Irony

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Irony

One strong theme in Shirley Jackson 's The Lottery is the author 's use of irony . This motif is also exemplified quite brilliantly in e .e cummings ' poem She being Brand /-New . This will seek to unite irony in these two artists ' work through their use of characters , place and predicament

In Jackson 's story , the strongest point where irony is found is with the town folk . These people live in a rural part of the country (not to mention a

time period when industry had not yet begun to develop as massively as it did after the Industrial Revolution ) and with this type of setting the town is sequestered not only through geographic terms but through thought , and culture

There is a bond between these town folk that unite them in their decision to stone to death someone whose name is picked from a black box . The irony in this story is that everyone both anticipates this event as a tradition (and therefore something that cannot be thwarted but at the same time , the town folk (especially as witnessed through the intimate narrative Jackson ) do not wish for their own names to be drawn from the inglorious black box . This irony is what causes the tension and the action in the plot of The Lottery

The frightening element of the story is that this horrendous business of stoning people to death is treated with such ease and natural positions by the...