The Lottery By Shirley Jackson Analysis

In learning to read fiction well, one of the useful ways to approach the techniques of fiction is to analyze its setting. A setting may refer to the location or geography something occurs in general. According to The Cambridge Dictionary (1996), the setting is the time and the place in which the action of a book, film, play and so on happens. A setting is the description of the situation or condition that covers the story including the description of place and time (Stanton, 1965: 35).
Moreover, Robert DiYanni (1986) suggests that:
“Writers describe the world they know, its sights and sounds, its colours, textures and accents. Stories come to life, are imagined as occurring in a place, rooted in the soil of a writer’s memories. This place or location of a story’s action along with the time in which it occurs is its setting.” (p.36)
Both time and place give the story a frame of reference that enhances the sense of authenticity and credibility. First, place governs the parameter for the characters’ lives, actions and behaviours. This can be explained as a character living in a small village might have very different perceptions and points of view compared to a character who lives in a large city. The Lottery, by Shirley Jackson, is set in a bucolic American village with a population of approximately three hundred people. The villagers’ lives are less hectic with most the men’s revolve around agriculture or coal mining while the women’s revolve around household running and