“The Lottery” short essay
A Strategic Literary Technique in the Lottery
The short story published by Shirley Jackson has become one of the most famous short stories studied in schools and collages alike. The success of the short story portrays the author’s success in communicating to his target audience a feature that has earned the book the current fame and glorification. The author employs various literary features that compliment his primary objective, which is to identify a target audience and communicate effectively to the same. To achieve this, author uses a simple clear and descriptive language, which he infuses with myriad other literary devices that, does not only identify his target audience but also communicates effectively to the same.
The author as a renowned author understands the need to win the attention of any possible reader of the story from the first paragraph. The author therefore heightens action in the first paragraph using descriptive language to achieve this. He uses the first paragraph to introduce the action and the key characters in the story after which he ends the paragraph in a suspense. The author uses suspense strategically to to gain tea attention of the readers thereby sustaining the flow of actions throughout the paragraphs of the short story. Besides the suspense, the author introduces various conflicts in the first page. He then leaves the conflicts unresolved thereby developing a suspense that sustains the readership of the short story. The author understands the need of conflicts in stories. Conflicts sustain the plot. The author therefore develops a series of strategic conflicts which he does not resolve thereby developing the suspense in the story.
Vivid description is a strategic literary technique that helps identify and sustain a target audience. The author employs the use of language appropriately by describing the action, the characters and settings effectively. Effective description of the above features of the short story helps understand both the conflicts in the message and the interpretation of the actions in various contexts. This therefore helps the audience understand the actions and the intentions of the author. Vivid description helps in the reading of the story; with the appropriate description of the actions, the author facilitates the audience’s conception of the actions and the features the author describes. This helps the audience visualize the action thereby enhancing the audience’s understanding of the various features of the short story.
Among the literary styles, the author uses frequently in developing the short story include suspense, irony symbolism and dialogue among many others (Jackson 4). The strategic employment of the features perpetuates the growth of both the art and the language used by the author. These serve as some of the basic roles of literature. To achieve a sequential flow of action in the short story, the author develops progressive paragraphs that sequentially succeed each other. The author uses a preceding paragraph to introduce a conflict, which he strives to resolve in a successive paragraph before developing yet another conflict for the next paragraph.
In retrospect, the author of the short story, The Lottery, achieves successfully communication in the short story using various literary features. The appropriateness and relevance of the styles to the short story does not only compliment the communication process but portrays the author’s competence in writing. The short story is therefore a fundamental read for every student of literature.
Jackson, Shirley. The Lottery. New York: Penguin publishers, 1948. Print.