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Essay / A Turn of Events - 807
The narrative structure of a text organizes the story in a coherent and sentimentally engaging way. Structure is perceptible in every text, whether linear or non-linear. Shirley Jackson's The Lottery is told in a very common and natural style of structure, as opposed to Tim O'Brien's The Things They Carried. Due to their different structure, these stories differ in both how the story and the characters develop. Jackson and O'Brien use these various structures to further promote the theme or main idea of their text. Each type of structure is used by authors for distinct purposes to complete the essence of the text. Jackson's The Lottery is organized chronologically. In the first words of the text, the reader receives a complete description of the setting and the beginning of the story (Shmoop). The reader can see an indication of conflict when Tessie Hutchinson complains, "You didn't give him enough time to get the paper he wanted." I saw you. It wasn't fair! (Jackson 137). The quote refers to when Bill Hutchinson "wins" the lottery for his family. The text then quickly continues in sequential order to show the climax, resolution and denouement (Shmoop). Unlike The Lottery, O'Brien uses a non-linear structure replete with flashbacks. The Things They Carried begins similarly to The Lottery in the sense of exposition given at the very beginning of the text. The similarities end there, as the story's timeline is quickly manipulated by mixing up the order of events, changing pacing, and the constant use of flashbacks (Guffey). As the arrangements of these stories are designed in different ways, so are the way the story and character development. In The Lottery, the chronological structure at the beginning...... middle of paper ......05. Internet. April 03, 2014.Jackson, Shirley. “The Lottery”. Literature and the writing process. 10th ed. Boston: Pearson Longman, 2012. 133-38. Print. Kaplan, Steven. "The narrator's eternal uncertainty in Tim O'Brien's The Things They Carried." Review: Studies in Contemporary Fiction. 1st ed. Flight. 35. Ipswich: EBSCO, 2002. 43-52. Print. Ser. 1993. McMahan, Elizabeth, Susan X. Day, Robert Funk, and Linda Coleman, eds. Literature and the writing process. 10th ed. Boston: Pearson Longman, 2012. Print. O'Brien, Tim. “The things they carried.” Literature and the writing process. 10th ed. Boston: Pearson Longman, 2012. 114-26. Print.Shmoop editorial team. “Lottery Plot Analysis.” Shmoop.com. Shmoop University, Inc., November 11, 2008. Web. April 3, 2014. Smith, Nicole. “Analysis of “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson.” Myriad article. Np, November 24, 2011. Web. April 3. 2014.