• Research Paper on:
    Jackson: “The Lottery” - Point of View

    Number of Pages: 3

     

    Summary of the research paper:

    This 3 page paper uses the omniscient point of view to examine Shirley Jackson’s classic short story, “The Lottery.” Bibliography lists 1 source.

    Name of Research Paper File: D0_HVJacLot.rtf

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    events described. This means that they are actually listening to someone elses description of what happened. This paper examines Shirley Jacksons short story The lottery from the point of view  of the omniscient narrator. Discussion The Lottery is a short, masterfully crafted and utterly terrifying story about a peaceful village with an evil secret: once a year, it holds a  lottery and stones the "winner" to death. The omniscient narrator is the most useful point of view to use to examine the story, because that perspective is one that allows  access to everything that is known about all characters, past and present, and we want to understand everything we can about this barbaric rite. That means learning about the villagers  and their customs, and how they feel about this evil practice. That is something we wont get if we look only at Mr. Summers or Mr. Hutchinson or one or  two of the others. We need to know everything we can about everyone, and about the lottery, to come to a conclusion about the story. If we look at all  the information we have, we find that the lottery is held once a year, always on the same date (June 27), and that it has been going on for so  long that nobody remembers why or how it started (Jackson). We also know that this village is not the only one with such a lottery; there are several mentions in  the story of the fact that the other villages are considering giving it up, to which Old Man Warner replies, "Nothing but trouble in that. Pack of young fools" (Jackson).  Old Man Warner is 77 and therefore has participated in 77 lotteries; in a town of 300 or less he has incredible luck to have survived for nearly eight 

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