“The Lottery”
Shirley Jackson
Shirley Jackson
Shirley Jackson (December 14, 1919 August 8, 1965) was an American author
who wrote short stories and novels. Her
most famous work is her short story "The
Lottery," which combines a peaceful
small-town-America setting with a horrific
shock ending. The tone of most of her
works is odd and macabre, with an
impending sense of doom, often framed by
very ordinary settings and characters.
First Publication and Reaction
• 1948 in the New Yorker magazine
• The Lottery is reported to have generated more
negative letters from readers than any other story
previously published by the magazine. Many
cancelled their subscriptions to the magazine
• Readers were offended by the work and its suggestion
that evil could be so easily and commonly carried out.
They felt the stoning was a pointless, arbitrary,
violent sacrifice.
First Publication and Reaction
• Some people actually called to see where the town
was so that they could go and watch the lottery.
• Shirley Jackson received over 300 letters that summer
alone—I can count only thirteen that spoke kindly to
me. Even my own mother scolded me: ‘‘Dad and I
did not care at all for your story…it does seem, dear,
that this gloomy kind of story is what all you young
people think about these days. Why don’t you write
something to cheer people up?’’
Shirley Jackson’s Response
• She refused to explain the meaning of the story.
• She did once tell a journalist: “I suppose I hoped, by
setting a particularly brutal rite in the present and in
my own village, to shock the readers with a graphic
demonstration of the pointless violence and general
inhumanity of their own lives [but] I gather that in
some cases the mind just rebels. The number of
people who expected Mrs. Hutchinson to win a
Bendix washer at the end would amaze you.”
Ancient Ritual Sacrifice
• In ancient Athens, Greece, Athenians believed that
human sacrifice promised fertile crops.
• By transferring one's sins to persons or animals and
then sacrificing them, people believed that their sins
would be eliminated, a process that has been termed
"scapegoat"
• A similar ritual sacrifice occurs with Tessie
Hutchinson.
• This explains the village member's remark, “Lottery
in June, corn be heavy soon.”
Historical Context
• “The Lottery” was written in 1948.
• After World War II Americans tended to imitate those
around them rather than follow their own separate paths.
• Encouraging this conformity was the spread of television,
which broadcast the same set of images to Americans
scattered through the country.
• In politics, people feared the spread of Communism, leading
to the Un-American Activities Committee, the Hollywood
blacklist, and by 1950, McCarthy’s Communist “witch hunt”
• In the story, the townspeople are swept away by the tide
of conformity, and the lottery goes ahead as always.
Historical Context
• By 1943 news of the Nazi concentration camps had
finally reached America.
• A number of Americans responded with horror and
concern that communities could have stood by and
silently allowed the Holocaust to occur.
• Jackson hints at a similar situation in her story when
the townspeople are unable to fully question or
prevent the brutal lottery practice, and in fact,
participate in it.
Characters
Bobby Martin, Harry Jones,
and Dickie Delacriox- boys in
the beginning of the novel;
piling the stones and guarding
them
Mr. Summers- lottery
conductor
Mr. Graves- postmaster;
assisted Mr. Summers
Mr. Martin and Baxter
Martin- helped Mr. Summers
hold the box while he stirred
the papers inside
Bill Hutchinson- drew the
winning piece of paper during
the lottery
Mrs. Hutchinson- wife of Bill who
arrived late to the lottery because she
forgot what day it was. She drew the
blot dot the second time and was the
person stoned
Mr. Adams – member of the town
who spoke of the north village that
was talking of giving up the lottery
Old Man Warner- 77 years old;
man who represents that people are
stuck in their ways and are not
willing to change
The Narrator
• Third Person (Objective)
• The narrator of "The Lottery" is extremely detached
from the story. The narrator simply shows the process
of the lottery unfurling. This further underlines the
shocking nature of the ending, as our only indications
of the lottery's true purpose come from the villagers'
nervous manners. Imagine if the story had been told
from one of the villagers' point of view – it might
have been a far less effective narrative choice.
Initial Situation
• Villagers gather in the square.
• The story begins with a sense of liberation. It's a
beautiful summer day, the children are out of school,
and the villagers have begun assembling in the square
to hold a lottery. It is unclear exactly what the prize
of this lottery is going to be, and this mystery persists
throughout the story. Clearly, the scene has been set
for future revelations, which is exactly what the initial
situation is supposed to be about.
Conflict
• Bill Hutchinson gets "it." His wife protests.
• This is the first overt moment of discord we
see in the story, as Tess Hutchinson disagrees
with the result of the lottery. Basically, this has
conflict written all over it.
Complication
• Each member of the Hutchinson family
nervously draws from the box.
• Things are starting to get fishy. Clearly,
winning the lottery does not entail a trip to
Hawaii. The plot thickens as we grow closer to
discovering who wins the lottery.
Climax
• Tess Hutchinson wins the lottery.
• We've finally reached the climactic moment of
the story, when we find out who has won this
famous lottery – but we're still left with several
mysteries. What exactly is the prize, and why
does Tess seem so unhappy about being
selected to receive it? These questions are
what lead us to the next stage …
Suspense
• Tess Hutchinson protests the lottery.
• This whole lottery business is getting weirder
and weirder. Tess has won the lottery – so why
does she claim it's unfair? We never heard of a
California SuperLotto winner protesting the
results. We've got growing misgivings about
what the prize is, that Tess is so desperate not
to get it.
Denouement
• No dice;
the villagers surround Tess carrying stones.
• Here in the denouement, all suspense is resolved.
The villagers ignore Tess's protests as they begin to
select the stones they're going to use against here.
Suddenly, the penny drops for us, the readers: this
lottery winds up in the violent death of its winner.
All that's left is the execution.
Conclusion
• The villagers begin attacking.
• ‘It isn't fair, it isn't right,’ Mrs. Hutchinson
screamed, and then they were upon her" (80).
And that's about all we get. Jackson spares us
the grisly details, but it's clear that Tess will be
stoned to death. The villagers like to finish the
lottery in time for lunch, remember?
Symbolism
• Black:
• The color for death, mourning, punishment
• The black box used to draw lots and the slip of
paper with a black mark pointing out the
'winner' are mentioned too frequently to be
coincidental.
Symbolism
•
•
•
•
Black box:
Coffin? Evil secret hidden away?
Black spot on paper:
Sin? A “black mark” on one’s record is
negative; black mark: unclean?
Symbolism
• Black Box
• The box is old; the paint is peeling, and the
wood is splintered. This condition reflects the
fading of the tradition in other villages as well
as the villager's questioning of the lottery in
this village.
• However, they will not replace the box, just
like they will not stop the lottery.
Symbolism
The Lottery Itself:
Symbolizes any number of social problems that
we blindly continue even though they are
outdated
The setting:
No specific name/place indicates this is any
town, USA; the contrast of the town with the
ritual helps build suspense
Symbolism: Names
• Summers:
the season of summer is associated
with youth, strength, growth, prime of life,
warmth, leisure, prosperity, happiness, blooming,
blossoming
• Graves
the obvious grave = place of entombment/death
• Grave = serious; hints that the lottery may not be a
frivolous contest (“Mr. Graves said gravely”)
• Critics have said that Jackson creates balance by
having Mr. Summers and Mr. Graves share in the
responsibilities of the ritual: Life brings death,
and death recycles life.
What’s Up With the Title?
This story's title brings to mind the dictionary
definition of, well, a lottery: a happening determined
by chance. There's nothing in that definition about
good or bad chance – but did your mind still go
straight to giant dollar signs? Ours did, too. In
common usage, winning a lottery is cause for
celebration. What becomes apparent by the end of
Jackson's story, however, is that this lottery sure isn't
one you'd want to win. By titling her story "The
Lottery," Jackson keeps the real meaning of the story
under wraps until the last possible second, allowing
her message to deliver maximum impact.
What’s Up With the Ending?
Jackson defers the revelation of the lottery's true purpose until the
end of the story, when "the winner," Tess Hutchison, is stoned to
death by friends and family. This shocking event marks a dramatic
turning point in how we understand the story. Jackson uses stoning
as a metaphor for the innate savagery that can lurk beneath a
modern, civilized façade. See "Symbols, Imagery, Allegory" for
more on this analogy.
The ending is a turning point in other ways as well. One critic notes
that the ending transforms "The Lottery" from realism to
symbolism, as we suddenly understand the town and its inhabitants
as being symbolic. For Tess Hutchinson, the ending of the lottery is
certainly not what she expects. Although she began the story as an
eager latecomer to the event, the story's conclusion brings out her
hypocrisy: Tess Hutchinson is quite willing to participate in groupsponsored violence until she becomes its victim.
Themes
• Acts of violence, hatred, murder are not acceptable just
because many people participate
• Society is reluctant to reject outdated traditions, ideas, rules,
laws, and practices.
• People are not all good or all evil but a mixture of both.
• Horrifying acts of violence can take place anywhere at
anytime, and they can be committed by the most ordinary
people.
• Following the crowd can have disastrous consequences.
• The unexamined life is not worth living.
• Many more ideas/themes can be applied to “The Lottery”
The Writing Style
• Clinical, Journalistic
• The very first sentence of the text clues us in: "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 style appears totally barebones, without any overt
emotion – no pleasure or kindness or regret. In this
regard, it might be said to mirror the attitude of the
villagers themselves, who for the most part see the
lottery as a naturalized way of life, no more worthy of
emotion than the flowers or the grass. The villagers
express no overt sympathy for Tess, and neither does
the story's narration. To us, this only serves to
increase the horror of "The Lottery".
The Genre
• Horror
• Realism
Tone
• Deadpan
• Detached
• Calm
Summary
The people of a small village gather in the town square for
the annual lottery. They merrily discuss trivial events and
the lottery taking place, while waiting for the ceremony to
begin. To begin the lottery, the men of each family draws
a piece of paper from an old black box. One paper is
marked by a black dot. The Hutchinson family draws the
dot and must return their papers to the empty box. They
draw again to find one winner. At the climax of the story,
Mrs. Hutchinson draws the paper with the black dot,
complaining how unfair and wrong the lottery was.
Clutching rocks, all the townspeople (including the
Hutchinson family) then close in on Mrs. Hutchinson and
stone her.
Q&A
•
With the exception of the final five paragraphs, are there any
indications of violence in the life of the village? What might the
absence or presence of violence in other aspects of village life
indicate, in light of the story's conclusion?
•
Do you agree with Mrs. Hutchinson – is the lottery unfair? How
or how not? Her friends and neighbors point out that they all take
the same risks in participating.
•
Are there any clues in the story that might explain how the lottery
first started? What might its purpose be? What passages give the
reader clues about the origins of this ritual?
“The Lottery”:
More than you expected, right…?