Jennifer Amato
September 20th, 2013
The Lottery
The Lottery tells a story of a town whose people feel like they have no choice but to follow a mysterious tradition that's reasoning isn't even known or necessary. The story is told in third person which allows the narrarator to simply tell the reader what is going on in the unnamed town in an objective way without giving his or her opinion on it.
In the beginning of the story, the author makes it seem like the people are happy to be where they are, despite what happens at the lottery. The children are running around and laughing while the women gossip with each other as if they aren't about to witness someone else's cruel fate. The narrarator also describes a beautiful summer day, where flowers are blooming and the grass is an exquisite shade of green. The reader begins to believe that the lottery is something joyful.
The tone changes and the reader comes to the realization that all of the characters are worried and almost scared about what is going to happen after the drawing of the papers.
The characters in the story have an underlying purpose. Mr. Summers comes off as an incredibly happy man. He takes pride in the fact that he has always been in charge of civic activities, including the lottery. No one questions him, and he has control of everything, kind of like a president or a leader whose rulings are always followed by the citizens. Old Man Warner considers young people who don't want to keep having the lottery in town every year crazy. He thinks that people should always do what is tradition. It seems that Warner is terrified of change and never wants to change what earlier generations believed in because of...