Questions and Topics We Can Help You To Answer:
Paper Instructions:

Analyze the story (Lottery - SHIRLEY JACKSON;  check the attached file) by focusing on how the story works and why what happens matters. How do the author’s specific storytelling choices lead us to think about or respond to the story as well as to the characters’ specific predicaments? And how does thinking about these elements help us to interpret the themes of the story in an interesting way? Here are some of the elements that you might consider:

•    narration/p.o.v. 
•    setting (time, place, and space)
•    characterization
•    style/language
•    genre 
•    use of any literary devices: allusion, allegory, diction, simile/metaphor/analogy, symbolism, motif, trope, irony, personification, juxtaposition, metonymy, etc.
•    any relevant contexts (historical, social, cultural, political, etc.)

Keep in mind that just because you are focusing on the storytelling techniques the author has utilized, this doesn’t mean that you’re trying to reveal their intentions or some kind of hidden meaning. Instead, your goal is to talk about how the use of particular storytelling elements allows and/or encourages you to interpret the story based on evidence from the text itself. As Atwood does in “Happy Endings,” however, it might also prove useful for you to consider the alternative possibilities that the author could have pursued. If Atwood is correct that it is the details in the middle that really say the most about what a story is up to, make sure to think about the impact of those details while also keeping the beginning and ending in sight during your analysis.

Research & Citation

You are not required to consult any additional sources in order to formulate your analysis