After reading the short story and making your annotation card answer the following questions using supporting evidence from the text. Then respond to two of your classmates directly about what he or she has posted.
- Can you support a claim that this story is presented from an objective point of view? Why is the dispassionate, matter-of-fact tone of the story so effective?
Throughout the story it is being told by a third person view, it does tell you about the feelings of the people taking part,almost as if the narrator is just a spectator. This tone is effective because we don't know what is going to happen because we are not giving any insight from the villagers minds, we have no hints about what the box is and what the lottery is. All we do know is that this is a tradition in this village and that each year they partake in this lottery.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you that as the reader, we do not know what the lottery is and what will happen because we only know what the people in the crowd are saying. All we know before the ending of the story is that "...There's always been a lottery," pg 266, and that it has been going on for many years because one of the towns oldest citizens says "Seventy-seventh year I been in the lottery," pg 266. The black box is also significant because it decides the town people's fate.
DeleteI don't completely agree with you. I think the author did a good job at giving little hints that would allow the narrator to identify what the lottery is. The best example I can think of is the description of villagers piling up stones. I do, however, concur that the tone did nothing to give any of the story away and that the author didn't bluntly tell the reader anything.
DeleteI agree with Victoria. In the very beginning of the story, I saw the foreshadowing that the lottery involved death or a sacrifice. I do agree that the tone is effective in terms of not giving anything away through emotional details.
DeleteI also agree with Victoria. Although immediately we see no threat, certain events in the story, such as the eerie description of the box, allow us as a reader to make the logical conclusion that everything is not as it seems in the quiet village.
DeleteI agree with you, Wilmer. The narrator of the story created suspense by revealing nothing about the thoughts and emotions of the character. We don't know anything about the purpose of the lottery until the end when everyone starts throwing stones at Tessie Hutchinson.
DeleteThe lottery is told from an objective point of view because we are never told what the characters are feeling. The narrator only describes the actions of the village people, for example " Soon the men began to gather, surveying their own children, speaking of planting and rain, tractors and taxes." pg 262. The dispassionate, matter-of-fact tone of the story is so effective because the narrator is calmly describing the horrifying act of stoning someone to death. The villagers seem so nonchalant and eager to do it because it is only "tradition". The lack of emotion the villagers show gives the readers the sense that there is no sympathy for the lottery's victims. Which makes the act that much more horrifying.
ReplyDeleteWe gave the same reasoning for the objective point of view.. And, well, it is pretty much the definition of an objective point of view. I think it's important to note that even though the tone is calm and we aren't told what the characters are feeling, that as readers we could still gather that a stoning was going to happen--i.e. the piles of stones at the beginning of the story or the "regretful" way Mrs. Dunbar stated that she'd have to draw for her husband this year.
DeleteI agree that what makes this story interesting is how leisurely he describes even the most horrific events. The fact that one does not truly know the opinions of any of the village people causes suspense in the story, without using such specific emotional details.
DeleteThe fact that the narrator was describing the horrible tradition with such leisure attitude did indeed contributed to the successful dramatic change in the plot line of the story. The events of the story suddenly turned from carefree to dangerous, and not many of us expected the story to end this way.
DeleteThe story's objective point of view is supported by the narrator being third person but not completely omniscient-- we aren't clued in about the feelings or thoughts of any of the citizens. The dispassionate, matter-of-fact tone is what gives the story the creep factor it has. The citizens blindly and calmly follow a murderous tradition. The horrific subject matter matched with the calm tone really gets the main idea of the story across. An example of this from the text is on page 269, line 78, "The children had stones already, and someone gave little Davy Hutchinson a few pebbles." Jackson makes it sound almost polite that someone handed Davy Hutchinson pebbles so he could join in on stoning his mother.
ReplyDeleteI agree with what you said that " the citizens blindly and calmly follow a murderous tradition," and that gives the story an eerie chill to it that a society murders without the slightest remorse. The purpose of the lottery though seems to be forgotten by the citizens because the narrator says "the original paraphernalia for the lottery had been lost long ago," on page 263 and that "so much of the ritual had been forgotten or discarded," also on page 263. The villagers' mob mentality is just to go through with the lottery because that is just what has been done for so many years.
DeleteI agree with you. The story made me never want to play the lottery, even though the Florida Lottery is nothing like it. I think it was sickening that someone would hand Tessie's own son small pebbles to use to stone his mother. The story definitely has a creep factor like you said.
DeleteI thought that part about someone handing Tessie's own son small pebbles was more humor-intended. I though this story was pretty funny and satirical. Everyone thinks of lotteries as a good thing. Now, this story just reversed that and made a funny sickening story. I think many parts were intended for humor. It's ironic that the winner lost and the losers won. Of course, this story had quite a point of view about tradition. People do things just because it has worked all these years.
DeleteI agree with Megan. I find it very disturbing that the villagers are okay with the lottery and some even find it necessary as Old Man Warner does (pg 266). I think it makes the story that much more disturbing that the son is partaking in the stoning of his mother.
DeleteThe story has a completely objective point of view. The narrator does not express emotion whatsoever. Throughout the entire story, there are no truly vivid or horrifying details that input a feeling of suspense. The greatest example of this is on page 269 where Tessie Hutchinson is pleading her case. "It isn't fair . . . A stone hit her on the side of the head." Although there is no true emotion in the story, I do believe this approach is effective. Although there was no specific details, I found myself intrigued. It made the story easier to read and more interesting due to there not being an abundant amount of descriptions every other sentence.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with you. It does make the story flow easier due to the lack of overflowing details. It doesn't leave the reader bored nor confused about the events that are occurring throughout the story.
DeleteI agree with on everything, expect the "no emotion" in the story. The narrator initiates small hints of emotion here and there to show that their is some type of sympathy. For example, page 269 "She held out her hands desperately" this somewhat shows the feelings the narrator had towards Tessie as stones were about to be thrown at her.
DeleteThe short story "The Lottery" is told in an objective point of view. The narrator did not exactly express any time of emotion until the very end of the story when Tessie was hit on the head with a stone. "Tessie Hutchinson was in the center of a cleared space by now, and she held her hands out desperately as the villagers moved in on her." (pg. 269) The dispassionate tone works for this story because the story is a short story and it is pretty much straight to the point. The title also leads you to think that the story is about something that should be exciting, like winning money. But the tone helps to contribute to the irony, because this lottery is one that does not want to be won.
ReplyDeleteI didn't think about that Megan, there is a small amount of emotion there at the end. I think that helps to add to the plot twist that happens, especially if were thinking about "The Lottery" in a good sense.
DeleteI thought the exact same thing, about the whole winning money thing due to the title. Other than that, I agree on your point about the little emotion until it is expressed at the end.
Delete"The Lottery" is told in an objective point of view. The narrator remained cemented on the facts, dialogue, and acts of the characters. The narrator didn't add any emotions or thoughts. Though, it did give mood through the dialogue and actions. For example, the characters all gave a nervous feeling through their own speech and nervous actions. I believe that the story having this emotionless as a rock point of view allows the twist to really stick together. It keeps you guessing. The objective point of view really sets the twist in stone, you know? At the end, it was a thump-on-the-head surprise.
ReplyDeleteI do agree with you here, and I honestly forgot to mention it in my own post. The narrator's nonchalant, observant and emotionless dialogue allowed us to believe it was just another sunny country day. If you hadn't read the story before, the twist is completely ambiguous to you: you know it may be there, but you don't know what and where. You are truly in for a surprise at the end.
DeleteThe objective point of view of this story is accomplished by (as many of my peers have stated) using a third-person narrator, who is not completely omniscient and all-knowing. The narrator almost seems as if it is another villager telling the story of what they are seeing, or how he saw it. Throughout the story, subtle foreshadowing is used (such as the box being black. Black is death in literature) to nudge the reader into thinking that something is off in the village. This approach is effective because it allows the reader to be more curious as to how the story develops and ends. Personally, this story was interesting because I was expecting a Hunger Games style ending where two people fought to the death, instead what actually happened. In its truly ironic ending, the story comes together and is a good read.
ReplyDeleteWell, it was pretty close to the Hunger Games, wasn't it? There was a lottery. The winner will die. The only different is the method of death and, in the Hunger Games, the winner's chance of not dying.
DeleteI second what Alejandro said, this story was excruciatingly close to the Hunger Games. I even thought that i was reading the Hunger Games at one point.
DeleteThe story is told from a objective point of view. Throughout the story, the narrator shows little to no emotions at all. The story is also very factual. He states facts that everyone can see or hear, never showing us the emotions or thoughts of the villagers. For example, on page 262, "Bobby Martin ducked under his mother's grasping hand and ran, laughing, back to the pile of stones," the narrator merely stated facts concerning the villagers. The dispassionate, matter-of-fact tone is so effective because it gives us no way of peering inside the the characters, therefore creating curiosity and suspense among readers. It reveals nothing until the end.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you, the fact that we can't see with the villagers thoughts is really important. If we had been able to, we would have been able to know the outcome much sooner. I didn't mention that in my post, but it's a really good point. Only knowing the actions, and not the reasoning behind them is really effective for this short story.
DeleteI also agree that throughout the story there is no real emotions throughout the entire story we finally get a hint of emotion towards a character at the end of the story. Also the majority of the story is just factual, just stating what was going on without emotion towards anything in particular
DeleteI agree. The story is very straight-forward and even though the reader can tell something isn't quite right, it's hard to figure out what it is until the end.
Delete"The Lottery" is told from an objective point of view. In this story, there isn't any use of emotions or thoughts because it is told from a third-person narrator. All that is told is what is happening, the facts. The dispassionate tone of the story helps to create the eeriness and darkness that is the backbone of this story, along with the foreshadowing. The black box and the kids playing with stones give us a glimpse of the outcome, but there isn't much else to go on. The matter-of-fact tone concretes the idea of how normal this is to the villagers.
ReplyDeleteShirley took something positive (if you don't take the addiction to gambling into consideration) and turned it into something dark. I think the narrator's objectiveness helped in the end. Of course, those little hints of the black box and the kids playing with stones were poking at the idea that something else was at play. It was a just normal day of stoning the winner of the lottery.
DeleteI noticed that too how she put emphasis on the box being black. When it was popping up in the story that's when I noticed something bad could happen usually because of what is represented by the color black
DeleteI just want to say that the discussion to this point seems to be filled with very insightful and intelligent ideas. Thank you everyone that has contributed thus far.
ReplyDeleteOh, you and your kind words. This counts right?
DeleteIt was worth a try.
DeleteDue to the author, Shirley Jackson, not fully saying what The Lottery was, it made the story have an objective point of view. She didn't give us many clues,only was was inferred from the characters actions and dialogue. Which wasn't even too descriptive. However, she did foreshadow what was possibly going to happen. Pg. 262 "Bobby Martin..." since the kids at the school were collecting stones, it gave us a bit of an insight as to what the lottery really was. As it is portrayed nowadays, we think that the lottery is some fun game where one could possibly win money, but in this story, we learn that this is not the case. The dispassionate, matter-of-fact tone is very effective because of the mellow tone of the author describing these event of stoning someone. Event the characters in the story are calm and all for it due to it being a town tradition.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you on this Abby, this type of lottery does not seem fun at all. The townspeople being calm and not being bothered by their yearly tradition adds to dark theme of this story.
DeleteThe story is told in an objective point of view, the narrator being a third-person. Throughout the story he kind of told the emotions from some of the townspeople but as for him he had no emotion towards the end when the winner gets stoned to death. Pretty ironic that the winner actually loses and the loser wins.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you on this Daisy, the story is being portrayed by the narrator in a third person. He/She did focus on the emotions throughout the story considering the way that the story shifted from the beginning towards the end. I say they should've thrown some pebbles so Mrs. Hutchinson could've at least survived, or some french fries
DeleteWe know that "The Lottery" is told from an objective point of view because the author never gives insight to the characters' feelings. The dispassionate, matter-of-fact tone is effective in the story because even though the reader can tell something is wrong due to the characters' increased nervous behaviors, the outcome is not fully disclosed. The reader doesn't know exactly what the winner, or loser in this case, of the lottery is going to receive until Mrs. Hutchinson starts having a breakdown (pg 266 through the rest of the story basically).
ReplyDeleteI agree on how you said the reader can tell something is up due to the tone of the story.. I knew from the start when I read it that the Lottery was going to be someone winning a good prize because if the townspeople were gathering to win a good prize you would think they would be crazy excited or something
Delete"The Lottery" is told in an objective point of view, due to the narrator being a third person. Rather than telling us the characters' thoughts or feelings, the narrator simply shows the process of the lottery unfurling. This further emphasizes the shocking nature of the ending, as our only indications of the lottery's true purpose come from the villagers' nervous manners, rather than from insight into their thoughts. KABLAMMMM
ReplyDeleteI agree on how Shirley Jackson showed no emotion towards the actions of the villagers nor did she show indications of shock. The author really knew how to make an ironic setting.
DeleteIn the Lottery the author just started the story off by giving details of a bright sunny day (the first sentence). So based on the title and the first line you probably aren't expecting anyone to die in the end. But in happy stories the author's tone is usually vibrant and cheerful, Shirley Jackson, the author, spoke with no emotion which personally gave me like a creepy feel like you know something was about to happen. The dispassionate tone is used that way so she didn't convey what was going to happen so it builds suspense.
ReplyDeleteThe objective point of view is obvious throughout “The Lottery”. Shirley’s careful use of description and imagery allowed for the readers not to notice her thoughts towards the story. Only through the expression of nervousness and awkwardness among the townspeople can we feel the sinister plot of the story. The matter-of-fact tone of the story is so effective because the author’s reaction was basically nothing; the fact that the “winner” of the lottery was stoned to death did not faze the author.
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