Shirley Jackson shows her skillful writing techniques in “The Lottery” making her readers question what’s going to happen next or even at all. She uses irony to make us believe certain things are going to happen when they don’t. Theme to show us how a twisted, blind tradition rules the villager’s lives. She also uses two different tone through the story, making the climax even more intense. The right tone can set any story, and makes it a brilliant story. Shirley Jackson uses different tones in her story making it even more climatic. There is a distinct change of tone that’s first set as a normal peaceful day, to a gruesome tone that is used to end the story. Jackson opens the story with, “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,” (Jackson 263). This establishes a cheerful kind of tone. As we continue reading the story, the villagers begin to gather in the town, because the tone is…show more content… Jackson starts the story off with irony. She makes the reader believe that the lottery is a fun, pleasant festivity for the villagers. It starts off by telling the reader it’s a beautiful, sunny day. Everything seems perfect, and normal, but before the day is over someone will be stoned to death. “The lottery was conducted as were the square dances, the teen club, and the Halloween program by Mr. Summers. Who had time and energy to devote to civic activities,” (Jackson 263). With this said, we are expecting some fun festivities, but we get a public stoning. Mr. Summer reads off the names of every family in the village, it’s not so they all have a chance at winning something, but so they all an equal chance at death. The irony is this story is so twisted, because its covering up the truth about the lottery until you reach the climax of the
