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Short Story Essay
Writers use techniques to position the audience to compare the responses of the characters to convey the guilt and innocence. In ‘The Lottery’ by Shirley Jackson and ‘The Wife’s Story’ by Ursula Le Guin, both authors use situational irony, point of view and setting to carry the innocence of the characters to the readers, displaying the emotions being exposed.

Both authors have used situational irony in their texts to lead the readers to an unexpected ending and to display the innocence and or, guilt. ‘The Lottery’ by Shirley Jackson used situational irony to show the guilty mother and father in the text, however Ursula Le Guin has used situational Irony in ‘The Wife’s Story’ to position the readers into an innocent mind frame of the wolves. In ‘The Lottery’, Shirley Jackson used situational irony to manipulate the audience’s thoughts on the town’s customs. First portraying the lottery game as an innocent family tradition, then shocking the audience when the situational irony is used and it shows the reverse in the story. With the assistance of this technique, Shirley Jackson has now displayed a terrible competition of where stoning family members helps grow the crops. Once Tessie Hutchinson saw that her father had won the lottery she said ‘’’I tell you it wasn’t fair. You didn’t give him enough time to choose. Everybody saw that.’’’ Tessie’s words cause the audience to gain on Tessie’s innocence and also the audience thinks differently about the lottery game and why Tessie was not happy with winning. The situational irony causes the audience to contemplate the reasons why Tessie is gloomy with winning.

Le Guin has used situational irony in ‘The Wife’s Story’ to demonstrate the innocence that is distinguished close to the end of the text. When the father comes home and says goodnight to his children they turn to their mother and say ’’… she was saying over and over, ‘’’Make it go away! Make it go away!’’’ The situational irony shows the innocence of the

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