Setting, Tone, And Symbolism In The Lottery By Shirley Jackson

793 Words2 Pages

While “The Lottery” seems like a short story destined for a happy ending, the setting, tone, and symbolism, demonstrate that the ending is actually quite ironic. The setting would make the reader believe that the story is going to be bright and have a happy ending. “The Lottery” occurs on June 27th and the environment is described as a beautiful, and flowers blooming, which in turn could influence the reader’s to think of positive things, even though the ending is inevitable of sacrificing one of their own town’s people. The tone of “The Lottery” starts off as cheerful and the kids running around and playing with rocks and people greeting each other like they would at any event, not thinking about how their days is going to change. During reading the story the reader might not think about what the objects in the story symbolize such as the black box or even calling the event the lottery. …show more content…

Also, the event was planned to take place during the summer solstice, which is the longest day of the year, so this would make allow the civilians of the town to make sure they can get the lottery finished to ensure a good year for crops. After taking in the setting of the story the reader starts to notice small things like how Shirley tells the reader that it’s not only taking place in this town but some towns are abandoning the tradition, why would a town abandon something that they benefit

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