Irony in “The Lottery.”
Introduction
Irony is a style of writing in which situations usually end up opposite from how it was anticipated. Shirley Jackson uses irony in his short story “The Lottery.” These ironies aid the readers to pinpoint sarcasm in the story. This paper examines the use of irony in ‘The Lottery ‘short story.
The first sign of irony is the title of the story in the story. The word “lottery” refers to the possibility of something positive waiting to occur. From the title of the story, the audience expects that someone is going to win money. However, the winner of the lottery is not going to win any money. Instead, he or she is going to be the most pitiful loser. The lottery is about death. Winning the lottery means that you are going to be stoned to death. By using a favorable title, the author catches the readers’ attention. The outcome gives the effect of a sharp irony between the expected lottery and the result of death.
The description of the weather in the first paragraph is ironic. “The morning of June 27th was clear and sunny, with the fresh warmth of a full-summer day; the flowers were blossoming profusely and the grass was richly green.”(Garry et al. 107). The description of the weather is very agreeable. The use of words such as flowers is blossoming, sunny, and bright should create a mental picture that something beautiful will happen that day. What happens next is unexpected; they perform a horrific ritual. A sharp irony occurs with a beautiful beginning and a sad ending of stoning someone to death.
The comments made by Old Man Warner are ironic. He is told that there is a village that is thinking of ceasing the lottery. Old Man Warner retorts by saying, “Listening to the young folks, nothing’s good enough for them. Next thing you know, they’ll be wanting to go back to living in caves, nobody work anymore, live that way for a while.”(Garry et al. 107) He suggests that giving up the lottery will lead people to live in caves, giving up work, and living like barbarians. He calls them fools. However, the people who live like the barbarians are the villagers who still stick with the lottery tradition. There is a sharp irony when Old Man Warner thinks that the stoning of villagers is not barbaric when it is.
Conclusion
Shirley Jackson makes use of irony in “The Lottery” to create delight in the story. It creates a sharp contrast and tantalizing suspense. The suspense is creative and pulls the reader to read on to find the lottery’s exact winner and what they get by winning. Irony occurs in the title, the weather, the words by Old Man Warner, and how the villagers care about one another. The sharp contrast of death at the end of the story is unexpected, and it rouses the reader for further reflection.
Works Cited
Garry Engkent Engkent, and Lucia Pietrusiak, Fiction and Non-Fiction: A reader and Rhetoric Second Edition. Prentice Hall, 2006.