o "it becomes clear that they represent no more than the typical inhabitants of a New England village" (Brooks and Warren 72). They are only ordinary people. Also, the story is written in a third-person point of view. This gives an air of detachment and it doesn't have as much emotion as having it in first-person point of view. It adds on to the ordinary and casual approach.
             The tone at the beginning of The Lottery is very nonchalant. Readers may take an ordinary approach to the story because it has a very casual and friendly tone until they read the ending. The setting seems to be an average small town. It's realistic and normal, "Up to the last six paragraphs the story is written in the manner of a realistic transcript of small-town experience: the day is a special one, true, but the occasion is familiar" (Heilman 384). The people in the town appear friendly and neighborly, leading the readers to believe that everything is normal. The day is described as "clear and sunny, with the fresh warmth of a full-summer day" (Jackson 65). Everything is simple and regular up until the violent ending.
             With everything so casual and ordinary, the cruel outcome of the lottery seems shocking and out of place, "It is entirely out of line with all the terms of actual experience in which the story has otherwise dealt" (Heilman 384). Jackson's use of irony and the other elements make the story very effective. This leads people to read the story over and notice other details they may have overlooked without the shock value. Although there was some foreshadowing of the stoning, such as the children gathering the stones, the uneasy smiles, and the sudden hush of the crowd as opposed to an excited crowd, the horrifying outcome is still not what readers expect. The surprising ending makes readers think more about the story and the themes behind it.
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