The Lottery
Author Biography:
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Shirley Jackson 1916-1965
Born in San Francisco on December 14 1916
Childhood in Burlingame, California
Began to write poems and short stories as a teenager
After a year in Rochester University, Shirley withdrew and spent an entire year at home
improving her writing
She attended Syracuse and published her first story Janice
After she won a poetry contest at Syracuse, Shirley met her husband Stanley Hyman and
had 4 children together
The lottery was published in dozens of languages “required to be read in the states”
She unexpected died due to heart failure on August 8th at the age of 48
Plot Summary:
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Small village that holds a “lottery” every year because they believe it will bring good
crops
Everyone 16+ must participate in taking a piece of paper from the black box
Village puts high emphasis on keeping the tradition, even though the surrounding villages
have stopped
Bill Hutchinson draws the piece of paper with the black dot, the Hutchinson family has to
put their slips back in the box to decide who is chosen to be stoned
Tessie (the mother) pulls the black dot, tries to reason with the village, doesn’t want to be
stoned
Someone give her youngest son Davey a rock to throw at her
Tessie is stoned to death
Characters:
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Tessie Hutchinson - The unlucky loser of the lottery. Tessie draws the paper with the
black mark on it and is stoned to death. She’s a very opinionated character, and is the
only one in the village to protest against the lottery, until her family draws the marked
paper.
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Old Man Warner- Oldest man in the town. He has supported the lottery for 77 years, and
does not want it ever to change
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Mr. Summers- Official of the Lottery, Mr. Summers not only draws the names on the day
of the lottery, but he also makes up the slips of paper that go into the black box. It’s up to
him to make the black circle that ultimately condemns someone to death.
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The Boys (Bobby Martin, Dickie Delacroix, Harry and Bobby Jones)- They are the ones
who describe the lottery, and describe how the ritual should not be done, ironically they
are also the ones who collect the stones.
POV:
Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery" was written in a third person point of view to tell a story about
an unknown village that has an event that occurs every year due to tradition. The narrator gives
many small information details about the lottery taking place, but reveals it towards the end. The
person who wins the lottery is stoned to death by others in the village. The third-person point of
view was used in this story for effect but if it was told from the another point of view: first
person Mrs. Hutchinson's point of view, the narrator would have go in depth on how
Mrs.Hutchinson felt about the lottery which throws off the reaction that was created when she
found out she was the winner of the lottery and concludes with a twist.
Setting:
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“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;” – A calm happy day that everyone was enjoying. The setting plays a huge role
as it seems like it’s a happy story, it’s not the story turns out to be the opposite.(Irony)
Adds suspense to the story.
“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”. - It’s a small unknown town, compared to the
other towns where the lottery also takes place
Mood:
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Story begins on “Clear and sunny” day, where the “Flowers were blossoming profusely
and the grass was richly green”. A happy mood is established early in the story.
The mood changes to nerve wracking and anxiousness is present when citizens face the
fact that one of their neighbors will get stoned to death.
Theme:
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People will go against their morals to follow in the traditions they have been taught are
necessary
“…the feeling of liberty sat uneasily on most of them; they tended to gather quietly for a
while before they broke into boisterous play..” this quote shows the uneasy feeling the
lottery brings to them all, none of them enjoyed it however they went along with it
because they were taught it was necessary
You shouldn’t always do what authority tells you is right
“’Lottery in June, corn be heavy soon’” this quote shows the real reason why the village
would perform the Lottery annually; they believed it would bring them good crops.
However, it is now known that the Lottery in no way would have helped their crops to
grow. The village continued to perform the Lottery because they were taught it was
necessary by previous generations however many innocent lives could have been saved
from a torturous death if they had done what was right rather than what they were told.
In times of desperation, people will do whatever they can to save themselves
“’There’s Don and Eva,… Make them take their chance!’…’Daughters draw with their
husbands families, Tessie’” in this quote Tessie is desperately trying to increase her odds
of survival by trying to make her oldest daughters have to draw from the remaining slips
as well, even though the rules are that married daughters draw with their husbands
family. When one thinks of a mother one thinks of a caring, loving mom that would do
anything to save her children however Tessie’s fear of drawing the black dot was so great
that she was willing to put her other daughter’s lives on the line to save herself.
Conflict:
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Man Vs. Society  The conflict within the story “The Lottery” was man v.s society. The
conflict was between a system of law (society), the "lottery," and all the people in the
village who must go through it. Individuals such as Mrs. Hutchinson struggle fighting
against “The Lottery”. She refuses to accept that her family but ultimately herself had
won the Lottery. Due to the ritual acceptance of society allowing the tradition to be
continued, her protests were ignored and overpowered by the society.
Person Vs. Person in “The Lottery”  “You didn’t give him time enough to take any
paper he wanted. I saw you. It wasn’t fair!”
Tessie Hutchinson Vs. Mr.Summers
Mrs. Hutchinson is trying to convince Mr.Summers that it was not fair, she is trying to
spare her family from having to draw tickets from the black box again and lose a family
member.
Connections:
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The Lottery and A Rose For Emily
The main connection between these two stories would be how they are not written in first person
but by an observer. The narrator is someone who can not explain every detail because they are
not able to enter the mind of the main character and reveal their thoughts. This leads to a
mysterious ending but throughout the two short stories, many minor details were mention to
build upon what would occur towards the ending. For example “A Rose For Emily” used
symbolic devices as a clue towards the readers; decayed home indicated the sense of death
within the home and the aging of the old house. In “The Lottery” the tradition was carried on for
many years, and mentioned the decayed black box. Which also concluded in death, both stories
have minor similar connections that make the stories more interesting and attention grabbing due
to the twists.
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“This poor child is more deadly than any rattlesnake”
“And someone gave little Davy Hutchinson few pebbles”
Unlike classic stories where children are usually the most innocent of all the characters,
but in both these short stories the children are either just as bad as all the other characters,
or worse. In “The Lottery” written by Shirley Jackson, little Davy Hutchinson is given a
few pebbles so that he can join the others in stoning his mother to death. Also in “This
Year’s Class Picture” written by Dan Simmons, Dan the author makes the children in the
story seam so deadly and fearsome that they could be considered the antagonists. These
stories connect because they both tend to take away the children’s innocence.
Gothic Criteria:
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Atmosphere and emotion:
The Lottery sets a very mysterious atmosphere and makes the characters seem very
uncomfortable. The characters are described as having small talk amongst themselves and
making jokes but rather than laughing, everyone is smiling uneasily. This creates a very
mysterious atmosphere for the reader because a lottery is usually viewed as something
positive whereas in this story no one seems happy about it and it is not until the very end
that it is revealed why.
It also uses a very traumatic ending by having a mother stoned to death and one of the
stones being given to her youngest son. This is something that is very out of the ordinary
for people living in North American society and therefore such events are quite traumatic.
Characters:
The Lottery puts Tessie (a woman) in distress as she is the one that is desperately trying
to save herself from being stoned. It is very common in gothic writings to put women in
distress.
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Diction:
The Lottery uses a lot of diction to set the mood of the story. It creates a mysterious
atmosphere by making the characters very anxious and nervous, without telling the reader
why they are feeling this way. It also uses surprise at the end when Tessie “wins” the
Lottery as one would expect it to be a positive thing, when really it is the cause of her
death.
Literary Devices:
1. Irony- “The morning of June 27th was clear and sunny, with the fresh warmth of a full
summer day”.
This is ironic because the author introduces the setting as a nice calm day in a small town but the
story ends up turning into quite the opposite when Mrs. Hutchinson is stoned to death.
2. Imagery- “… flowers were blossoming profusely and the grass was richly green”.
3. Flashback- “There was a story that the present box had been made with some pieces of the box
that had proceeded it, the one that had been constructed when the first people settled down to
make a village here”.
A flashback to the original box which the town used for the lottery.
4. Imagery- “… it was no longer completely black but splintered badly along one side to show
the original wood colour.
5. Synecdoche- “… heads of households in each family”.
The author isn’t actually referring to the heads in a family; she is talking about their name.
6. Climax- “It’s Tessie”.
This is the height of the tension in the plot when the reader finds out that Tessie Hutchinson will
be killed.
Works Cited
"The Lottery Setting." Shmoop. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Sept. 2013.
SparkNotes. SparkNotes, n.d. Web. 26 Sept. 2013.
The Lottery. YouTube. YouTube, 01 Sept. 2010. Web. 29 Sept. 2013.
"Describe the Mood." Enotes.com. Enotes.com, 27 Aug. 2013. Web. 30 Sept. 2013
"Kelly9review - The Lottery." Kelly9review - The Lottery. N.p., 2013. Web. 30 Sept. 2013.
"Shirley Jackson's Bio." Shirley Jackson's Bio. N.p., 2009. Web. 30 Sept. 2013