Shirley Jackson's The Lottery

In the short story, The Lottery, Jackson applies Mr. Summers’ character to highlight his significant role in the village’s life as a whole and more particularly in the lottery. It is also significant to note that the character is also a deep irony in relation to the plot of the story. Mr. Summers is the most notable figure and an important person of all the people who manage the lottery. The lottery is held on June 27th, which is noted as being a full summer day. He is responsible for running most of the things that the village collectively performs since he has the energy and time and is devoted to the civic activities. This is one of the rationales why his character is pivotal to the development of the plot of the story.

A lottery is a process that is entirely controlled by chance, whether there is loss or success is dependent on luck. “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson is a short story about a small town that holds an annual lottery. The lottery itself is an age long tradition that started so long ago the ritual had been mostly forgotten. The villages around them have shut down the lottery, because of how old and forgotten the lottery is. This shows how people will blindly follow tradition no matter the age of it.(Jackson, “Read The Lottery...”).

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.

“The Lottery” also depicts a wonderful and pleasing New England village. The day is depicted to be bright, with fragrant flowers and green lawns. The children are fidgety and boisterous do to the ending of school for the summer. The story talks about the children and what they’re doing while they wait for the adults to gather, “Bobby Martin had already stuffed his pockets full of stones, and the other boys soon followed his example, selecting the smoothest and roundest stones,” the act of gathering stones seems like

Shirley Jackson’s short story The Lottery is set in a small village who relies deeply on their crops. This story is about a sacrifice that takes place every year in which the heads of households draw for their families in order to see who “wins” and saves the town. The readers grow close to a character named Tessie who decides to speak her mind when it’s too late. In the end, the townsfolk realise that what comes around goes around.

“The Lottery” takes place on a warm sunny summer day of June 27, 1948 in New England. The small farming village all gather around ten o’clock around the post office and the bank for the yearly harvest for the lottery. This village is very small compared to other villages, this particular village has only about three hundred people and we know that because the lotter only takes about two hours where other take days. The

Every year a town in the middle of nowhere has a tradition to annually hold a lottery. The whole town has to participate in this lottery . Whoever wins the lottery gets stoned to death. In the story, Tessie Hutchinson gets stoned after getting picked in the lottery. An analysis of “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson through the historical and feminist lenses, suggests that the story is really about how the lottery is controlling lives by having male dominance in the town, a blind following that people follow , and using someone as a scapegoat to blame everything evil in the town.

Mr. Summers calls every head of the household and asks them to select a piece of paper from a black wooden box. After the villagers have chosen, Mr. Summers allows everyone to open the paper and find out who has “won” the lottery. The result is that the Hutchinson family

“The Lottery is a short story that takes place in a town in New England. The story has nothing to do with an actual raffle, but instead refers to expiration of life. Once a year everyone in town comes together as a community to decide who will be pelted to death, as has occurred annually for many years. The attitude of the townspeople seems almost joyous. There seems to be no remorse for the

The reader quickly learns that the villagers regard the lottery as just another everyday matter to be dealt with, the same as any other chore. They greet one another and exchange bits of gossip; they smile and exchange jokes. Mrs. Hutchinson nearly forgets to come. She tells her companions: ‘’clean forgot what day it was’’ (Timko).The irony and thematic thrust also become apparent as the story goes on.

“The Lottery” a short story by Shirley Jackson, features a small town during the time of their lottery. The lottery is an annual event, organized by Mr. Summers. It is a highly important time, as the whole town comes to the town square on the day of the lottery. The guidelines are quite simple: everyone takes a slip of paper out of the symbolic black box, and the slip of paper with the black mark carved on it, is the “lucky winner”. But their definition of the lottery is different一usually, a lottery is a valuable thing to win. But when Tessie Hutchinson, the “lucky winner” gets her reward by getting stoned to death by the rest of the villagers, it is clear that winning this lottery can't be a good affair... So what is the purpose of this lottery? Rather than discontinuing the lottery, the town continues with it because they don't want to upset an old tradition.

Shirley Jackson explores the subject of tradition in her short story “The Lottery”. A short story is normally evaluated based on its ability to provide a satisfying and complete presentation of its characters and themes. Shirley describes a small village that engages in an annual tradition known as “the lottery”. Narrating the story from a third person point of view, Shirley uses symbolism, foreshadowing and suspense to illustrate the danger of blindly observing barbaric traditions.

In this story, the main character many different challenges in order to survive. The main character Tessie Hutchinson, the one who is chosen for the lottery picks the paper with the black mark on it which means you are chosen to be stoned. As soon as she is chosen she protests that the lottery isn’t fair. The next character we meet is Old Man Warner. He is the oldest person in the village and is portrayed as the cliché old man who has a lot of wisdom and knowledge. He has seen many lotteries occur and believes that it is good to keep the tradition going. Mr. Summers is the man gets the ballot ready each year and puts the slips in the box. It is coincidental that he is seen as one of the village leaders. Mr. Harry Graves is another character

“The Lottery” documents a small village’s voting process for the lottery and the traditions that keep the town close. Some of the main characters are introduced in the initial scene of the townspeople gathering at the town square. The boys in the crowd search for rocks to add to a pile on the side of the square. The schoolgirls of the “village” are standing near them, talking amongst each other. The men of the village came back from work and talked about farming and finance issues farther away from the boys. Then the women, mothers of the children and housewives, emerged from their homes and gossiped before joining their husbands.

The lottery is a short story about a small town of villagers who once a year gather in the town square to carry out a tradition that is held every summer. Three important character in this story that I'm going to talk about are Mr. Joe Summers (the leader of The Lottery, Old Man Warner (The oldest man in town) and Tessie Hutchinson (the lucky winner of The Lottery).