An Unreasonable Death

Critical Analysis Rewrite: An Unreasonable Death

In the story “The Lottery,” by Shirley Jackson is about stoning people to death each year in order for sacrifice in order for their god to give them a good harvest so that they could be able feed the rest of the living population. This has been a tradition for a long time.

The way the lottery is done is Mr. Summers (Summer is a season of the year. It is the season of growing, the season of life. His name represents partly the old irreligious fruitfulness ritual because the harvest that is being sacrificed to is being grown in the summer) would have a black wooden box and pit pieces of blank paper inside with one piece of paper with a black dot on it. Then each family would draw a piece of paper from the box. If a family draws the paper with the black dot then one of the members of that family is sacrificed. The members of that family each draw paper again from the same black wooden box and whoever draws the piece of paper with the black dot is stoned to death by the villagers.

Some foreshadowing is used because the town square is a clue that the lottery must hold some kind of importance. Another piece of foreshadowing is when "Bobby and Harry Jones and Dickie... eventually made a great pile of stones in one corner of the square...," (Jackson 263) hints at the approaching fate of the lottery winner. The only place where setting is a factor is the beginning, because the setting stays the same, and the environment does not change in the two hours that the story took place in.

Point of views, situations, and the title are all ironic to the story "The Lottery." The point of view in "The Lottery" is ironic to the outcome. Jackson uses third person dramatic point of view when writing "The Lottery." The third person dramatic point of view allows the author to keep the outcome of the story a surprise. The outcome is ironic because the readers are led to believe everything is fine because we...