Literary Elements In Shirley Jackson's The Lottery

The Lottery Through the usage of literary elements, Shirley Jackson is able to convey several themes to the reader such as the danger of blindly following tradition. Jackson’s calm tone is spectacular for her story. She begins in a very journalistic approach in the first sentence by describing the morning being very clear, sunny, and beautiful. The style appears to be without any sort of emotion- no kindness and no pleasure. This tone reflects the attitudes of the villagers themselves who view the lottery as a natural event in their life, nothing being out of the ordinary. By incorporating this tone throughout the story, the effect on the reader is severely enhanced when he/she comes into realization of what has just taken place. The meager details given by the …show more content…
The irony in the story highlights the hypocrisy. Initially, the reader is not subjected to the true meaning of the lottery. The title of the story “the lottery” is very ironic because in normal lotteries the winner ultimately wins a “prize” of something positive such as money whereas in this story the winner wins the “prize” of getting stoned to death by fellow townspeople. The setting of “The Lottery” also contains irony because the town is assumed to be normal and peaceful but harbors the tradition of senseless murder. Even though Mrs. Hutchinson arrives late, she is the first to protest this year’s lottery when she realizes her family is in danger. Ironically, she complains that “it wasn’t fair”. Tessie doesn’t have a problem with the way the lottery is held until she and her family are put on the spot. Even though she previously knew of the outcome of the lottery, she had been okay with it. Tessie’s statement involving the fairness of the lottery is ironic because just before her family is selected, she does not seem to think it as unfair. The audience comes into realization that the lottery has been extremely unfair this whole