I think the most reasonable title to call the story 'The Black Spot' because it sums up the big idea of the whole story, but it doesn't give away what happens in it. “Bill Hutchinson went over to his wife and forced the slip of paper out of her hand. It had a black spot on it, the black spot..." - this quote from the paper is the climax of the whole story, the part where readers look most forward to. Villagers that belong in the text filled with intensity and curiosity of who got the paper with the black spot, wishing it wasn't themselves. The second they were told that Tessie received it, suspense and curiosity was gone - replaced with relief.
It was such a bother when we were left with a cliffhanger, the ending of the story not being given. Loads of questions filled my head, leaving me in curiosity. When another piece of paper was passed around, I knew it was the conclusion for it says, “Do not open until 5p.m and follow the instructions” Of course, I opened it after school - I'm not one to wait for such things. Although, I didn't really follow instructions to not opening the ending until five, but by writing this, I'm following the next instructions.
Black box. Black spot. Blank paper.
BLACK BOX holds all secrecy. It holds the answer to who gets the blank paper with the black spot on it while luck controls all its dependency. Furthermore, it resembles the annual ritual lottery that happens in that society.
BLACK SPOT gives its receiver the consequences. A little something everyone would beg on their knees to avoid from. Something everyone fears. As in this story, it was Tessie Hutchinson who had to face the end of her life. For whoever receives the black spot that sits on a blank paper, are supposedly to be thrown rocks at to death. It was a tradition in their community, which had to be continued every year.
BLANK PAPER symbolizes its receiver that they are out of the trap, that they are safe. It was either the black spot, or the blank paper.
Once I finished reading the end of the story, there was still some questions hanging, left unexplained - although, I was quite relieved to know who had received the black spot, and what they do to them. It was spiteful, and like I said, they were still some questions unexplained; why are they doing this annually, hurting people to death, when they did nothing wrong? It was quite bizarre, but I guess imaginations will go with me on that part.
My predictions on what they were going to do with the rocks, was wrong. And so was my predictions on who had to receive the black spot. I kind of laughed off the part about who was supposed to get the black spot, but I was rather shocked to what they did with the rocks they gathered. I just totally didn't see it coming at first.
Maybe the author leave all sorts of voids in the story to create more suspense and curiosity towards the readers to continue reading until the very end. To create the intensity and the release that follows it, as the climax of the story.
At first, I didn't notice the fact that there were no author information, but I did realize that there were no title - and that became my first question about the whole story. What could this be about? Like I said above, having no ending given to us straight away was kind of a bother, but it was totally worth the suspension. Text clues and all the foreshadowing throughout start to give a hint that something bad was going to happen in the end - I have no clue what would happen, but I knew something bad would. The mystery paper was a killer, it totally bought more intensity into reading. Having a delayed ending was a bother and did nothing but increased curiosity but came with relieve once read. Overall, it was a good plan towards the whole plot and theme of the story. Power of the void was definitely a brilliant way to let people take risks and create curiosity.
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