Short Story Analyzes
By: Grant Evans and Nitin Premkumar
Background Information
Theme
Exposition
Exposition- “The morning of June 27th was clear and sunny, with the fresh warmth of a full-summer day; the flowers were blossoming profusely and the grass was richly green. The people of the village began to gather in the square, between the post office and the bank, around ten o'clock; in some towns there were so many people that the lottery took two days and had to be started on June 2th. but in this village, where there were only about three hundred people, the whole lottery took less than two hours, so it could begin at ten o'clock in the morning and still be through in time to allow the villagers to get home for noon dinner.” (Jackson 1) This opening paragraph introduces the setting and gets the mood set up.
Rising Action
Climax
Falling Action
Resolution
"It isn't fair, it isn't right," Mrs. Hutchinson screamed, and then they were upon her.”(Jackson)
The story needed within tessie being stoned to death. The end is used to shock the reader, giving the slightly mysterious mood a more twisted tone.
Characterization
Tessie- At the beginning of the story Tessie is joking around, like how when she's late for the ceremony she jovially tells her husband that he “Wouldn't have [her] leave [her] dishes in the sink” as an excuse for being late. (Jackson) However as the horror of what is about to come other family is more real, she screams at Mr. Summers, telling him “It’s not fair!” (Jackson) Tessie realizes that suffering is only felt on the receiving end of violence, and less on the delivering end.
Irony
When the morning of June 27th was described as “clear and sunny, with the fresh warmth of a full summer day” the audience was set up for a happy day with someone winning the lottery on the end (Jackson). The audience was not prepared for a public stoning in the town square. It was situational irony that a nice day turned into group violence, which Jackson used to shock the reader.