The Lottery Point Of View Analysis

What decision does an author make before deciding which point of view to tell their story? Does it really matter? Can the point of view of a story can shape the reader entire experience? There are three different point of views, fist, second, and third. First person is told from one characters point of view, which limits the facts and gives the reader just the one character opinion of the story. Second person treats the reader as the main character in a story. Third person is all knowing, it can jump from character to character and give information that only the reader knows about. Does varying amongst these three point of views change the reader opinion of a story? Shirley Jackson decided to write The Lottery in third person while Alice Walker
The Lottery takes place in an unnamed town where the tradition is for everyone, no exceptions, to select a name from the box. Mr. Summers conducts the entire process and the townspeople respond to doing this as a normal routine and no red flags are present, everyone is simply following tradition. The tone of the story doesn’t in any way fit with what is about to occur until Tessie Hutchinson realizes that it is her family that has been chosen. Instead of being excited she suggest that they do a redo. This is where the suspense is built and the reader wonders why she doesn’t go and claim the prize. When the redo is denied she suggest that other members who are in her family but doesn’t live in her house be included in the final drawing and this is where the reader assumes that the lottery isn’t something they want to win. What finally gave the reader a definite answer that the lottery isn’t something they wanted was win the ones who didn’t have the marked paper seem relieved. Once the reader found that it was Tessie who had won the lottery, the reader was assured that the lottery wasn’t what anyone wanted to win with the stoning of the winner. The narrator in this story doesn’t allow the reader to know exactly how the characters feel about the lottery. Not knowing the thoughts of the characters is important. The fact that the narrator just takes the reader through the process of how the lottery is conducted. Jackson decision to use this point of view is extremely vital to the reader experience. If Jackson choose to select a specific character we would know how they felt about the lottery. Having no one state their opinions of the lottery lead to end of the story catching the reader completely by surprise. I believe this was Jackson plan, to have the reader notice the way the characters behave towards the lottery and not to just have someone come out and state that the lottery is something they did not want