the story. “The Lottery” begins with a description of the setting. It states, “The morning of June twenty-seventh was clear and sunny, with the fresh warmth of a full-summer day […]” (271). This leads the reader to believe that the tone of the story is light and warm. It goes on to say, “the flowers were blossoming profusely and the grass was richly green” (271). The plethora of figurative language used in the opening sentences of “The Lottery” also sets the setting to be a nice and inviting place. The people gathered in the town square around ten o’clock (271). This is important because the town square is between the post office and the bank (271), which would be the center of the small town’s economy.

The setting was also symbolic in the way that the town was the center of the economy symbolizing that this ritual was a big part of the town’s life and history. “The post master Mr. Graves followed him, carrying a three-legged stool, and that stool was put in the center of the square and Mr. Summers set the black box on it”(272). The three-legged stool was symbolic because the number three is symbolizes the Holy Trinity. The stool was placed in the center of the town square symbolizes that religion is an important part of the townspeople’s lives. The black box that was placed on top of the stool was also a symbol. The color black is closely associated with death. The black box foreshadows that something bad is going to happen. Inside that black box were slips of paper and one had

Some topics in this essay:
Shirley Jackson, Davy Hutchinson, Holy Trinity, Finally Warner’s, , “the lottery”, black box, town square, shirley jackson, theme versus, third person, third person view, little davy hutchinson, three-legged stool, using literary, story “the lottery”, situational irony, characters story, characterization shirley jackson,