Tone Of The Lottery By Shirley Jackson

The story, "The Lottery," by Shirley Jackson is centered around a small village, filled with common people. Usually in tales with villages, the villagers stay in their bubble and are less aware of the growing world around them; they stick to their same routines and ways of living. They live in an area where the lottery is just another piece of that routine, with all the other surrounding villages acting the same. The common people just accept this tradition and do not realize how unethical the whole situation is,

'[t]hey do say,' Mr. Adams said to Old Man Warner, who stood next to him, 'that over in the north village they're talking of giving up the lottery.' Old Man Warner snorted. 'Pack of crazy fools,' he said, 'listening to the young

The fact that it is summertime contributes to the positive tone that the story has, even though a dark ending is to come. The weather contributes to the joyful moods of the villagers, as they children are playing outside and the men are discussing the coming farming season, "[s]oon the men began to gather, surveying their own children, speaking of planting and rain" (Jackson 188). If the weather had been gloomy, the tone of the story would follow suit and the villagers would not be as happy to gather in the

Up until this point, readers expected the lottery to be similar to the lotteries we see nowadays, but that idea turned once Mr. Hutchinson started arguing with Mr. Summers over the drawing, because why would he argue about being the winner? However, immediately after Tessie is told to have the slip of paper with the black dot, the stones are brought up again in the story, "[a]lthough the villagers had forgotten the ritual and lost the original black box, they still remembered to use stones" (Jackson 194). There, in the falling action of the story, it is revealed that Tessie will be not be given a reward, but will instead be