How Does Mrs Hutchinson Change In The Lottery By Shirley Jackson

“The less there is to justify a traditional custom, the harder it is to get rid of it” (Twain). The Lottery begins during the summer. A small, seemingly normal, town is gathering to throw the annual “Lottery”. In the end, the townspeople—children included—gather around and stone the winner to death, simply because it was tradition. The story reveals how traditions can become outdated and ineffective. “I suppose, I hoped, by setting a particularly brutal ancient rite in the present and in my own village to shock the story's readers with a graphic dramatization of the pointless violence and general inhumanity in their own lives” (Jackson). As humans develop as a race, their practices should develop with them. Shirley Jackson develops the

The story started when people are gathered every end of June for the annual lottery ritual in a small village. All the head of each family are required to grab a slip a slip of paper in the box that is placed in the middle of the village. The in charge of the lottery was Mr. Summer. The conflict occurs when Tessie found out that her husband Bill was the center of the Villager’s attention. There is something on the paper that he picked. Because of that Tessie can’t even accept it and she keep on yelling that it is not fair. She believed that the time given to Bill was not enough to pick the paper that he wanted from Mr. Summer. The entire Hutchinson family, are

Shirley Jackson’s use of characters is very detrimental to keeping the theme of the story lively. Whether they play a minor or significant role to the story each character reveals a lot of information about the tradition of the lottery and its intentions, varying from subtle to obvious details. One of the most important characters is Old Man Warner, an elderly man who is very conservative about the preservation of this tradition He holds it dearly to his heart, despite the fact that this tradition is slowly deteriorating in villages around him. Old Man Warner represents the stubborn nature of all the townspeople who are reluctant to

The contrast of this story begins almost immediately, and can be found throughout the remainder of it. The story begins harmlessly, on June 27th, which is described as clear and sunny. The children are on summer vacation from school, the grass is green, the flowers are blooming, all things that invoke more hope of a positive story. The townspeople are all congregating for the lottery, where they will stone someone to death, in the place where they also host square dances and Halloween activities, as though it is a spot reserved for fun. Mrs. Hutchinson arrives late, as she “Clean forgot what day it was” (Lawn, P.257) and “then I remembered it was the twenty-seventh and came a-running” (Lawn, P.258), and then she laughs softly with Mrs. Delacroix, showing that Mrs. Hutchinson would likely participate in stoning the winner of the lottery, even though she later screams “It isn’t fair, it isn’t right” (Lawn, P.263).

Jackson’s story takes a critical look at what can result when the customs and laws that govern society go unchallenged. She sets up the story by showing that the townspeople are quite normal. They attend the lottery while having everyday discussions about the mundane topics of life, such as taxes, food, and housework. Nevertheless, they

When a loving, caring, family oriented, women come in conflict with the horrible, despicable, inhumane lottery in a situation in which the town goes together, the results may be a terrible end in a young life. In “The Lottery” written by, Shirley Jackson, the main character Mrs. Tessie Hutchinson’s and the town folk are the main characters of this story. In “The Lottery” Shirley Jackson uses the use of characterization to portray the main ideas of the story. Shirley Jackson also uses the use of plot structure and the point of view in which the story is being told. The Lottery is a way to make a sacrifice for a good harvest in the upcoming season.

On page 27, we see that, “There was a great deal of fussing to be done before Mr. Summers declared the lottery open. There were the lists to make up--of heads of families. heads of households in each family. members of each household in each family. There was the proper swearing-in of Mr. Summers by the postmaster, as the official of the lottery” (27). The whole process and build up towards the lottery is gradual. Jackson intensively describes each scene and portrays imagery throughout her story. This makes the story slow-paced and steady yet, detailed. Pacing also affects the mood of the story as Jackson’s detailed descriptions create a peaceful vibe and setting for the story to take place in. The pacing of the story creates suspense as vague clues emerge but, are not addressed until later on. Jackson writes everything in detail which makes the reader anxious to move forth and find out what happens to whoever is chosen for the lottery. This makes the story seem longer than it is and creates a lead in to the climax. In the text, we see that, “All right, folks." Mr. Summers said. "Let's finish quickly… 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” (34). Throughout the whole story, Jackson describes everything in excruciating detail until we hit the climax. Once the villagers find out that Tessie received the

Society today sees the lottery as an easy way to win a ginormous amount of cash just by buying a little slip of paper with a combination of numbers. The irony that Shirley Jackson uses in her short story, The Lottery, is used to the extreme by not only the title being ironic, but also within the story. The lottery is seen as a way to gain cash, but the ironic part of the title is that the reader sees it and thinks that the story will be about someone winning a big prize, yet the winner is sentenced to being stoned to death. Within the story, Shirley Jackson writes about how one member of the community ultimately chooses who wins the lottery. Another ironic thing about someone chooses the winner is that one of the communities sons picked his own father to win the lottery. Linda Wagner-Martin analyzes The Lottery and its irony by writing, “Bringing in the small children as she does, from early in the story (they are gathering stones, piling them up where they will be handy, and participating in the ritual as if it were a kind of play), creates a poignance not only for the death of Tessie the mother, but for the sympathy the crowd gives to the youngest Hutchinson, little Dave. Having the child draw his own slip of paper from the box reinforces the normality of the occasion, and thereby adds to Jackson's irony. It is family members, women and children, and fellow residents who are being killed through this orderly, ritualized process. As Jackson herself once wrote, "I hoped, by setting a particularly brutal ancient rite in the present and in my own village, to shock the story's

Hutchinson is complaining how her being chosen to be sacrificed is unfair and is a tradition that shouldn’t be carried on. She believes that the box system is unfair because she was chosen from her family to be stoned to death by the village. Because of this, Ms. Hutchinson believes that the lottery is unfair that she is chosen to die. During the beginning of the Lottery, Mrs. Hutchinson is neutral and doesn’t show any expression of the choosing. Her attitude change when she finds out that her family is chosen and is later narrowed down to her. This is shown to be a hypocritical reaction because when others are chosen she doesn't care but, when her family is chosen, she becomes angered. When she was chosen, she is expected by the village to

The author presents this information in a way to hide the gruesome event that is going to take place. When Jackson describes the kids gathering rocks, she makes it sound more like a game versus a preparation for an awful act. As the story continues, Jackson reveals the anxious tension amongst the crowd. For example, when Jackson Watson was asked if he was drawing this year, the author mentions his nervous blinking and his timid actions (Jackson 239). The story also includes the regretful feelings of Mrs. Dunbar when she stated that she would be drawing for her husband (Jackson 239). This tension is not something the crowd can get over in a day. When two of the housewives gossiped, they mentioned how they had just gotten over last year's lottery (Jackson 240). In society today, winning the lottery is a positive and lucky event in someone's life. After seeing the natural, but worried action shown by each citizen, the reader can infer how negative this lottery is. In this situation, small children are willing to throw stones at their mom, and are happy when they do not have to see the dot on

In the story, “The Lottery”, the characters are introduced in a carefree way. One character, Tessie Hutchinson, was introduced as a woman who had forgotten an important day in her community and was late to the event. Throughout “The Lottery”, Mrs. Hutchinson displays two main traits. First, Mrs. Hutchinson displays being carefree. Mrs. Hutchinson was very calm when she walked up to the crowd as she said, “‘Clean forgot what day it was’” (Jackson). This shows how common an ordeal the lottery was in their way of life. The lottery did not seem to make anyone super nervous. This shows how Mrs. Hutchinson developed as a character throughout the story. Mrs. Hutchinson was also frightened. When Mr. Hutchinson unfolded his slip of paper Tessie began to scream of unfairness (Jackson). Mrs. Hutchinson shows how frightened she is for her life because she knows that she has a higher chance of dying once her husband is shown with the only special slip of paper. Another character in “The Lottery” is Mr. Summers.Mr. Summers shows two main traits while in the story as well. Mr. Summers is a married man, without children, that “...[has the] time and energy to devote to civic activities”, which makes him responsible in his town(Jackson). This is important to the story because he is the proctor of an age-old tradition that kills people. Mr. Summers almost acts as if “The Lottery” is just like any other community event like a county fair. He acts with no remorse because it is traditional to have the lottery. Mr. Summers also is traditional. As he is setting up for the lottery to begin, he remembers and performs a lot of rituals that occur during this event like using the same black drawing box or calling up each male head of household or making up the family lists after everyone was gathered (Jackson). Mr. Summers is knit picky about what happens as the day moves along because if anything goes wrong, he is responsible and could possibly be disciplined for the mistake. If there was a mistake the result could quite possibly be death because that is the whole purpose of the lottery, to rid the community of a person, by stoning. Therefore, Mr. Summers would not stray from the traditional ways of performing the lottery at all. The

“Every group feels strong, once it has found a scapegoat” (Mignon McLaughlin, 1913). A scapegoat is someone who is blamed for all the faults and corruptions that others have committed. In history, there are lots of scapegoat examples, the most popular being; Jesus Christ and the Jews in the Second World War. In the short story “The Lottery”, Shirley Jackson used persecution and tradition to demonstrate how scapegoating justified unfair killing. Both of these aspects relate to the World War that preceded only a couple years before the story was written. The persecution was blind and done once a year as a tradition that everyone expected to happen.

At the beginning of the passage, Nancy Hutchinson steps up to take her turn in selecting a paper out of the black box. Immediately, it is apparent that the narrator is telling the story in the third-person and has a high level of knowledge about the characters and event taking place. The narrator is knowledgeable but by no means intrusive. The family members, Nancy, Tessie, and Bill, are described as they grab a folded piece of paper containing their fate. Nancy “took” one “daintily”, Tessie “snatched” it “defiantly”, and Bill simply “reached” in and “felt around” before taking the last one (234). The narrator clearly sees how each person is acting and, in turn, feeling about the lottery. There are a few remarks by the townspeople included. However, there is no commentary or opinion from the narrator

They are also not willing to protect their own children for fear of upsetting the other characters in the stories. Mrs. Hutchinson points the finger at her two children because they did not draw from the box. She puts them in harm’s way to save her husband, which is similar to Jig, who is willing to abort her baby to keep her lover. Mrs. Hutchinson never states her true feeling about the lottery until the very end when she is the one picked to be stoned to death. She states “it isn’t fair, it isn’t right” (Jackson. 54). It is the first time she voiced her opinion even though she felt this way all along. Lori Voth states in “Analysis of “The Lottery” “Jackson uses the protagonist, Mrs. Hutchinson, to show an individual consumed by hypocrisy and weakness”. She knew it was inhuman to murder someone but was too weak to say so. Jig also goes along with her lover, not for her own happiness but for his. She states “Then I’ll do it. Because I don’t care about me” (Hemingway. 200). She agrees to get an abortion even though it is not what she wants but what he wants. She is also too weak to tell him she wants to keep the baby. She is fearful of losing the man. Both women are cowardly.

Throughout this short story the audience is introduced to many characters. Bobby Martin, Mr. Summers, Mr. Graves, Mr. Martin, Baxter, Old Man Warner, Bill Hutchinson, Tessie Hutchinson, Mrs. Delacroix, Mrs. Dunbar, Watson boy, Bill Jr., Nancy, and little Davey. These characters are a key aspect to the lottery. Each character has their own feelings about the lottery at the beginning, but what happens when the lottery affects them and their family? To understand this, the thoughts of individual characters have to be explored.