By Shirley Jackson
Literary Analysis
“The morning of June 27th was clear and sunny, with the
fresh warmth of a 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 10:00…”
 The setting of this story is very ironic. On one hand the reader
gets the sense of a picturesque small rural town where the
families work and live together peacefully. The flowers are
blooming and everything seems bright and alive on this midsummer’s day.
HOWEVER
 By the end of this story , the reader knows that this town is
anything but peaceful and idyllic. This is a place where people
die, where people kill and then go back to their daily lives like
nothing has happened. This juxtaposition is important to the
suspenseful mood of the story and to emphasize the horrific
ending.
 Bobby Martin, Harry Jones, Dickie Delacroix – Flat and static.
 Mr. Summers – Round and static.
 Mr. Graves – Flat and static.
 Old Man Warner – Round and static.
 Tessie Hutchinson – Round and developing.
 Mrs. Delacroix – Flat and static.
 Hutchinson family: Bill, Bill Jr., Nancy, and Davy – flat and static.
 Third person narrator – a direct observer to the action of
the story, but not a character in the story. The narrator is
not all knowing omniscient because the readers do not get
insight or to ‘see’ thoughts and feelings of other characters.
 The type of narrator chosen for this story is very important
to the story. The readers are introduced to the story and
what is happening without any idea as to where the story is
leading. If the reader were able to ‘see’ into what the
characters were thinking, the story would lose its element
of surprise towards the end.
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 “The people of the village began to gather in the
square, between the post office and the bank,
around ten o'clock; in some towns there were so
many people that the lottery took two days and
had to be started on June 2nd. But in this
village, 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.”
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“When he [Mr. Summers] arrived in the square
carrying the black wooden box there was a
murmur of conversation among the villagers…”
“Just as Mr. Summers left off talking and turned
to the assembled villagers Mrs. Hutchinson came
hurrying along the path to the square… ‘All
ready?’ Mr. Summers called, ‘I’ll read the names of
families … and the men come up and take a paper
from the box.’”
“ ‘It’s Hutchinson.’ ‘It’s Bill.’ ‘Bill Hutchinson’s got
it.’ ‘Tessie,’ Mr. Summers said. She hesitated for a
minute , looking around defiantly and then set her
lips and went up to the box. She snatched a paper
out and held it behind her.”
 “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 Mr.
Summers had made the night before with
the heavy pencil in the coal company office.
Bill Hutchinson held it up, and there was a
stir in the crowd.”
 “The pile of stones the boys had made earlier
was ready; there were stones on the ground
with the blowing scraps of paper that had come
out of the box. Mrs. Delacroix selected a stone
so large she had to pick it up with both hands
and turned to Mrs. Dunbar. "Come on," she
said. "Hurry up.“
 The children had stones already. And
someone had given little Davy Hutchinson a
few pebbles.
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“Tessie Hutchinson was in the center of a cleared
space by now, and she held her hands out
desperately as the villagers moved in on her. "It
isn't fair," she said. A stone hit her on the side of the
head.
Old Man Warner was saying, "Come on, come on,
everyone." Steve Adams was in the front of the
crowd of villagers, with Mrs. Graves beside him.
"It isn't fair, it isn't right!" Mrs. Hutchinson
screamed, and then they were upon her.”
They would be “through in time to allow the
villagers time to get home for noon dinner.”
 Imagery – “flowers were blossoming, grass was
richly green”, “the black box grew shabbier each
year… splintered along the side… faded and
stained.” “…in his clean white shirt and blue jeans.”
 Diction/dialogue – “you wouldn’t want me to leave
m’dishes in the sink…” “…better get this started so’s
we can go back to work. Anybody ain’t here?”
 Personification – “the breeze caught them and lifted
them off.”
 Alliteration – “switching her skirt and took a slip”,
“before they broke into boisterous play.
 Tone – Jackson’s use of friendly language among the villagers
and the presentation of the lottery as an event similar to the
square dances and Halloween programs illustrates the lottery as
a welcomed, festive event. Jackson describes the social
atmosphere of the women prior to the drawing: "They greeted
one another and exchanged bits of gossip…" The lottery is
conducted in a particular manner, and with so much
anticipation by the villagers, that the reader expects the winner
to receive a prize or something of that manner. It is not until the
end of the story nears that the tone changes with Mrs.
Hutchinson’s increasing anxiety and protestations at the fact her
family ‘won’ the lottery.
 Mood – The story starts out with a festive mood and later it
takes a suspenseful turn as the reader discovers that all is not as
it seems to be. By the end the mood has changed to something
dark and sinister.
 Symbolism – Names: Old Man Warner – warning
Mr. Graves – grave = death
The Box: Black = color of death; old,
worn, splintered – the tradition is old, some people are
questioning it (the community is splintered).
The Lottery: In this town, the lottery is
something that destroys lives. In real life lotteries
and other forms of gambling devastate lives.
 Do not believe everything you hear. – These townspeople
have been doing this ritualistic picking off of the
villagers for years because they have this splintery,
worn, old black box, that has been passed down over
the years. They have parts of a ritual which they
remember, and parts they don't, they've changed the
whole thing so much it really isn't even the same
anymore. But because of the stories they heard, and
that have been passed down from generation to
generation, they are afraid to not do the ritual.
Rather, they just do the parts they remember.
 Following the crowd can have disastrous
consequences. – Although some townspeople
raise questions about the lottery, they all go
along with it in the end. Thus, they become
unthinking members of a herd, forfeiting their
individuality and sending Tessie Hutchinson to her
death.
 The reluctance of people to reject outdated traditions,
ideas, rules, laws, and practices. – The villagers continue
the lottery year after year because, as one of the villagers
would say, “We have always had a lottery as far back as I can
remember. I see no reason to end it.” Put another way, this
theme says: “We’ve always done it this way. Why change
now?” In real life, defenders of the status quo have used
this philosophy down through the ages and into the
present day.