"The Lottery", Shirley Jackson

heterodiegetic,authorial narrative situation
External perspective on all characters
1. no representation of characters' interiority
title creates false expectations
Evocation of an idyllic setting:small-town America
Subtle hints at uncanny situation: children "uneasy", men's "jokes were quiet"; "the children came reluctantly,having be called four or five times"
Transition from trivial everyday business to solemnity of ritual
Lottery part of social life; part of village's foundation myth: "the box ... that had been constructed when the first people settled to make a village here."
1. Lottery as ritual under threat: abolition in other villages
  1. "Next thing you know, they'll be wanting to go back to living in caves, nobody work any more, live that way for a while."
2. Lottery as sign of a civilized life and integral to village's identity
pointless violence,cruelty and cowardice
Tessie's children: beaming and laughing when opening their slips of paper;someone giving stones to little Davy
Ending: revealing and concealing

Resource summary

	Created by kuemli over 10 years ago