A text’s narrative structure organizes the story in a coherent and sentimentally engaging way. Structure is noticeable in every text, whether linear or non-linear. Shirley Jackson’s The Lottery is told in a very common and natural structure style as opposed to Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried. Due to different structure, these stories differ in both how the story and characters develop. Jackson and O’Brien use these diverse structures to further promote their text’s main theme or idea. Each type of structure is used by the authors for distinct purposes to complement the essence of the text.
Jackson’s The Lottery, is organized in a chronological manner. In the opening words of the text, the reader is given a comprehensive description of the setting and beginning of the story (Shmoop). An indication of conflict can be seen by the reader when Tessie Hutchinson complains that “You didn’t give him time enough to take any paper he wanted. I saw you. It wasn’t fair!” (Jackson 137). The quote refers to when Bill Hutchinson “wins” the lottery for his family. The text then swiftly in a sequential order continues to show the climax, resolution, and denouement (Shmoop). Unlike The Lottery, O’Brien uses a non-linear structure brimming with flashbacks. The Things They Carried begins similarly to The Lottery in the sense of an exposition being given at the very beginning of the text. The similarities end there, as the story’s time frame is quickly manipulated by the mixing of the order of events, an altering pace, and the constant use of flashbacks (Guffey).
As the arrangements of these stories are designed in different manners, the way the story and characters develop are as well. In The Lottery, the chronological structure in the openin...
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Jackson, Shirley. "The Lottery." Literature and the Writing Process. 10th ed. Boston: Pearson Longman, 2012. 133-38. Print.
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Jackson wrote several pieces of literature throughout her life, she is most known for her short story “The Lottery.” The lottery takes place in a small town on June 27th. The lottery is an annual event handled by Mr. Summers and the postman, Mr. Graves. The night before the lottery, Mr. Summers and Mr. Graves made slips of paper that are placed in an old black box that has been used for the lottery for a very long time. The children are the first to arrive for the lottery, then the men, followed by the women. As Mr. Summers calls the names of the families in the town, heads of the households, the men, come and draw slips of paper from the black box. During the lottery, Mrs. Adams mentions that the other towns are thinking of stopping their lottery, to which Old Man Warner responds it wil...
Michelson, D. The historical reception of Shirley Jackson's "the lottery". In: KURZBAN, Robert; PLATEK, Steve. 18th annual meeting of the Human Behavior and Evolution Society at the University of Pennsylvania and Drexel University. 2006.
Jackson, Shirley. “The Lottery.” Backpack Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, Drama, and Writing. Ed. X. J. Kennedy, and Dana Gioia. 4th ed. Boston: Longman, 2012. 643-54. Print.
What thoughts come to mind when you think of "The Lottery?" Positive thoughts including money, a new home, excitement, and happiness are all associated with the lottery in most cases. However, this is not the case in Shirley Jackson’s short story, "The Lottery." Here, the characters in the story are not gambling for money, instead they are gambling for their life. A shock that surprises the reader as she unveils this horrifying tradition in the village on this beautiful summer day. This gamble for their life is a result of tradition, a tradition that is cruel and inhumane, yet upheld in this town. Shirley Jackson provides the reader’s with a graphic description of violence, cruelty, and inhumane treatment which leads to the unexpected meaning of "The Lottery." Born in San Francisco, Jackson began writing early in her life. She won a poetry prize at age twelve and continued writing through high school. In 1937 she entered Syracuse University, where she published stories in the student literary magazine. After marriage to Stanley Edgar Hyman, a notable literary critic, she continued to write. Her first national publication “My Life with R.H. Macy” was published in The New Republic in 1941but her best-known work is “The Lottery.”(Lit Links or Reagan). Jackson uses characterization and symbolism to portray a story with rising action that surprises the reader with the unexpected odd ritual in the village. While one would expect “The Lottery” to be a positive event, the reader’s are surprised with a ritual that has been around for seventy-seven years , demonstrating how unwilling people are to make changes in their everyday life despite the unjust and cruel treatment that is associated with this tradi...
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Shirley Jackson describes the characters in “The Lottery” in a way that readers can relate to each of them in some way, yet she makes one character stand out from the start of the story. Mrs. Tessie Hutchinson arrives late, having “clean forgot what day it was” (411). While the town does not make a fuss over Tessie’s tardiness, several people make remarks, “in voices loud enough to be heard across the crowd” (411). Jackson makes the choice to have Tessie stand out from the crowd initially. This choice first shows Tessie’s motivation. Tessie was so
Jackson, Shirley. "The Lottery." Gioia, Dana and R.S. Gwynn. The Art of the Short Story. New York: Pearson/Longman, 2006. 390-396.
Jackson, Shirley. “The Lottery.” A Portable Anthology. Ed. Janet E. Gardner. Boston: New York: Bedford/St Martin’s, 2013. 242-249. Print.
Jackson, Shirley. “The Lottery.” Literature: A Portable Anthology. Gardner, Janet E.; Lawn, Beverly; Ridl, Jack; Schakel, Pepter. 3rd Edition. New York: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2012. 242-249. Print.
Jackson, Shirley. "The Lottery." The Harper Anthology of Fiction. Ed. Sylvan Barnet. New York: HarperCollins, 989.
Jackson, Shirley. "The Lottery." Perrine's Literature: Structure Sound & Sense. 11th ed. Belmont: Wadsworth, 2010. 282. Print.