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Its power seems to lie in the deceptive opening, lulling us with the nostalgia of small town rituals and traditions, things that are customarily benign just by virtue of being old. Jackson's handling of suspense is masterful at the beginning of the story. We read so many details that cumulatively begin to jar on our consciousness, though at the beginning we are none the wiser as the small boys carefully gather their piles of stones. By the time we begin to suspect the worse, the awful web gathers about its victim and we watch helplessly as the spectacle unfolds before us. Follow this link for a discussion of the idea of a "lottery" itself. It's a story that has, traditionally, excited lots of comment. Famously, generating a huge post-bag when it was first published in The New Yorker, everyone had something to say about it. It has not really lost its charm over the years, and it still has the power to shock, whether it is the disturbing pathetic fallacy at the beginning, where the sunny day testifies to the power of the story’s sacrifice, or the role of the scapegoat as it echoes in our own modern world, and poor Tessie’s plight as she discovers that she is the “lucky one.” For more on the story, and Jackson herself, try out this resource: an essay for Salon Magazine, partly about Shirley Jackson herself, and partly about the area upon which the story is based. Alternatively, go here for an interesting essay on the story. |
