Point of View in Shirley Jacksons The Lottery Essay -- Shirley Jackso

Point of View in The LotteryShirley Jacksons The Lottery uses the third-person melodramatic point of view to tell a story about an un-named crossroads that celebrates a wicked, annual event. The narrator in the story gives many subaltern details of the lottery taking place, but leaves the most crucial and scary detail until the end the winner of the lottery is stoned to death by the other villagers. The use of the third-person point of view, with just a few cases of third-person wise thrown in, is an effective way of telling this ironic tale, both because the narrators reporter-like smoothness parallels the villagers apparent apathy to the lottery, and because it helps build to the surprise ending by well-favored away bits of information to the reader through the actions and discussions of the villagers without giving away the final examination twist. The Lottery is primarily told in the third-person dramatic point of view, but on occasion the narrator becomes omniscient to d ivulge information to the reader that which is usually known to the villagers. In paragraph 7, for example, the ...