Gruesome Unseen Brutality In Shirley Jackson's The Lottery

A story that went through many controversies and became the highlight of conversation for many years, The Lottery was banned from schools and libraries, and many parents condemned it. The author, Shirley Jackson, had a reason behind writing this piece of literature, ”I hoped, by setting a particularly brutal ancient rite in the present and in my own village, to shock the story’s readers with a graphic demonstration of the pointless violence and general inhumanity in their own lives.” She wanted to open the mind of the world to new horizons and a completely unspeakable topic...Gruesome Unseen Brutality. Shirley Jackson uses prolonged suspense to elude the reader into the mindset that the story will be one of innocence, and with the closure of the story leaves the reader with a feeling of shock and horror.
Throughout the entire work, the author uses foreshadowing, and quotes that transmit the mood of tragedy. “The people had done it so many times that they only half listened to the directions: most of them were quiet, wetting their lips, not looking around.” Being a dystopian fiction The Lottery was meant to …show more content…
No one knew exactly how long this lottery has been conducted but, “The original paraphernalia for the lottery had been lost long ago, and the black box now resting on the stool had been put into use even before Old Man Warner, the oldest man in town, was born.” Now to convey the importance of this the author uses descriptive language to portray a feeling of suspense and open interpretation. The reader is left questioning what kind of lottery is taking place and is compelled to read further to discover what is truly happening. This tone gives a feeling of serenity as well as extreme tension, it blends the reader's emotions into a hodgepodge or layered cake of sensations, like a fine flavor one can almost