A lot of people think that they know someone really well, so well that they could trust them. In the short stories The Storm by McKnight Malmar and The Lottery by Shirley Jackson proves that this statement isn’t always accurate. In McKnight Malmar’s The Storm, a woman named Janet came home from a trip she had been on earlier, when she got home she was in the middle of a big storm, and noticed that her husband Ben wasn’t home. Throughout the story she noticed and experienced some pretty crazy experiences, she reacts to this scary situations in a shocking, unexpected way. In Shirley Jackson’s The Lottery, all the villagers gathering in the town square for the annual lottery, as if it were just another day. During the town’s lottery names are …show more content…
In The Storm, suspense was present all throughout the story, but most impacting towards the beginning of the story when Malmar adds suspense to draw in the reader and keep the reader on their toes. During the beginning of the story the readers think that not much is going on, all the readers really know/think about it is there's a girl named Janet who just got home in the middle of a big storm. This quote comes right after the point where she had just walked into the house and she was feeling really afraid, out of her bubble/out of place, and when she walked inside it brought back all of her old emotions. “The wind hammered at the door and the windows, and the air was full of the sound of water, racing in the gutters, pouring from the leaders, thudding on the roof” (p. 2). This quote proves that by adding this suspense of detailed explanation adds to the theme of people don’t always know someone as well as they think they know them because Janet is already out of place and then with all this added suspense it adds to the bigger picture and all the untold secrets that won’t unfold until the end. Jackson also used suspense to strengthen the theme in The Lottery. Mr. Summers made the crowd feel anticipation as he was getting ready to reveal the names that were being picked for this years lottery. “A sudden hush fell on the crowd as Mr. Summers cleared his throat and looked …show more content…
In The Storm, tone was present throughout the story, most notably in the middle of the story when Janet was checking the cellar to see where all the strange noises and sounds were coming from. She was trying to make herself as comfortable as possible because she thought that all that was happening was she was getting a little paranoid, so she thought that checking the cellar would make her feel more comfortable during the storm. “She hesitated at the top of the cellar stairs. The light, as she switched it on, seemed insufficient; the concrete wall at the foot of the stairs was dank with moisture and somehow gruesome. And wind was chilling her ankles” (p. 3). This was certainly an example of tone, as it clearly showed how much anticipation and fear Janet was feeling when she first walked into the cellar. She didn’t feel safe and comfortable in her own house. This event is parallel to the theme in one BIG way. Janet couldn’t trust her own house nor her own husband Ben. He was there too he said that it would all be fine, but little did Janet know that things wouldn’t be fine. This quote proves to the reader that when the author adds a lot of emotional and scary tone it will really impact how you react to what the character is going through. Jackson also used suspense to strengthen the theme in The Lottery. When Mrs. Hutchinson was complaining about how they were picking this