What is the mood?

Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery" is a story filed with
irony and contradictions. The mood, therefore, is very important to the text as a
whole.

The story opens in this
way:

The
morning of June 27th was clear and sunny, with the fresh warmth of a full-summer day;
the flowers were blossoming profusely and the grass was richly green. The people of the
village began to gather in the square, between the post office and the bank, around ten
o'clock; in some towns there were so many people that the lottery took two days and had
to be started on June 2th. But, in this village, where there were only about three
hundred people, the whole lottery took less than two hours, so it could begin at ten
o'clock in the morning and still be through in time to allow the villagers to get home
for noon dinner.

This leads
readers to believe that the mood is one which is lighthearted given the sunny and clear
day.  Unfortunately, this is not the case.

The mood changes
rather abruptly given one can sense the tension in the air.  The mood then changes from
light conversations and smiles to the following:

readability="17">

When he arrived in the square, carrying the
black wooden box, there was a murmur of conversation among the villagers, and he waved
and called. "Little late today, folks." The postmaster, Mr. Graves, followed him,
carrying a three- legged stool, and the stool was put in the center of the square and
Mr. Summers set the black box down on it. The villagers kept their distance, leaving a
space between themselves and the
stool.

Here, the mood is
defined as tense and worrisome.  The villagers are worried about something. This is
notated by the distance they keep from the box and
stool.

By the end of the story, readers can see the change
of mood.  It transforms from the opening of the text, where the day is described as
clear and fresh, to the end of the text where the stoning of a villager takes place. 
While the scene is depicted as beautiful, the actions depict anything
but.