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Tone In Shirley Jackson's The Lottery

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In the story The Lottery Shirley Jackson used several tone to develop the story. The tone at the beginning of story is peaceful and joyous. In the setting where story took place is “Clear and sunny, with the fresh warmth of a full summer day. The flowers were blossoming profusely and the grass was richly green.” Words which tells that peaceful and joyous tone are, clear, sunny, fresh, warmth, richly green and blossoming. Furthermore, the author used other example to show joyous life in the village. “ School was recently over for the summer, and the feeling of liberty sat uneasily on most of them.” In this example the author used words “liberty sat uneasily” to show how kids in the village were eager to have fun. This helps to illustrate how
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Shirley Jackson’s short story “The Lottery”, uses pessimistic word choice to convey an ominous tone. In particular when Jackson articulates it in line “They stood together, away from the pile of stones in the corner, and their jokes were quiet and they smiled rather than laughed. ”(26-28). This portrays how the author discreetly showed an ominous tone by emphasizing “jokes” and “smiled rather than laughed” to promote an ominous tone. Another example of how an ominous tone was shown when the author The villagers kept their distance, leaving a space between themselves and the stool…there was a hesitation before two men,.. came forward to hold the box steady on stool while Mr.Summers stirred up the papers inside it.

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332 Words | 2 Pages

In “The Lottery” Shirley Jackson uses foreshadowing to hint at the stoning that happens in the last parts of the story. Jackson describes to us about children collecting stones in the beginning of the story. For example, when explaining how the people of the village were gathered at the square, she says, ”Bobby Martin had already stuffed his pockets full of stones, and the other boys, soon followed his example.” (Jackson) This quotation shows that something, later in the story, is going to happen with stones but we don’t know what.

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358 Words | 2 Pages

Can an author blind the audience from the ability to predict the outcome of a story by using the power of tone? In Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery,” the author starts with a tone of anticipation, changes the tone to one of hesitation, and completes the piece of literature in a subtly depressing tone. By using this literary tactic, the author confuses the audience, and at the same time draws more attention and interest to the piece. Starting when, “The people of the village began to gather in the square,” the tone of anticipation presents itself in the text. This phrase appears in the first paragraph of the article.

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78 Words | 1 Pages

Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery" additionally indicates the inclination for viciousness that people have. The youngsters excitedly accumulate stones, for case. What's more, Mrs. Delacroix, who has quite recently been conversing with Tessie Hutchinson then gets a stone so expansive that she needs two hands for it and swings to Mrs. Dunbar advising her, "Come on...Hurry up." These activities are reflected in the cultivated social affairs at games occasions where individuals are amicable, yet things can rapidly turn

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429 Words | 2 Pages

Shirley Jackson’s short story “The Lottery” uses specific word choice to convey a suspenseful tone. One of her specific word choices Jackson chose is ¨nervously¨ to interpret how the lottery has affected everybody in the community, both emotionally and physically. An example of this would be the the interaction between Adams and Mr.Summers; Then Mr. Summers raised one hand high and said, “Adams.” A man disengaged himself from the crowd and came forward. “Hi Steve,” Mr. Summers said, and Adams said “Hi Joe.”

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434 Words | 2 Pages

In the short story “The lottery” many of the villagers showed a great emotion towards the lottery some of it is being happy or negative. For the most part, it was a more negative emotion or eery rather than villagers being happy about it. The kids though had a more pleasant emotion showing that the kids almost had no idea what was really happening. Just read this quote from the story “ Bobby Martin ducked under his mother’s grasping hand and ran, laughing, back to the pile of stones.” In this, quite the short story is expressing that the kids most likely do not really know what is happening and their mood at the time.

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227 Words | 1 Pages

The short story “The Lottery” written by Shirley Jackson, the plot in the story that it only gives people an account of drawing lots to determine the winner who shall be stoned to death for harvest. However, we get a deep impression of the characters and their fate after reading the story. Jackson indicated a prevalent theme, the indirect of characterization and using symbolism and irony to modify this horror story. The Allegorical story of “ The Lottery” is often regarded as a satire of human behavior and social institutions, and exemplifies some of the central themes of Jackson’s fiction, including the victimization of the individual by society, the tendency of people to be cruel, and the presence of evil in everyday life.

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503 Words | 3 Pages

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.

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1031 Words | 5 Pages

The story “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson is a short story of horror and realism. On June 27th on a late summer morning, the villagers of a small New England village gatherd together in the town square to conduct their annual lottery. There is a black box on a stool and in the box there is pieces of paper in the box. Each person from a family get one paper from the black box even the children get a piece of paper and every stayed quiet and nervouse. Then Bill Hutchinson looked at the paper and notice that he got the black dot.

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457 Words | 2 Pages

In “The Lottery,” Shirley Jackson uses foreshadowing when the children are collecting stones from the river and putting them into piles. It hints that something bad is going to happen because it is unusual for boys to be grabbing stones and randomly put them into a pile. For example, while the towns people were getting ready for the lottery the narrator states, “Bobby Martin had already stuffed his pockets full of stones, and the other boys soon followed his example,selecting the smoothest and roundest stones; Bobby and Harry Jones and Dickie Delacroix, eventually made a great pile of stones in one corner of the square and guarded it against the raids of the other boys.” (Jackson). This quotation shows that the boys in the village are finding the smoothest and roundest stones and putting them into a big pile.

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1220 Words | 5 Pages

Human nature can be characterized as being positive, capable of altruism and goodness which sets humankind apart from savage animals; however, human nature possesses a dark side, namely cruelty, and it is capable of barbarism like any beast. In “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson, cruelty is part of human nature, and the participants of the lottery demonstrate human cruelty through violence towards one another; markedly, by exhibiting desensitization to violence and the acceptance of violence resulting in internal dysfunction which is perpetuated yearly. Participants of the lottery belong to a close-knit community, and every year the community hosts an enigmatic lottery draw. The conclusion of the lottery draw is only mysterious until the outcome

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1898 Words | 8 Pages

The short story, The Lottery, by Shirley Jackson. The Lottery is about people from a small town that gather together in the square in June. In this village, there are only 300 people. Therefore, unlike most towns, the lottery only takes a few hours. The children in the town collect stones, rocks, and small pebbles and put them in a pile in the corner of the square.

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1333 Words | 6 Pages

“The Lottery”, by Shirley Jackson is atypical of any other story from its time. Jackson utilizes a shift in tone that is emphasized through the event’s location, attendees, and rituals found within her work to take readers on a wild ride. What begins as an average day on June 27, unfolds into a situation that never could have been expected. Jackson’s use of tone in “The Lottery” functions as a way to distract readers from the overall mood of the gathering. The pleasant and easy-going tone, presented throughout the beginning of Jacksons’s work aims to deter readers from questioning the villager’s initial motives.

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190 Words | 1 Pages

Throughout this semester we have read many different time periods. These time periods have been the Middle Ages, Sixteenth Century, Early Seventeenth Century, Eighteenth Century, The Restoration, Romantics, Victorians, Moderns, and The Arthurian Legends. All these different eras of readings had one very important thing in common and that was the treatment of women. The era I will be talking about is the Arthurian Legends because this era is very well known throughout literature and the world today. However, out of all the Arthurian Legends I will be writing about "The Lady of Shalott" by Alfred, Lord Tennyson.

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596 Words | 3 Pages

By incorporating dramatic irony into “The Lottery,” Shirley Jackson is able to convey a sense of understanding and compassion towards the character. This first instance of dramatic irony is where Tessie is pleading to the town’s people that they were unfair to her husband. “People began to look around to see the Hutchinsons. Bill Hutchinson was standing quiet, staring down at the paper in his hand. Suddenly.

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