THE LOTTERY
Group 2
張顥耀 余安立 蕭文秋 吳怡萱 郭又瑋
Shirley Jackson
• Personal Profile
• Her Interest
• About Writing
• The Lottery
Historical Context
• Published in 1948
• Critics
• "I hoped by setting a particularly brutal
ancient rite in the present and in my
own village, to shock the story's readers
with a graphic dramatization of the
pointless violence and general
humanity in their own lives."
Plot Summary
All the villagers start to gather in the square
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Mr. Summers begin to read off the list of names
after he make sure everyone is here
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Every house hold draws a slip of paper and open
it all at the same time
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Bill Hutchinson gets the paper with a spot on it
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Bill, Tessie, Bill Jr., Nancy, and Davy
(The Hutchinson’s) all have to draw again
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Tessie got the marked paper
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Tessie get stoned by all the villagers
MAJOR THEME
• Society wrongfully picks up scapegoats to bear
the sins of the community.
• The reluctance of people to reject outdated
traditions, ideas, rules, laws, and practices.
• Following the crowd leads to disastrous
consequences.
HORRORS
• This horrible events seems to be their daily
routing. (After stoning a woman, the people will go home
to eat lunch or go back to work as if nothing out of the
ordinary has happened.)
• The villagers do not excuse children from the
lottery, and children take part in the stoning,
even Tessie’s little Davy was included.
HORRORS (continue)
• Mr. Hutchinson didn’t plead for his wife. (He
was actually the one who pulled the marked slip of paper out
of her hand.)
• Nancy Hutchinson and her brother Bill
laughed when they found their paper blank,
knowing one of their parents was going to be
stoned.
SYMBOLS and NAMES
• The lottery
→They supposed to draw for a prize.
• Mrs. Delacroix
→Means ”of the cross” in French, and she
actually “double-crosses” Tessie
(double-cross: to betray)
Church
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•
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•
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a high emphasis on religion
irony of the lottery
mindlessly following tradition
good religions should be cherished
bad religions should be trashed
Reference to more issues
Two themes about The Lottery:
-confinement of traditions
-designating of scapegoats
Confinement of traditions
Confinement of tradition:
-people cling to an outdated tradition
Examples:
-Abolishment of Capital Punishment
-Discrimination of Homosexuality
Abolishment of Capital
Punishment
Capital punishment:
-A long existed practice, but in recent years the appeal
to abolish it emerged and grew stronger.
-we’re used to having capital punishment, so we wouldn’t like
to make any change on it.
-the society is confined to the tradition of carrying out capital
punishment.
Discrimination of Homosexuality
Although the same-sex love is now gradually becoming
acceptable to the society, there’s still one forth of
students having ever been looking down. (HK news)
In tradition, the society is supposed to be heterosexual,
therefore it tends to have heterosexism.
Designating of scapegoats
Designating of scapegoats:
-the society wrongfully finds victims to bear
undeserved punishment.
Designating of scapegoats
Event of the little girl Chiu:
-A significant example of how the society wrongfully
designates scapegoats to bear undeserved
punishment.
-Eager to find out the criminal to bear the sins, and
therefore they could get rid of scare and guilt.
-In fact, none ought to bear the entire sins.
-The whole society had its blame.
-It was everyone in the society that caused this
event to happen.
Conclusion and Reflection
• We may follow religions, superstitions,
medical systems, policies, and anything the
public do blindly
• Justice
SHORT VIDEO
• The Lottery
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tN5V8cQ2DAk
Thank you for your listening