Shirley Jackson created suspense effectively throughout the story ’The Lottery’; this got the reader’s attention and got them hooked to find out what will happen next. Suspense is the element of both fiction and some nonfiction that makes the reader uncertain about the outcome and is one of the most important elements of plotting. It keeps the reader reading and unable to put the book down. Jackson opens her story by describing a sunny June day filled with flowers, green grass, kids running around playing and the casual gathering of friends and neighbors in the town square for a lottery. At first, this opening appears completely without any suspense with its warmth and friendliness. However, as the story continues, the setting helps build tension. Shirley Jackson builds suspense in her story the lottery by not compromising the explanation and the truth of the lottery until the villagers threw the first stone. The reader learns a lot from the lottery including components of the ritual that have survived over the years or have been lost. Readers also find out the importance of the lottery to the villagers especially old man warner. …show more content…
Next thing you know they’ll want to go back to living in caves, nobody work no more live that way for a while. Used to be a saying about the ‘lottery in June', corn be heavy soon. First thing you know we’d all be eating skewed chickweed and acorns. There’s always been a lottery.”
The reader goes through the entire ritual, hearing names and then the man of the family approaches the box to pick out a paper, but Shirley never tells the audience what the lottery is about or mentions any kind of prize or purpose. She begins to reveal that something is