Blog II

Is a Lucky or deadly Issue?

Shirley Jackson was a writer who used terror and symbols in her stories in a master way. The combination of these appeals in her tales provoke in the reader an amazing reaction at the end of the stories because she created a different idea of the real purpose of her short stories. A good example of this combination is "The Lottery;" a short story involved by superstition and a surprisly end. At first sight, the lottery looks like a game which purpose is hapiness, but in the story lottery means death.

The lottery in this story is a rite to decide who is going to died. The tale is setted in a town which is timeless and the inhabitants used a clack boy to make the lottery. The box represents a deadly tradition that people deny finished because of this they have good harvest, and it also represents tradition if they changed it would mean remove all their custums and adopting new ones. This fear leads people to accept an absurd rite. The lottery rite is an exposition ot the cruelty of conformity. All inhabitants hope for the lottery with resignation, even though the elected person to die shows inconformity to his/her final destination. Thanks to its limited narrator the reader can be suprided by its unexpected end.

This short story is structured by two parts: story and point of view. The story in words of Tzvetan Todorov is the recount of the events in the tale. This evento evoke some kind of reality that could happen or characters that could be real or imaginary (p. 163). The order of events tells events step by step. Some times this aspect offers clues to solving the end in this case Jackson was very carfuel of describe the events and do not let the reader suppose any advanced event. This characteristic makes the reader being confused about the real meaning of the lottery rite. He can realize if it is or not a lucky event. The sequence of events could be summarized in the following way:

I. Arrangement of the lottery rite.

a. children are making piles of stones

b. people is getting reunited for lottery event

II. Description of lottery process

a. the narrator tells is going to conduct the lottery: Mr. Summers and Mr. Graves

b. description of the event before and now.

c. importance of the black box in the process.

III. Mr. Summers "declares the lottery open"

a. openning description

b. the narrator focus his narration in two characters: Mr. and Mrs. Hutchinson

c. Draws process in differents characters

IV. Inconformity about election

a. Tessie is not happy because her family was elected.

b. She tries to avoid the decision

c. Her husband shows shame because his wife inconformity

d. Tessie Hutchinson is spaced in the center and hit with a stone on her head.

f. The story ends with a last frase of Tessie: "It isn't fair, it isn't right.

All above sequences do not describe or advance what the characters are thinking or what the lottery means. The writer was very careful in chose the narrator limited because it provokes in the reader a sense of suprise an horror at the end of the story.  This short  tale is narrated in third-person point of view. The narrator limits his narration to describe the events and using dialogues. This method is named dramatic or objective point of view. Edgar V. Roberts and Robert zweing define it as: "The narrator of the dramatic poin of view is an uniddenfied speaker who reports things in a way that is similar to a hovering or tracking video camera or to what some critics have called 'a fly on the wall' (...) The dramatic presentation is limited only to what is said and what happens" (p. 125). This kind of appeal uses commonly descriptions because the narrator is like another viewer of the events: "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. The epople of the village began to gather in the square, between the post office and the bank around ten o'clock (...)" (p. 137). The narrator gives to the reader an imagen. He can imagine the narrator sitted in front of this stage observing all the event. The narrator role is just taking reader imagination inside story scene. This will help him to provoke in the reader a great impact at the end of the tale.

Jackson also used this kind of narrator because she wanted to limit him to describe characters' dialogues which say only necessary thing about each character; the next words are from different character about Tessie: "The people separated good-humoredly to let her through; two or three people said, in voices just loud enough to be heard across the crowd, 'Here come your Missus, Hutchinson,' and 'Bill, she made it after all.'"(p. 138). Maybe for the reader would be interesting to know crowd thoughts because he could solve what the lottery was about. But the author did not consider interesting their thoughts maybe because  they would be desipher the real lottery's meaning, and the reader could loose interest in the process and ending of the story because a general thought about lotterey is luck, so people at the end would be suprise by the deathly end.

The recount of characters dialogues show up the cruelty of inconformity. All inhabitants hope for the lottery with resignation,eventhough the elected person shows inconfomity to his final destination. The reader can capture this imagen thanks to the dialogues of the characters. They do not show up anxiety: "Horace's not but sixteen yet,' Mrs. Dunbar said regretfully. 'Gues I gott fill in for the Right,' Mr. Summers said. He made a note on the list he was holding. then he asked. 'Watson boy drawing this year?' 'Here, he said (...) 'I'm drawing for m'mother and me.'" (pp. 138-139). This dialogue do not show up any sense on anxiety related to any happy either sad event. It is just a scene of the lottery rite. The writere was very careful in omitting feeling and senses. It helped to preserve the unknown meaning of the lottery; as result, the reader interest is attentive to the process of the story.

Also, this kind of narrator helps the story to show up contrasting people's feelings because before the rite all people behave in an inquisotorial way, but if some of them are elected, he shows his egoism, for example Tessie. She is indifferent to the rite, but she changes her way of thinking when she is electes, Tessie words:"You got any other households in the Hutchinsons?' 'There's Don and Eva,' Mrs. Hutchinson yelled. 'Make them take their chance1!' (...) ''I think we ought to start over' Mrs. Hutchinso said, as quietly as she could. 'I tell you it wasn't fair. You didn't give him time enought to choose. Every saw that.' "(p. 140). Tessie prefers that one of her childeren dies before her. This rite shorw the dark side of human beings in front of death, and that is because an intelligent narrator-limited that only describes the situations and dialogues of the charactes; he is one more viewer of the rite.

In conclusion, the lottery is a example of a society that is rooted in tradition and ignorance which shows indiference in the face of some one's calamity. The rite shows the dark side of humanity and its selfishness.

Works Cited

Roberts Edgar V and Robert Zweing, "The lottery" in Literature. An introduction to reading and Writing. p. 119-141.

Todorov Tzvetan. Analisis estructural del relato. p. 161-196.