Short Story Adaptation

Plot

If I was adapting "The Lottery" into a full-length film, I would add a few conflicts before Tessie's murder. The movie would begin with the end of the previous stoning and would focus specifically on Tessie's reaction to the stoning. This would effectively emphasize her hypocritical reaction to her own stoning. I would also include scenes in the homes of several village families. This would set the stage for the lottery and the effect that it has on each different family. Other than that, a film version could be exactly the same as the short story and still be entertaining, so I would not change anything that has already been written.

Point of View

In an adaptation, I would keep the third person omniscient narrator, but I would make the narrator more of a spy or a nosy neighbor. The narrator would be able to take the audience into the homes of each family. This change would allow the audience to feel closer to the villagers and identify with their families. By doing so, the audience would be more engaged in the movie. The ultimate goal is to make the movie exciting and interesting for an audience, and giving the narrator more of a free reign would create that excitement and evoke a stronger response from the audience.

Characterization

The way that the narrator has characterized Tessie and all the other characters is a combination for direct and indirect characterization. I would definitely keep that, but I would focus more on characterizing Tessie indirectly. Adding a relationship with the daughter she attempts to throw under the bus would be a good way to emphasize the desperation which accompanies the lottery. It would highlight the aspect of Tessie which allows her to try to betray her daughter. I would keep the same style of characterization, but I would expand on it and give the audience a better insight into the villagers', specifically Tessie's, lives. Just like the point of view, an expansion of the characterization would make Tessie's stoning more emotional for the audience.

Setting

I would keep the setting the same. A small village seems to be an appropriate setting for a story like "The Lottery." I would have the story set in the early 1900s. An audience seeing the movie today would find a story such as this unbelievable if it was set in the present day, so it needs to be set in a somewhat distant time period. That would also make a relative lack of technology more sensible. It would make it easier to set a potentially barbaric story without making it completely, obviously barbaric.

Theme

I'd keep the same theme in a movie as in the short story. The theme in the short story is that a bad occurrence is okay, even necessary, until it hits close to home. For this story to become an exciting movie, keeping this theme would be the best choice. It's crazy enough that an audience would be almost uncomfortable, but it would become somewhat believable. Tessie would be seen at the previous stoning seeming almost sad but not quite regretful. Tessie at the next lottery, however, would still lose it when she finds out that she has to die. Showing both would effectively support the theme and make the audience walk away from the film wondering how and why a society would have a lottery.