Larhonda's Irony Of The Lottery

1019 Words5 Pages
English 101-web
Professor Peterson
09-26-2011
The Lottery:Irony
In this short story “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson, there are many instances of irony found. Irony is when the literal meaning of the text is hidden by what the author wrote. There are several kinds of irony, the two most common are verbal and situational. Most of the examples found in “The Lottery” are situational irony. Situational irony exists in a story when a discrepancy occurs in what the character or characters think will happen and what actually happens. Situational irony occurs in “The Lottery” in the imagery depicted in the opening paragraphs, the characters and their dialogue with each other and the introduction of Mrs. Hutchinson as she arrives late. The most ironic point of the story is the attitude of the villagers, which will be addressed in each of the examples above. In the opening sentence you find a description of the day. “The morning of June 27th was clear and sunny, with the fresh warmth of a full sunny day; the flowers were blossoming profusely and the grass was richly green.” With this description you don’t anticipate the dark events of the end of the story. Instead an image is created of happy or cheerful events. The setting leads you to believe that you are entering a time of happiness and joy instead of a traumatic ending. In the following paragraphs, as you are introduced to the characters, you soon see that it appears to be just a normal day to the villagers. You are soon introduced to children, recently out of school for the summer. You meet boys who are gathering stones, for what one may assume is harmless summer fun. The story tells of their “boisterous play,” which also leads the reader to believe of happy times. It appears that the boys are playing a game with the stones. For example, a large pile of stones was created in the corner of the square by few of

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