Tension And Suspense In Shirley Jackson's The Lottery

Tension, suspense, mystery, and anticipation are feelings often inspired by Shirley Jackson’s short story “The Lottery”. It took Jackson less than two hours to write “The Lottery”. Being shorter than 3,500 words, it is a short story by all structural standards, yet its content outraged the U.S. population. The story was banned in many schools, from a number of libraries, and throughout all of South Africa. One of the many factors that caused this reaction was the tone or “mood” of the story. The story's setting is very debatable. The country and city in which it takes place are unknown. The exact year of the story is also left unknown, though the date, June 27th, is provided. The beginning of the story provides an accurate depiction of normal life. As the reader continues, there are subtle details that often go unrealised. These details add a certain amount of mystery to the story: First, the …show more content…
Unfortunately for a reader who was hoping for a happy ending, there is not one. The tension and anticipation are all released as the crowd begins to stone Tessie to death. The tension that builds up through the story and the anticipation provide a great shock to the readers as they realise the allusions to the climax of the story.
The tone or mood of the short story “The Lottery” is well-developed. It slowly gives the reader more mysterious details as the story continues, but is able to bring it all to one “breaking” point that generally leaves the reader amazed and slightly appalled. The tone or mood of “The Lottery” is far from a happy one, creating a nearly perfect balance of mystery and anticipation that seems to “suck” the reader in. It is quite obvious why the tone of this story would cause such an outrage, yet it is one of the aspects that continues to make the story so