The Lottery by Shirley Jackson - Essay Example

An apparently incomplex plot, the story derives its power from its conclusion, which catches the reader unaware. The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate how skillfully the author amalgamates various literary elements to produce tremendous shock at the end and dupe the reader all along by its deadpan narrative tone. It is interesting to note how Jackson builds up the suspense and remarkably retains it. Up to the last six paragraphs the story is written in the manner of a realistic transcript of small-town experience: the day is a special one, true, but the occasion is familiar, and for the most part the people are presented as going through a well-known routine.

We see them as decent, friendly, neighborly people; in fact, most of the details could be used just as they are in a conventional picture of idyllic small-town life. Things are easily, simply told, as if in a factual chronicle. Any hints of inner turmoil are merely suggested by the actions of the characters: a nervous lilt of the voice, a shuffling of feet, a whisper when normal speech would be appropriate. On the other hand, the description of outward actions and physical setting is direct and, when viewed in retrospect, contributes directly to the macabre climax toward which the story moves.

Suddenly, in the midst of this ordinary, matter-of-fact environment, there occurs a terrifyingly cruel action, official, accepted, yet for the reader mysterious and unexplained. It is entirely out of line with all the terms of actual experience in which the story has otherwise dealt. It is as if ordinary life had suddenly ceased and was replaced, without warning, without break, and without change of scene, by some horrifying nightmare. This shocks the reader, because he barely realizes that the outcome was very strategically planned all along.

Character interest in the story is kept to a minimum. Instead, Jackson makes use of symbolic names to give her story universal significance. “Summers” suggests the