The Mood In Shirley Jackson's The Lottery

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Recommended: Sociological aspects in the story the lottery

The mood at the beginning of The Lottery, written by Shirley Jackson, is very different from the mood at the end of The Lottery. The story starts off with talking about how beautiful, sunny, and clear the day’s weather is. This automatically sets a mood that relates with happiness, causing you to think the rest of the story will portray cheerfulness as well. “They stood together, away from the pile of stones in the corner, and their jokes were quiet and they smiled rather than laughed.” (Page 2) This specific sentence from the text gets you starting to think that maybe the villagers aren’t as happy as the weather is portraying it to be. “Bobby Martin ducked under his mother’s grasping hand and ran, laughing, back to the pile of stones.” (Page 2) It seems as if the kids are having a fun time picking out stones. The feeling of all the children laughing and playing while the adults spoke cheerfully amongst each other. It seem like maybe this occasion is a good one after all. …show more content…

“The villagers kept their distance, leaving a space between themselves and the stool, and when Mr. Summers said, “Some of you fellows want to give me a hand?” There was a hesitation.” (Mr. Summers, page 2) They had this feeling that the stool brought on bad vibes with it, causing them to not want to touch it and become “cursed” in a sense. At this point you are able to pick up the feeling of fear amongst the villagers, leaving you to recognize that although lotteries are usually fun and exciting procedures, this one

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