Did you know there are over a dozen genres of literary work? One of the most dreadful and unexplainable would be Weird fiction, which is described as "a subgenre of fiction that utilizes aspects of fantasy, horror and supernatural fiction" (Neuharth). "Quiet Dead Things" by Cassandra Khaw and "The Lottery" by Shirley Jackson are both stories that fit into the genre of Weird fiction. However, "Quiet Dead Things" can be said to be a Weirder story since it demonstrates the characteristics of Weird fiction, such as the context, imagery and tone more adequately.
Firstly, "Quiet Dead Things" is the Weirder story since its context has a more significant impact on instilling dread in the readers. From the first sentence, the author grabs
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We can already feel a sense of unexplainable dread creeping into us at the mention of murder in the first sentence since we know that nothing good can come from it. The atmosphere, which is another aspect of context, is described as being tense and filled with anger. The narrator says, "Like Asbestos, the township of Cedarville was incensed" (Khaw 69). The way the author uses atmosphere elicits an emotional response within the reader, and by defining the atmosphere of the story as rageful and tense, it keeps us engaged in the story. In contrast to the former story, "The Lottery" is a story whose context puts us more at ease in the beginning. The narrator writes, "The morning of June 27th was clear and sunny, with the fresh warmth of a full-summer day; the flowers were blossoming profusely and the grass was richly green" (Jackson 291). By reading this, I feel a certain calm since it reminds me of summer. Thus, the setting of this story doesn’t give me a feeling of dread about what might happen due to the mention of summer and blooming flowers. The atmosphere in "The Lottery" also seems more jovial. An example that shows the atmosphere as being light and happy is when the narrator writes, "...they (the children) tended to