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Foreshadowing And Tone In The Lottery

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Foreshadowing and Tone in The Lottery The Lottery, published almost seventy years ago, has been a staple of required reading for young students in the United States. I recall being assigned to read this short story in middle school and thinking of it as just another assignment I was required to accomplish. I began reading, picking up on little hints and nuggets of information that didn’t sit right in my stomach before finally being hit with a gut punch at the conclusion of the tale. It was the first time I felt as though I was reading something “adult”. I immediately went back to the beginning and read it again, noticing the pieces of information that had been provided the first time that I had breezed over but were as clear as day the second time around. Foreshadowing is the most integral aspect of this story, which is completely overlooked by most first time readers. The tone is set early on in the story by simply stating the facts and details of what is going on in this small town. There is hardly any inflection, emotion, or description of the characters or the town for that matter. I enjoyed the description I found stating “Jackson’s removed tone serves to underscore the horror of the lottery – there’s no shift in narrative voice when the story shifts profoundly from generic realism to nightmarish symbolism” (Lottery). There is never a build-up to a climax. The story does not start slow to methodically lull you to sleep only to allow the shock, awe or scare you

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