Preview

The Lottery By Shirley Jackson

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
643 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
The Lottery By Shirley Jackson
Imagine winning the lottery but instead of some kind of monetary reward, winning causes you to lose your life! Well in Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery” that is exactly what happens to the characters, at first everything appears like just another normal mundane village but gradually things take a much darker turn as the lottery persist until the unlucky fellow wins. After being announced victorious the victors family (including the victor himself) have a much smaller lottery and whoever wins that is stoned by the entire town! In this village the lottery was an annual tradition that the entire village was extremely opposed to ever changing, two of the villagers that stood out most to me were old man Warner and Mr.Summers.
The first villager to take note of is the oldest man in the entire village who coincidentally is called Old man Warner. He has gone through and endured seventy-six lotteries (seventy-seven by the end of the short story), and from what the story tells us old man Warner does not have any surviving family left, whether they succumbed to from the lottery or some other cause is unknown. Just like the other villagers in the story old man Warner is heavily opposed to change and even goes as far as insulting the nearby villages that have stopped the lottery by calling them crazy fools. Old
…show more content…
Summers who is characterized as a middle aged man who is a “round faced, jovial man.” He has no kids but is married to a scolding wife and Mr. Summers also runs the local coal business found in town. Mr. Summers in a very devout man to the village running and hosting all sorts of things such as the local square dances, teen club, and running the lottery. Unlike most in the village Mr.Summers is the only one who demonstrates a willingness to accept and bring change, going as far as to attempt at getting a new box for the lottery each year (he fails as the villagers find the box to be a sacred part of the

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    1.The dark ending was not a typically lottery but throughout the story methods of foreshadowing was used by the author, Shirley Jackson. Characters throughout the story fear the lottery nervously but the dark suspicions are confirmed when “Tessie Hutchinson shouted to Mr. Summers. "You didn't give him time enough to take any paper he wanted. I saw you. It wasn't fair!"”(Jackson 5). Tessie instead of being excited for winning the lottery is extremely against winning which confirms that the lottery is nothing to be excited about. Jackson begins the story picturing the town as a the children were playing around as if nothing horrible was about to happen.…

    • 488 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Old Man Warner is the oldest man in the village and have participated in over 70 lotteries. He made it his mission to make sure that nothing change and to keep things the way it have always been. He doesn’t know how the lottery started, but he firmly believes that it has to do with the crops and if they don’t make a sacrifice, the town would suffer from starvation.…

    • 294 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Jackson’s tone is relaxed and mature at the opening of the story until he discovers his grandmother’s regalia in the pawn shop. When he noticed what it was, it’s as if it breathed fresh air into him. The dancing regalia give him something to focus on other than being oppressed by people who seem to be superior to him. It turned out that those same people were there to help him accumulate the money towards purchasing it back. “Do you know how many good men live in this world? Too many to count!” is what he says upon discovery that people were willing to help him. (Alexie, 2013) This was proven when Jackson was about to run out of time and the police officer gave him a contribution entrusting that he would do the right thing with the money. The…

    • 291 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    This story takes place in a small nameless village on 27th June when the villagers begin to gather for the drawing of yearly lottery. The children innocently playing around collecting stones, the women are talking among themselves and the men have their own conversation. Mr. Summer who is the man in charge of the lottery arrives while carrying a black box and the mood of the story suddenly changes. The old black box contains pieces of paper that will be used to determine the winner. After he makes sure everyone is already there, it begins. Every head of household comes to the front to take a piece of paper then followed by his entire family, but they cannot open it yet. After everyone has their paper, they open it at once, the silent atmosphere suddenly change and become tenser as everyone ask who wins the lottery. It turns out that Mr. Hutchinson wins the lottery, but suddenly his wife Mrs. Tessie Hutchinson against the result and states that it’s not fair because they didn’t give his husband enough time to take the paper and asks to re-draw, Mr. Summer agrees and everyone in Hutchinson family draws again and reveals it one by one; Mrs. Tessie is the last one to reveal her paper and everyone realizes that she wins the lottery. As she protests, the townspeople, even her family surrounds her and stones her to death.…

    • 694 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    At first, we as the readers have no idea what is going on and may believe the “The Lottery” is a good thing. It starts off with children gathering stones together while the adults go along with their normal day, but when that specific time of the day comes, things start to change. Their society’s leaders bring out a black box. In this black box are pieces of paper. Only one piece of paper contains a black dot. Each family in the town, pick one paper. When the name picking begins, the villagers get nervous. We as readers here see that something is not right. A villager even mentions how there is a town close by that ended the lottery, but an old man quickly disagreed and said that nothing will ever change. He has been apart of the lottery for the past seventy-seven years and it is simply tradition. It should remain unquestioned and the villagers need to be loyal to the lottery. As they come to the part where they pick the family, the suspense rises. Depending on how many family members there are, that is how many pieces of paper go back into the black box, which includes the paper with the black dot. That specific family draws again. The villagers get more anxious as they get closer to the end and the tone changes drastically. Luckily, the children did not get chosen, but the mother did. That meant that the mother had to get stoned by her own family and her own fellow…

    • 1091 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Is a tradition really a tradition if it’s meaningless and hollow? The original purpose of the lottery was to make corn growth heavy, but over time it was forgotten, and just done for the sake of doing it. At first, The lottery was actually for religious purposes, and many events followed and preceded it. Then it turned into a hollow tradition nobody really cared about. “The Lottery”, by Shirley Jackson, turns to a less observed topic, and gives us a very good example of what many of us do today.…

    • 291 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    First, the theme of carelessly obeying traditions gets explored near the beginning of the story with the seemingly innocuous village children gathering stones and chatting amongst themselves. At first glance, readers can assume that the stone gathering had no relation to the "lottery" and was just a harmless little way to pass the time while the other townsfolk were gossiping and finishing up their chores.…

    • 502 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    The only reason the townsfolk would still be doing ‘The Lottery’ is because it’s a tradition. The villagers and their ancestors have been stoning their neighbors ever since the village was established. Sure the people of the village could disband the tradition that is ‘The Lottery’, but then they would also be losing a tradition.…

    • 247 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Even though a small village made seem peaceful, and a good place to raise a family, it is not always what it seems to be. The reader is about to enter a world with ritualistic ceremony and religious orthodoxy in "The Lottery."…

    • 789 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    and Mrs. Adams. Being afraid to say openly that the lottery itself is wrong, they are talking about other villages which quit lotteries. But after the victim is chosen, there are already three people who find the ritual unfair. Tessie Hutchinson, "the winner" of the lottery, realizes that it 's wrong just after the tradition of the lottery affected her. The same happens every time in our real life: we don 't mind something just until it strikes us. We might see others suffer and still do nothing to change it. Even though other traditional foundations in this story are not so bloody, it 's still notable that everyone 's roles are defined by these unwritten laws. Women silently agree that they should "belong" to their husbands and family and shouldn 't work outside the house. Men, seeming to be on top of social hierarchy, still have no rights against social norms of their community. Overall obedience and inaction bears traditional order which bonds everything and extinguishes…

    • 805 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Summers, who everyone follows, takes control of the lottery. By his actions he comes across as being insensitive: “guess we better get started, get this over with, so we can go back to work” (3). By Mr. Summers indicating that he is in a hurry shows his apathetic personality. He is inconsiderate about people’s emotions, thoughts and the life that will be lost. Furthermore, this also suggests that he is customary to the routine that takes place and he’s unfazed by the persecution. During the ceremony each family member is involved; unfortunately, members of the family, such as Bill Hutchinson, turn on each other as he “went over to his wife and forced the slip of paper out her hand” (6). Bill Hutchinson has a less chance of getting persecuted; resulting, in his wife getting persecuted instead. This portrays the self-centeredness that an individual has to prevent them getting persecuted, and would rather see his loved one get killed which shows how easily families can fall apart due to the event. Mrs. Delacroix, who was friends with Mrs. Hutchinson, turned her back on Mrs. Hutchinson when she was about to be persecuted: “Mrs. Delacroix selected a stone so large she had to pick it up with both hands” (7). For Mrs. Delacroix to pick the largest stone portrays how devious she is, because she had a choice to throw a lighter stone; however, this could be seen as Mrs. Delacroix choosing the largest stone to get the persecution over and done within a quicker time. The…

    • 712 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    The “Lottery” is about is about how a women or a girl whatever you want to call her, she won the lottery and people didn’t think it was fair so they stoned her to death. A good thing to think about in life is to treat people the way you wanted to be treated. That is always a good thing to remember.…

    • 381 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    The lottery is important because it represents any action, behavior, or ideas that might be passed down from generation to generation. No matter how cruel, illogical, or bizarre it will always be accepted and followed by the younger generation unquestionably. The lottery is tradition, it is an annual ritual that no one has ever thought to question. “It is so much a part of the town culture, in fact, that it is even accompanied by an old adage: “Lottery in June, corn be heavy soon.” “(SparkNotes Editors) The villagers are completely loyal to the lottery, or, at least that is what they have convinced themselves to believe that. Even though the traditions of the lottery have changed or forgotten, the villagers continue to have a lottery, despite the fact that most of the other towns have stopped. “The result of this tradition is that everyone becomes party to murder on an annual basis. The lottery is an extreme example of what can happen when traditions are not questioned or addressed critically by new generations.” (SparkNotes…

    • 732 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The characters are all outside on a warm sunny day, kids are playing together, and men and women are socializing with one another as they sometimes do. The plot is later revealed to show a town full of people who are willing to end the life of a neighbor all for the sake of keeping the tradition of what they ironically referred to as the “lottery”. The characters of the story are so accustomed to this event that even the children of the village ready themselves as the little boys, Bobby, Harry Jones and Dickie “eventually made a great pile of stones in one corner of the square” (263) in which they “guarded against the raids of the other boys” (263). The abundance of people all go along with this event even as they brace themselves hoping their names wouldn’t be called by Mr. Summers as he drew from the little black box. There wasn’t a single villager who expressed his/her discomfort even as they were said to. This just goes to show that some people will go along with tradition instead of rebelling against it even if their very life depended on it.…

    • 621 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Summers is the last character to be analyzed because his change is slight. “The lottery was conducted--as were the square dances, the teen club, the Halloween program--by Mr. Summers” (Jackson 1). The town all knew that “Mr. Summers was very good at all this” (2) because he had been the one in charge of the ritual for such a long time. Although he may not enjoy the ritual of stoning a member of the community each year, he became indifferent to it. This very obvious when after Tessie was selected he says “"All right, folks." Mr. Summers said. "Let's finish quickly."”(7). When something happens often, society tends to become desensitized and begins to accept it as normal even when it is…

    • 631 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays