Notes on the story
Ancient Ritual Sacrifice
• In ancient Athens, Greece,
Athenians believed that human
sacrifice promised fertile crops.
• Each year in ancient Athens, as one
story goes, during the annual
festival called Thargelia, citizens
would stone to death a man and a
woman selected for this purpose.
Death was thought to bring
prosperity to the community
• 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 the "scapegoat" archetype
• A similar ritual
sacrifice occurs
with Tessie
Hutchinson.
• This explains the
village member's
remark, “Lottery
in June, corn be
heavy soon.”
• After World War II, America
experienced a trend
toward general social
conformity.
• People 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 throughout the
country.
• Meanwhile, patriotic rhetoric dominated
the public mood in politics. Fears about
fascist dictatorships and communism,
issues that had been highlighted by the
war-induced paranoia and suspicion
among seemingly peaceful American
communities.
Remember
In the story, the townspeople are
swept away by the tide of
conformity, and the lottery goes
ahead as always.
What do you know about the
Holocaust?
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.
The world watched the Holocaust happen. Does
“The Lottery” contain a similar situation?
The townspeople are unable/unwilling to fully
question or prevent the brutal lottery practice.
Historical/Sociological Context
• During World War II, Jews and other
targeted groups were torn from their
communities and sent to their death
while the world stood by in silence.
• In “The Lottery,” Tessie is similarly
suddenly ostracized from and killed by
members of her own community.
• A few of the townspeople
disagree with the ritual, but
they merely mutter their
displeasure under their
breath, afraid to speak out
more boldly against the
practice.
• Not only do humans blindly
perpetrate evil, the story tells
us, but they are also capable
of closing their eyes to and
even participating in terrors
that occur in their midst.
After WWII, the world vowed
there would never be another
Holocaust. They would never let
it happen again…
“Let he who is without sin,
cast the first stone"
Please, add to your
literary terms notes
Allusion: a reference in a
literary work to a person, place,
or thing in history or another
work of literature.
• “The Lottery”
certainly alludes to
Gospel of St. John,
8:7, in which Jesus
frees an adulterous
woman, directing the
scribe/Pharisee who
is without sin to
cast the first stone.
No one throws
stones at her.
Unfortunately, no one in
“The Lottery” rebukes
the powers so
forthrightly as Jesus
does in John 8:7. Tessie
becomes their
scapegoat; she pays
for their sins.
Ritual without meaning
• Because there has "always been a lottery,”
the villagers feel compelled to continue this
horrifying tradition.
• However, they focus on its gruesome rather than its
symbolic nature, for they "still remembered to use
stones" even after they have “forgotten the ritual and
lost the original black box.”
Are humans predisposed
to being violent?
Is the story saying that human's
predisposition towards violence intersects
with society's need for traditions?
Do societies need traditions?
POV:
rd
3
Person Objective
• At the end of "The Lottery," the reader
discovers with horror what is about to happen,
but the story ends with the casting of the first
stones. Jackson prefers to leave the gruesome
details to the reader's imagination.
• The conflict occurs within the reader as
the reader notes foreshadowing in the story with
growing uneasiness
A conflict between male authority and female
resistance is subtly evident throughout “The
Lottery.”
Male vs. Female
• Early in the story, the boys make a great pile of
stones in one corner of the square, while the girls
stand aside talking amongst themselves, looking
over their shoulders at the boys.
• When Tessie draws the paper with the black
mark on it, Tessie does not show it to the
crowd; instead her husband Bill forces it
from her hand and holds it up.
Women’s roles
• Tessie Hutchinson defies the
concept of the passive and
selfless woman.
• Tessie's actions are decidedly unlike
the behavior expected of the ideal
wife and mother in the era. Tessie is
hardly self-sacrificing.
• She even jeopardizes her married
daughter by suggesting that she
join the Hutchinson family in the
final lottery drawing.
Women vs. Women
• At the beginning of the story, the girls stand
together watching the boys gather the stones, but
as those girls become women, the involvement in
marriage and childbearing that the lottery
encourages pits them against one another,
blinding them to the fact that all power in their
community is male.
• A most grievous betrayal of another
woman occurs when Tessie turns on
her married daughter and attempts to
jeopardize her safety.
• Jackson emphasizes women's turning
against one another, too, through her
pointed depiction of the brutality of
Mrs. Delacroix and Mrs. Graves in
setting upon Tessie.
Mob violence
• The heinous actions exhibited in groups (such
as the stoning of Mrs. Hutchinson) do not take
place on the individual level, for individually
such action would be deemed "murder."
• On the group level, people classify their heinous act
simply as "ritual."
• When Mrs. Hutchinson arrives at the ceremony
late, she chats sociably with Mrs. Delacroix.
Nevertheless, after Mrs. Hutchinson falls victim
to the lottery selection, Mrs. Delacroix chooses
a "stone so large" that she must pick it up with
both hands.
• Whereas, on the individual level, the two women
regard each other as friends, on the group level, they
betray that relationship, satiating the mob mentality.
It’s summer time in an idyllic village? What were
you expecting for an ending?
• The lottery takes place every year when the nature cycle
peaks in midsummer, a time usually associated with
cheerfulness.
Setting is idyllic; readers expect the
lottery to be a positive experience
Symbolism
• Black: the color for death, mourning,
punishment, penitence in Western civilization.
• 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.
• 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
• Stones are a universal symbol for punishment, burial,
and martyrdom: they indicate a morbid ceremony.
• Chips of wood: now discarded for slips of paper,
suggest a preliterate/ancient origin, like the
ancient sacrificial rituals for crops.
• The setting: no specific name/place indicates this is
anytown, USA; the contrast of the town with the ritual
helps build suspense
• Square: (village square) may represent the
four corners of the earth—earthly opposed to heavenly;
human-created as opposed to natural; boxed in;
concealed.
Symbolism: Names
• Tessie Hutchinson: Most likely an
allusion to Anne Hutchinson (1591-1643),
American religious enthusiast who founded
the Puritan colony of Rhode Island. She had
new theological views which opposed her to
other ministers. After a local trial banished
her she was tried before the Boston Church
and formally excommunicated. Anne and
fifteen of her children were subsequently
murdered by the Indians in 1643.
• The parallelism between her story and Tessie's is
clear: to her, excommunication meant spiritual
death just as to Tessie being cast out from the
group = death.
Symbolism: Names
•Tessie Hutchinson:
• Anti-ritualAnn Hutchinson held that neither
church nor state was needed to connect a
believer to his or her God. (In the end, Tessie
rejects the lottery ritual, saying “it isn’t
right.”)
• Tessie, diminutive for Theresa, derives from the
Greek theizein, meaning “to reap”, or, if the
nickname is for Anastasia, it will translate literally
“of the resurrection”. (sacrifice for sins;
contrast with Delacroix—“of the cross.”)
Symbolism: Names
•Delacroix (“of-the-Cross”)
• vulgarized to Della-croy (no longer truly of the cross)
• Some critics suggest that Mrs. Delacroix
represents the duality of human nature: she is
pleasant and friendly on the outside, but
underneath she possesses a degree of savagery.
• Cross has many connotations crossroads (faced
with 2 directions); to cross something off; to be
angry; to cross over or to pass by; pass from one
side of to the other; to oppose, as in crossing one’s
path; a burden; combination of 2 elements; To
make or put a line across; To betray or deceive,
double-cross…
Symbolism: Names
•Summers:
the season of summer is
associated with youth, strength, growth, prime of
life, warmth, leisure, prosperity, happiness,
blooming, blossoming
• Mr Summers is the head of the coal business, which could
symbolize close contacts with the underworld, evil; lurking
just beneath the surface.
• Coal is earthly (as opposed to heavenly); black; formed
in the process of many years (long-term process);
formed from compressed, decaying matter; early
chemistry used a black spot to symbolize coal.
• Marxist critics point out how Mr. Summers, who would
have been one of the wealthier citizens, leads the lottery—
those with money control the people’s activities.
Symbolism: Names
•Graves : the obvious grave = place of
entombment/death
• Mr. Graves quietly assists Mr. Summers, with
“Graves” hinting at a dark undertone.
• Grave = serious; hints that the lottery may not
be a frivolous contest (“Mr. Graves said gravely”)
• Critics have said that Jackson creates balance by
juxtaposing Mr. Summers and Mr. Graves to
share in the responsibilities of the ritual: Life
brings death, and death recycles life.
Symbolism: Names
•Adams : reference to the first man,
the first sinner
• While he seems to be one of the few who
questions the lottery when he mentions that
another village is thinking about giving up the
ritual, he stands at the front of the crowd when
the stoning of Tessie begins. Like the biblical
Adam, Adams goes along with the sin; he
follows others in their evil.
Symbolism: Names
•Old Man Warner: Resistant to
change and representing the old social
order, he warns about how important the
event is to the survival of the village.
• Old man Warner is 77 years old the
number 7 has many connotations, but one
common connotation is that 7 is lucky …he
has been lucky to avoid the lottery so many
times.
Symbolism: Names
•Martin : associated with Mars, the Roman
god of fertility and war. The following are just FYI:
• St. Martin: Patron of drunkards, to save them from
falling into danger. (The origin came from St. Martin’s
day coinciding with the feast of Bacchus, god of wine.)
• St. Martin’s goose. The 11th of November, St. Martin’s
Day, was at one time the great goose feast of France.
The legend is that St. Martin was annoyed by a goose,
which he ordered to be killed and served up for dinner.
He died after eating dinner, and a goose has been ever
since “sacrificed” to him on the anniversary.
• St. Martin’s bird is the raven, long associated with death and
departed spirits
Symbolism: Names
•Dunbar: breaking this name down into
its 2 syllables, one can come up with:
• 1. dun – to treat cruelly; or a dull, brownish gray
color
• 2. bar - Something that impedes or prevents
action or progress; relatively long, straight, rigid
piece of solid material used as a barrier, support,
or fastener; A standard, expectation, or degree of
requirement;
• When you read the title, what did you think
the villagers would be drawing for. How is
that ironic?
• The setting makes the story ironic, but
how?
• Remember: Old Man Warner hears that
the North village is going to end the lottery
and says, "Next thing you know, they'll be
wanting to go back to living in caves.” How
is this ironic?
The town’s lottery is so barbaric, yet he’s worried
about going back to caves?
• The boys gathering stones and forming a
pile
• The box being black
• “The villagers kept their distance, leaving a
space between themselves and the stool,
and when Mr. Summers said, 'Some of
you fellows want to give me a hand?' there
was a hesitation.”
Themes
•
(almost done…)
• Not all rituals are beneficial, positive or
civilized
• Acts of violence, hatred, murder are not
acceptable just because many people participate
• Traditions and rituals should be questioned;
group mentality can be harmful
• People are not all good or all evil but a mixture of
both.
• Can you think of any others?
• allegory: a narrative that serves as an
extended metaphor. Allegories are written
in the form of fables, parables, poems,
stories, and almost any other style or genre.
The main purpose of an allegory is to tell a
story that has characters, a setting, as well
as other types of symbols, that have both
literal and figurative meanings.
“The Lottery”:
More than you expected, right…?
End of presentation.
(Finally)