Ironic Lottery By: Shannon Wong “The lottery” is full of irony. Shirley Jackson most likely intended to use this amount of irony to make the over all story funny in its twisted theme. Each layer of irony used, prepared the reader to have the most dramatic reaction to the last and final blow that wrapped the whole story up. I would say the most major and obvious type of irony used here was situational irony. Jackson knew that what most peoples’ impression of the lottery is winning money or something good. She played on that and turned it into something completely opposite.
Giving her story kick and uniqueness. However, there was other more minor but essential situational ironies that lead up to the finale. One of these was Tessie Hutchinson. She had the most cheerful, laid-back attitude of whole crowd. Say things like “Clean forgot what day it was”, cracking jokes such as ” Wouldn’t leave m’dishes in the sink now would you, Joe?” and in eagerness to see the results “craned her neck to see through the crowd.” When in the end, she was the one who got picked. She was the character who would have more impact on the readers than any other because of the fact that she almost didn’t come and her carefree attitude mad it so that the readers would either laugh or feel most sorry for her.
Other type of irony use was verbal irony. Old man Warner said ” Pack of crazy fools… Next thing you know, they ” ll be wanting to go back to living in caves.” In response to Mr. Adams informing him on that the North Village was talking of giving up the lottery. In suggestion that not having the lottery is barbaric when it is thought to be drawing lots to kill people is barbaric in most peoples’ eyes.
The Essay on The Lottery Society People Ritual
... extremely dangerous as Shirley Jackson points out in her short story. People hear what they want to hear and choose what rituals ... had to be sacrificed. 'Lottery in June, corn be heavy soon', said Old Man Warner. The irony here is that villagers are ... society are reflected in her famous short story 'TheLottery'. Many of her readers have found this story shocking and disturbing. Jackson reveals two ...
Before knowing the ending, this lead the readers to something that they would first expect to be normal for a person to say, still in their minds thinking that the lottery is good. This prepared the readers to be more shocked when they read the ending. There were many more subtle ironies in this story. One of them was that even her child threw stones at her.
In the end everyone participated. One would expect that her family and friends would hold back. But they didn’t. One even picked a stone that needed to be carried with two hands.
This gave the story a dark ending. Which left the readers laughing at the dark humor or disgusted or depressed on the outcome. I think this story ironies is what makes this story so different and good all the way through. It’s like a comedy movie. You laugh every five minutes type thing. But instead of laughing, you get little markers that you think back on and laugh later after you finish reading If not laugh, they would at least think about it.
Every writer wants his or her piece to be remembered or thought more on. And with all those ironies, it was bond to make people think. In fact I’m that this story in particular is designed to make people think.
