Analysis: The Lottery
1. Where you surprised by the ending of the story? If not, at what point did you know what was going to happen? How does Jackson start to foreshadow the ending in paragraph 2 and 3? Conversely, how does Jackson lull us into thinking that this is just an ordinary story with an ordinary town?
A: I was quite shocked by the ending of the story, mainly because I did not know exactly what the people of the village were competing in the lottery for. I was not sure if the win was for money, better jobs in the neibourhood, higher status. Never did it cross my mind that they would be drawing slips to see who would get stoned to death. I started to suspect that the “win” was not for a good prize when Tessie started to get upset and irritated at the crowd when her husband had drawn the slip with the black dot in the centre. Jackson, the author, foreshadowed the ending in paragraph 2 and 3 by showing that the younger boys in the village were gathering smooth and round stones and putting them in a pile at the corner of the square. We (the readers) are lulled into thinking that this is an ordinary village during the first few paragraphs in this story. The villagers are described as ordinary people; the mothers exchanging gossip before the event, the younger boys playing, the younger …show more content…
Even though this story is indeed based on a lottery, it is not the generic/positive type of lottery that we are used to. Instead it is an unusual Lottery than ends in the cruel death of Tessie Hutchinson. Furthermore, in paragraph one of The Lottery, Jackson paints us sort of a misleading picture. “The morning of June 27th was clear and sunny, with the fresh warmth of a full-summer day; the flowers were blossoming profusely and the grass was richly green.”(paragraph one). This opening description is ironic considering the fact that a lottery was about to take place to decide which member of the village would get stoned to
A: I was quite shocked by the ending of the story, mainly because I did not know exactly what the people of the village were competing in the lottery for. I was not sure if the win was for money, better jobs in the neibourhood, higher status. Never did it cross my mind that they would be drawing slips to see who would get stoned to death. I started to suspect that the “win” was not for a good prize when Tessie started to get upset and irritated at the crowd when her husband had drawn the slip with the black dot in the centre. Jackson, the author, foreshadowed the ending in paragraph 2 and 3 by showing that the younger boys in the village were gathering smooth and round stones and putting them in a pile at the corner of the square. We (the readers) are lulled into thinking that this is an ordinary village during the first few paragraphs in this story. The villagers are described as ordinary people; the mothers exchanging gossip before the event, the younger boys playing, the younger …show more content…
Even though this story is indeed based on a lottery, it is not the generic/positive type of lottery that we are used to. Instead it is an unusual Lottery than ends in the cruel death of Tessie Hutchinson. Furthermore, in paragraph one of The Lottery, Jackson paints us sort of a misleading picture. “The morning of June 27th was clear and sunny, with the fresh warmth of a full-summer day; the flowers were blossoming profusely and the grass was richly green.”(paragraph one). This opening description is ironic considering the fact that a lottery was about to take place to decide which member of the village would get stoned to