Graphic Design - Visual Art Focus: The writing style of Shirley Jackson.
There is something always ominous about Shirley Jackson's writing, it feels like that moment in your stomach right before a roller coaster dips right down. I can never tell if that anticipation feeling is my own self projection of impatience wanting to know what's about to happen next, or Jackson's true intent.
A moment of am I giving this piece more depth and meaning than there actually is.
- existential
crack-
Mr Summers < in charge of the lottery, but it was never touched upon on why him versus the others. He seems to come off as an older man that complains of how much things needs to improve but never actually takes the action of doing so.
It's shown when he criticizes the state of the black wooden box every time this unknown ritual is performed, but never actually does anything about it. Thought he is the one who seems to be in charge of storing the book.
I have read Shirley's We have always lived in a castle before so going in, I've already had this clue of what to expect from her themes. She seems to tackle communities that are governed by a mob mentally. All the "normal" villagers have one opinion while the protagonist seems to live by another minding their own business. Whether it's how Merricat , her elder sister Constance shunned from the rest of the village in We have always lived in a castle or in this instance how Tessie coincidentally meet her end.
Jackson's way of weaving the tension amongst the "oh the young ones don't know anything" conversation, was what hooked me in. As a reader it was never really explained whats going or why? and that's where Jackson's grabs the readers mind like go ahead and try to keep up with whats going on because it's not going to be good.
There was another familiar theme she tackles, the reader might find there voiced echoed alot with the one posing character. The one who questions the whole thing. Even though other villages near by stopped performing this outdated ritual, it's not enough to spark the courage for change and thus it end grimly
`
What's the narrative here?
- All the characters from the story are different personas of the same person. They use the box as a tool to kill one of the personas, the weakest link.
-The part of yourself you want to chip away-
The existing
The crack
