The Lottery
The mood in the beginning of this story sounded innocent and happy because of the way the story opened up to. Warm sunshine, green grass and vibrant colored flowers. The mood also kind of made me feel safe in a way. The mood of the story shifted from innocent to sort of a dark, suspenseful and sinister feeling. I think this mood was tapped into after the children finished gathering stones then smiling at each other. The mood became more intense when the black box made it's presence, everybody was quiet and sort of afraid of the box. The mood in the beginning which was a rainbows-and-unicorns kind of feeling shifted greatly to ominous and sinister.In "The Lottery" Shirley Jackson used symbolism, tone/theme and imagery to convey the dark side of this all american town. This story shows one of mankind's darkest desires, in this case bloodlust and playing God and dumb superstitions. The people of this town believe that sacrificing a person will benefit them in the future. Although it's really,really,really, truly, very, very, very, mostly really unnecessary, tradition is habit that isn't hard to break. These are old fashioned people...really old fashioned people. This connects back the Aztec times when the natives used to sacrifice people to please their gods. The difference between these two events is that during Aztec times, sometimes the natives volunteer to be sacrificed, they aren't being held against their will like Tessie from "The Lottery". Aztecs volunteer humbly and "The Lottery" people JUST GOT IT ALL WRONG.
