Free Custom «The Lottery» Essay Paper

Every good story or writing needs a point of view. A point of view is the angle form, which a narrator can tell the story. It would be close to impossible to tell a story without a point of view. Point of view helps the writers to explain themselves to their audience. It is the link between the author and the reader. Thus, it makes the readers appreciate the story, know more about the character, make decisions and conclusions, anticipate the plot among others. This essay shall discuss the central idea of the story, identify the point of view in the story “The Lottery,” and explains what will happen if the author chose to use other points of view.

This story is set up in a village, and it is about the lottery. The 300 villagers are set to attend a lottery game in the village square on 27 June. The village has a tradition of holding lottery event on an annual basis. On this day, the entire village will hold the annual lottery game. The village has one childless man, Mr. Summers, whose wife is a scold. Mr. Summers is in charge of this year’s lottery event. As a lottery master, he has to swear by postmaster’s name. So much has changed. For instance, the lottery box has grown shabbier, faded and stained. The color of the box has also changed because it is not black anymore. Mr. Summers has also promised to make a new lottery box but he is unable to keep his promise. The swearing tradition has also changed. According to Mr. Warner, the new generation is losing their interest on lottery (Jackson and Homes 565). Mr. Summers has also transformed the game from the use of wood chips to use of papers, which he believes it is suitable for the growing numbers of villagers (Jackson and Homes 563). Mr. Summers, Mr. Graves and Mr. Martin are in charge of keeping the lottery box. They keep the lottery box on rotational basis every year. Apart from that, the narrator describes the lottery process, the person in charge of the process, he also gives a brief history of the process and notes a few changes before mentioning a few people who are present at the square on the lottery day.

 

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The writer has opted to use the third person point of view. In the story, he refuses to participate in the story directly. Thereby, the narrator creates an emotional distance between him and the readers. Instead, he tells the story from godly point of view. The writer sees what happens in other towns, at home and village square. The narrator is everywhere. He employs different styles like dialogue to expose the thoughts and feelings of the character. For instance, we learn of Mr. Warner’s attitude towards lottery when he says, “pack of crazy fools.” Point of view is about the person telling the story to the reader (Tibbett 1). Point of view is very important to any writer. It helps the writer to set up a link with his/her readers. Depending on the point of view, the narrator can be very close or too far from the readers. Apart from that, the point of view also determines what the audience should feel. For a first person point of view narration, the reader only feels what the narrator feels. In third person narration, the reader will have to encounter different feelings of different character but will have to decide what to feel, see, hear, smell or taste. It controls what the reader should know therefore, the attitude of the narrator and distance will determine what the audience should know.

For first person narration, the reader knows only what the narrator knows when in a certain place at a time. The author used this point of view because it creates a gap between the readers and the audience. The narrator breaks the direct contact with the readers. She employs devices like dialogue to allow the readers to experience different angles of the story. Therefore, the narrator provides the readers with scenario without any bias and allows them to make informed decisions on their own. The narrator knows everything thus allows the reader to know everything that is going on the story settings. It is the most reliable point of narration because it is free from bias and knowledgeable enough for the audience. In any story, the writer may use first person narration, second person narration or third person point of view. Each point of view has its rules. In first person narration, it is direct narration with the audience. If the author had used the first person point of view, the narrator would be so close to the audience. The intimacy rates are high for this point. Nonetheless, this style has bias because the reader only knows what the narrator thinks. It tells a story from one point of experience at a time thus decides what the readers should conclude (Tibbett 1).

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On second person narration, the writer has the most direct contact with the audience. The writer involves the audience directly. However, most fiction writing of the 21^st century writers rarely use this form of writing though it was very common during common during the 17^th century literature. Today, second person narration is common in instructional literature.

To sum up, Point of view is the most important part in any narration. In order to set up a link with the audience, every author needs to have a point of view.