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Mood Of The Lottery By Shirley Jackson

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Imagine you won the lottery. You would presumably feel cheerful and excited, right? Now imagine the prize of winning is to be the sacrificial lamb of a ritual. How would you feel knowing this piece of information? Would you still have participated in the first place? ‘’The Lottery’’, a short story by Shirley Jackson, deals with the consequences regarding inhuman rituals that are normalized in a traditional society. The focus points in this essay are going to be an analysis of the writing style, the setting and mood, as well as a characterization of Old Man Warner.
The Lottery is being told through a third-person narrator due to the utilization of pronouns such as they and she. Unlike many short stories, the author, Shirley Jackson has …show more content…

The literal imagery describing the physical setting sets a warm and peaceful mood. This idyllic mood, however, changes throughout the story. As Mr. Summers calls up the heads of the families first, referring to the men, an atmosphere of mystery and horror takes over as the villagers one by one reveal their papers. This is furthermore displayed by the characters’ actions such as the aforementioned adjectives. The story reaches its climax, when it is revealed that the winner is the Hutchinson’s family, and switches to a tense and oppressive mood as Tessie Hutchinson suddenly starts shouting panicky. Other towns had to commence the lottery on June 26th due to many more citizens compared to the town , with about 300 hundred people, the story takes place in. The ritual furthermore occurs in the square on June 27th, between the post office and the bank around 10 am and would take less than two hours. Moreover, the square is the center of the town, in which other ’’civic activities’’ take place in. The preparation of the ritual leaves the reader questioning the procedure of the lottery. The gathering of the stones is a set-up. The pay-off appear at the end of the text, in which the villagers make use of stones on the ground and pile of stones the children had made earlier to presumably kill, the winner of the lottery, Tessie …show more content…

Warner compared to the younger generation does not fear this tradition nor wants it revoked, as he blames the ‘’young folks’’ for persuading the village in the north to give up the lottery, as nothing is good enough for ‘’them’’ . He furthermore calls them a ‘’pack of crazy fools.’’ and makes an assumption of them wanting to go back to living in caves. It is therefore clear as a bell that Warner sees the younger generation as a menace to his ideal society that is built upon the ritual, as they will cause the people to soften and be idle, and be the cause for the village to be eating stewed chickweed and acorns. Warner’s statement, in which there has always been a lottery, as well as the fact that he is the oldest man in town, signifies how long the ritual has been occurring. Warner holds on to this tradition, as he was born and raised with it. As a girl in the crowd hopes for the winner not to be Nancy, Warner repeats himself as he states that people are not the way they used to be. This elucidates that people back in the days would rather win the lottery and seemingly die, than lose as seen in the present village. Once more, the contrasts between the older and younger generation are

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and we learn that he will be officiating the lottery, just like he does every other event. Then, the author includes a detail about kids arriving and collecting stones, which is just a huge foreshadow moment. Tessie Hutchison is introduced as a late arrival. Next, Mr. Summers begins calling each head of household forward to pull a slip of paper out of this old wooden black box. During the time of picking the oldest villager Mr. Warner makes the comment that” If they stop doing the lottery, life would go back to cave men ways”.

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The author’s usage of situational irony suggests that traditions are woven into innocent children’s minds as well and how this creates a society that is unable to realize the faults in their rituals. As the story goes on, the town begins setting up for the lottery and Mr. Summers, the leader of the lottery, wants a new box, “but no one liked to upset even as much tradition as was represented by the black box” (365), so the town continued to use the debilitated box. At this point, the audience realizes the austerity the town has towards their customs and how the villagers are unyielding towards even the slightest change in tradition. This austerity causes Tessie Hutchinson's disposition to be rebellious in nature. She becomes the only one to arrive late to the lottery which causes Mr. Summers to become worried that “[they] would have to get on without [her]”(367).

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