Based on what I read, “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson tone has a distinct shift from a peaceful, normal, everyday kind of tone to a firmly horrific tone. “The Lottery” has two main characters, a housewife named Tessie Hutchinson, who is the person who wins the lottery at the end, and Mr. Summers, the man who organizes the lottery. The story begins with a description of the beautiful day it is outside. This shows the tone is light, fun, and peaceful. The very first thing Shirley Jackson tells the reader is what time of day it is and what time of year the story takes place. The time of day is set at ten o’clock in the morning and the time of year is an early summer on June 27.
The tradition of the lottery was always on June 27 every year and all of the townspeople gather in the center of the town. She also describes that school has just recently let out for summer break, letting the reader infer that the time of year is in the early summer. The author does this to try to keep the reader’s mind on positive thoughts about the story instead of feeling that something bad is going to happen. The entire story, “The Lottery” can be considered hyperbole. For the apparently simple story is actually a precise inverted exaggeration of the basic truth of Jackson’s theme. It was told with limited and ordinary description and without excessive feelings, Jackson’s narrative points to the ordinariness of the cruel, violent, brutal act of stoning that have somehow become a habit. While personification is used early in the narrative. In the second paragraph, the children have just begun their summer vacations, and “the feeling of liberty sat uneasily on most of them.” The sensation of “feeling of liberty” is given the quality of a person as it “sat.”
According to the text, It all leads to the drawing of names by each family, particularly by the head of the household. In this pause, we see that someone is late to the lottery which, again, does not seem connected until we learn what happens to that very character. It is Tessie who is late, and people are not too happy about it. Finally, the drawing of the names happens by each head of the household selecting a piece of paper randomly. Whoever gets a paper with a black dot on it, will be the winning family for the first round of the lottery. Mr. Summers had brought the black box for the drawing with all the little white pieces of paper in it and he calls everyone up to pick them out. Tessie Hutchinson argues about how the lottery isn’t fair and how her husband didn’t have enough time to pick a piece of paper. All of the other characters in this story all play a significant role by just saying a few words and by helping throw the stones at Tessie. This irony shows the boys collected the rocks at the beginning of the story not to play a game with, but to stone someone to death. The stones symbolize death, but also the villagers’ consistent support of the lottery tradition.
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The climax of “The Lottery” is the most dramatic point of the story. It comes when the sacrifice to a worn and faded tradition is selected in the lottery; Tessie is the one selected: “Tessie,” Mr. Summers said. There was a pause, and then Mr. Summers looked at Bill Hutchinson, and Bill unfolded his paper and showed it. It was blank so someone from the Hutchinson family will be the lottery winner on this day. Tessie’s husband, Bill Hutchinson first draws the marked paper, but he picks a blank paper during the second drawing this showed that Tessie drew the marked paper. Tessie seems so unhappy about being selected to receive it, yet this piece seems suspenseful.
The falling action is the townspeople wait to see who has chosen the “black dot,” which indicates that they are the winners of the lottery. Therefore, the black spot is symbolic of the person from the town who is chosen to die. Each member of the Hutchinson family draws again. The townspeople need to help Little Davey pick his paper because he is so little. A whisper goes through the crowd after each family member has picked. “Who is it?” everyone asks.
