The setting of a quiet rural town with villagers who know
and greet one another in short phrases and cliches on familiar terms disarms the reader
of Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery." The expectation is for an activity much like a
picnic or fair of some sort rather than the grim and macabre stoning of one of the
villagers that the others know so well.
For example, when
the villagers draw lotteries from the worn black box that Mr. Summers brings and places
on the three-legged stool, nothing seems to be out of the ordinary. After the people
say, "Bill Hutchinson's got it." Mrs. Dunbar quietly says to her older son, "Go tell
your father." The sudden shouting of Tessie Hutchinson and her cry of "It wasn't fair"
causes the reader to wonder what is occurring, especially when Mrs. Delacroix acts as
though Tessie is out of control: "Be a good sport, Tessie," Mrs. Delacroix calls, and
Mrs Graves adds, "All of us took the same chance."
At
first, the reader does not realize that Tessie's name has been drawn for a stoning.
For, the festive move of the children running about and gathering stones suggests a
playful atmosphere, not a deadly one.
Having written this
story in the wake of World War II, Jackson wished to alert people to the innate
brutality of man. Jackson herself noted:
"I hoped
by setting a particularly ancient brutal rite in the present and in my own village
[North Bennington, Vermont], to shock the story's readers with a graphic dramatization
of the pointless violence and general inhumanity in their
lives."
No comments:
Post a Comment