Bishop Treadwell
Mrs. Kimberly Yetter
English 1102
16 June 16, 2015

The Setting Takes Place

The setting of any story can tell you many things like where it takes place and how it sets the tone of the story (which is how the author expresses his thoughts and feelings). The setting helps the readers imagine what type of atmosphere the characters are in and how they're feeling at the moment. Authors use settings to influence the tone of a story by bringing in new characters or switching locations. The descriptive details that authors uses helps the reader set the tone for the story. In “The Lottery” and “The Yellow Wallpaper” both authors use very descriptive details not only to help the reader visualize the setting, but to help the reader make a connection with the author and the characters.

“The Lottery" and "The Yellow Wallpaper" the settings for each story is similar in many ways. The author describes the setting of “The Lottery” in a small village, it was clear and sunny, with the fresh warmth of a full-summer day; the flowers were blossoming profusely and the grass was richly green. (Jackson 290). The reader can clearly see the village on this perfect day, they can feel the heat of the sun, smell the grass even the flowers as they bloom. Jackson says that the children gathered first they tended to gather together quietly before they broke into play, soon the men gather, surveying their own children and talking, then the woman wearing faded house dresses and sweaters, came shortly after (Jackson 290-291). The tone she uses is calm, everything was normal nothing was out of place everyone was acting as if it was just another day. “The Yellow Wallpaper” the setting is in a colonial mansion set back from the road with a beautiful garden with hedges, and walls with gates that lock (Gilman 227). The narrator describes the setting to the reader as a peaceful home out in the middle of nowhere with a delicious garden. Then the narrator describes her new room she describes it as a nursery first and then playroom and gymnasium, I should judge; for the windows are barred for little children, and there are rings and things in the wall (Gilman 227). Gilman’s ironic tone makes the house seem like a paradise on the outside but on the inside it’s the narrators’ cage.

When the black box was introduced in “The Lottery” and the wallpaper in “The Yellow Wallpaper” the setting was changed. The black box symbolizes death like the wallpaper represents isolation. Before the lottery even took place the narrator describes everyone carrying on with their normal everyday activities. Before John and the narrator arrive at the new house everything was okay with the narrator. When both of these objects were put into the settings of these stories everything takes a turn for the worse. Everyone in “The Lottery” turns on Tessie and stones her when she wins. The same happens in “The Yellow Wallpaper” when the narrator keeps telling her husband john who is a physician that she is sick but he never believes her.

Both stories share the same settings with one another. In “The Lottery” the setting is a town square inside a quiet village and in “The Yellow Wallpaper” the setting is a nice quiet colonial home in the middle of nowhere. Both the settings seem normal but each have ironic events happen that will baffles the reader. In “The Lottery” when everyone gathers and Mr. Summers (the man in charge of the lottery) arrives the lottery opens and he calls the name of each family to draw a slip. Now most people think that winning the lottery is a wonderful thing, but the irony in this story is whoever wins this lottery is stoned to death. In “The Yellow Wallpaper” the narrator is in this beautiful house but she stays in this beat up room with this tacky wallpaper. She slowly starts losing her mind in the shapes in the wallpaper. With such a pretty house it’s ironic that it ended up making the narrator loose her mind. The details that the authors use in the settings of their stories help the readers relate to the authors emotions as well as the characters.

In each of these stories the setting uses irony as its theme by presenting lifelike situations that seem one way, then takes a completely opposite turn which will shock the reader. Like how the narrator in “The Yellow Wallpaper” goes psychotic after being secluded to her room by her husband she stares at the wallpaper looking at all the shapes and thinking she actually sees a woman in the wallpaper. “The Lottery” goes from what looks like a regular town meeting to a death by stoning whoever drew the slip of paper with a black dot which was. Both authors did a great job using the setting as irony for the overall theme. They made both these stories have a positive setting which shocks the reader when the irony of the stories comes in to play.