Blog 2

“The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson

In this story the author uses third person point of few, the dramatic or objective point of few to be more specific. She uses this point of view very well to bring mystery and make the reader ask a lot of questions. The story starts in a small village, all the citizens of that village are gathering at “the square.” In the first few paragraphs the author states some things that already bring up some questions, “Bobby Martin had already stuffed his pockets full of stones, and the other boys soon followed his example”(p. 140). It makes you wonder what is going on at this gathering that all the little boys gather up stones, or maybe they are just collecting them as little children sometimes do. As the story continues you begin to wonder what the lottery is about. The author tries to deter you and make you think it is a positive thing by the characters talking bad about other villages for stopping the lottery. In reply to one of the other villages giving up the lottery Old man Warner said,

Pack of crazy fools… Listening to the young folks, nothing’s good enough for them. Next thing you know, they’ll wanting to go back to living in caves, nobody work anymore, live that way for a while…. There’s always been a lottery (p.143).

This kind of makes it difficult for the reader to decide if the lottery is a good thing or not.  At the end of the story it is revealed that the winner of the lottery is to be stoned. Stoned by family, friends, children, elders, everyone that is present at the lottery can take part. A huge twist and the end of this story shows how using a certain point of view and easily mislead a reader. Since using the objective point of view it causes more tension, and easier to mislead because the narrator only knows what is said and what happens, nothing more. As opposed to the omniscient point of view, in which the narrator knows EVERYTHING about EVERYONE, thus the narrator would know what the lottery is making the tension less, and making the twist and the end less dramatic. 

Miss Phoenix Jackson(blog 1 Edited name on 8/28)

In Eudora Welty's "A Worn Path" the main and pretty much only character in the story is Phoenix Jackson. Phoenix is described by Welty as "very old and small and she walked slowly in the dark pine shadows, moving a little from side to side in her step, with the balanced heaviness and lightness of a pendulum in a grandfather clock" (p. 314). This shows that Phoenix is an elderly woman, by describing how she walks slowly, with a little rock side to side shows that she can possibly walk with a cane. Welty also describes the cane, "She carried a thin, small cane made from an umbrella, and with this kept tapping the frozen earth in front of her" (p. 314). Since her cane is made from an umbrella, it shows she is poor, she has no money for a real cane so she uses what is at her disposal. The last thing Welty does to help give some background on Phoenix is she uses the way Phoenix talks to give insight. "'Ghost,' she said sharply, 'who be you the ghost of? For i have heard of nary death close by'" (p. 315). Her dialect shows that Phoenix probably is not very educated, and has very basic vocabulary. Welty uses these different techniques to help the reader learn about the Phoenix Jackson.