The Theme Of Hope In Shirley Jackson's The Lottery

One of the most devastating and skillful aspects of Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery" is that it consistently topples reader expectations about what should happen next or even at all. At the beginning, the reader is given a story that call on quite naturally, a sense of hope—the expectation that someone is going to win something. The first few paragraphs in the lottery confirms the sense of hope in a perspective way ; it is a beautiful summer day, the grass is green, the flowers are blooming, then we start to see that something is amiss in this land of perfection, plenty, and hope. It starts to get the reader thinking about what the author was talking about. Throughout this story, contrast is everywhere, even from the names of Mr. Summers and Mr. Graves. Jackson’s short story, scopes out a few instances that provide the reader expectations versus the reality in so many ways.

For instance when Rainsford comes up to the house, and opens the door. It states”, and the first thing “Rainsford's eyes discerned was the largest man Rainsford had ever seen- a gigantic creature, solidly made and black bearded to the waist. In his hand the man held a long-barreled revolver, and he was pointing it straight at Rainsford's heart." By the end of the story, we can see the change of mood and how it transforms into the new mood. The Theme of “The Lottery” is unpredictability, because the mob behavior in the short story. For instance when “ The Lottery" centers around a village that, is healthy and perfect. However, it practice a yearly tradition stoning one of its members to death. When we get close to the end of the story we see that the theme becomes more challenging to understand and realized about the