Suspense In Shirley Jackson's The Lottery

The Lottery, by Shirley Jackson, was published on June 26, 1948 in an issue of “The New Yorker.” In Jackson’s short story, she uses suspense in many different strategies to create her theme in The Lottery .Some of the strategies that Jackson uses are foreshadowing, giving misleading information, and withholding information. The first way Shirley Jackson uses suspense to create her theme is by using foreshadowing. The first example of foreshadowing in The Lottery is before the lottery had started, the boys had made piles of stones. A quote from the story says, “Bobby Martin had already stuffed his pockets full of stones, and the other boys soon followed his example, selecting the smoothest and roundest stones.”(291). The children collecting the stones foreshadows that something bad will happen. The second example of foreshadowing in “The Lottery,” is when the Hutchinson family is chosen. Immediately after, Tessie Hutchinson starts complaining. She says, “You didn’t give him time enough to take any paper he wanted. I saw you. It wasn’t fair!” (295). This is

An example of this is in the first paragraph, which describes the setting of the village. The village is described as, “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.”(291). This leads us to believe that it is a nice day and everyone will be happy. Another example is the person conducting the lottery, Mr. Summers, is described as, “The lottery was conducted—as were the square dances, the teen club, the Halloween program—by Mr. Summers, who had the time and energy to devote to civic activities. He was a round-faced jovial man and he ran the coal business…” (291-292). This leads us to believe that the lottery will be some fun event like the square dances or the Halloween