Misleading Subjects and Irony in the Lottery
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Misleading Subjects and İrony in “The Lottery”
“The Lottery,” by Shirley Jackson, has a comletely surprising end. As we understand from the title, there is a lottery in the story. The lottery is a tradition in the village. It is a summertime and the lottery begin after all of villagers come together at the square. After Mr. Summer declares the lottery open,the heads of household of each family select a paper in a black box. Bill Hutchinson takes the marked paper. Then the Hutchinsons repeat the raffle among themselves. At this time the lucky one is Tessie Hutchinson. Actually it is not luckyness but great luckyless. For one who selects the marked paper is stoned according to rituals. I think “The Lottery” has a misleading setting, and is full of irony.
One of misleading points is the day that the lottery is happen. It is a beautiful summertime. “The morning of June 27th was clear and sunny with the fressh warmth of a full summer day; the flowers were blossoming and the grass was reachly green.” (484). This make us think of that it will be a nice day, and the lottery will be gainful. The manner of the folk is another deceptive point. They do not give any clue about the bad end of the story. The children come from the school. They talk about “the clasroom, and the teacher, of books and reprimands.” (484). The men talks about their work, and the women wearing casual dressings. That is to say, everything is normal, and the reader is not know about the bad end of the story.
The end of “The Lottery” discovers great ironic points in the story. Firstly, there is an irony between surname of Mr. Summer and his function in the lottery. Summer connotes sun and warm, youth and strength. Mr. Summer also a “jovial man” (484) but he is the organizer of the event, the lottery, which brings death. Secondly, the cruel end in modern times is another ironic point. Lottery is traditional organiztaion in the village. The person that selects the paper with black point from the black box have to be scapegoat and be exposed to public stoning. It is very old fashioned and inhumanly. Therefore, this kind of punishment opposed to modern thoughts. Finally, the most important irony is in the title, “The Lottery.” As the title suggests, happy thoughts comes to readers mind. Contrary to common thoughts of lottery it does not happy ending but death. It is conflicting with the connotation of the lottery.
In conclusion, Jackson leads us to think of the lottery and its usual ends. Until the end of the story, almost everything shows that one of the villagers is lucky one, and win the lottery but being killed. This misleading setting keeps the bad ending uncovered, and contribute the irony in the story.