The Lottery By Shirley Jackson

there is quiet conversation between friends. Mr. Summers, who runs the lottery, arrives with a black box. The original box was lost many years ago, even before Old Man Warner, the oldest person in the village, can remember. Each year Mr. Summers suggests that they make a new box, but no one is willing to go against tradition. The people were willing to use slips of paper instead of woodchips as markers, as the village had grown too large for the wood chips to fit in the box. A list of all the families and households in the village is made, and several matters of who will draw for each family are decided. Mr. Summers is sworn in as the official of the lottery in a specific ceremony. Some people remember that there used to be a song and salute as part of the ceremony, but these are no longer performed. Tessie Hutchinson arrives in the square late because she has forgotten what day it was. She joins her husband and children before the lottery can begin. Mr. Summers explains the lottery’s rules: each family will be called up to the box and draw a slip of paper. One of the villagers tells Old Man Warner that the people of a nearby village are thinking about ending the lottery. Old Man Warner laughs at the idea. He believes that giving up the lottery would cause nothing but trouble, and a loss of civilized behavior. A woman responds that some places have already given up the lottery. Everyone finishes drawing, and each

Mr. Summers, the conductor of the lottery, calls each family heads to receive a slip of paper. The family which is called comes on stage and pick another piece of paper, one for each member. The Hutchinsons are drawed and pulled on stage, each given a paper, including their 3 children and parents. Mrs. Hutchinson is chosen, as she had the paper with the black dot, and stoned to death by the children and townspeople. 2.

All the heads of the household pick; if they have a piece of paper with a black mark, they are chosen. In this case, Mr. Hutchinson gets picked. Then they must put their family names on the paper. Then they pick again; if you get picked, you are the “winner” of the

(193) When the little girl says this in a hushed town, it makes the readers wonder why she does not want Tessie’s daughter to be picked. The readers do not know this now, but the chosen one of the Hutchinson family will face a

She began gossiping with her friends as the event was beginning without a care in the world. Once her husband had picked the special card, Mrs. Hutchinson became very frantic, screaming that “it wasn’t fair” and that they did not give her husband enough time to pick a card. Then, each member in her family had to pick a card. Each family member had a white card besides Mrs. Hutchinson whose card had a dot on it. Mrs. Hutchinson became even more frantic as fear over took her body. As she began to plea for her life, it was simply too late. Mrs. Hutchinson only spoke up because her and her family’s lives were being threatened. If Mrs. Hutchinson expressed her desire not to participate in this event earlier because the lottery is pointless murder, maybe others would have agreed and change could have happened. When the villagers circled around Mrs. Hutchinson all holding stones of various sizes, it finally became clear to her that her window of opportunity to speak up was over. Mrs. Hutchinson learned a very important lesson the last few seconds of her life; that it is easy to be a bystander and not speak up when it is not one being affected.

Everyone in the village has to participate in the tradition does not matter your age or sex, you have to participate in the event. Each member from the family draws a piece of paper and if the piece of paper has a dot on it you have won the “lottery.” In this case winning the lottery is not so good; you would think that all traditions are good but their tradition is that you get stoned to death by everyone in the village. The Hutchinson family were the ones who had to pick out of the black box this

“The Lottery” is a short story written by Shirley Jackson . The story is about Mr. Summers places five slips of paper into the box and each member of the family draws. Tess (Mrs. Hutchinson) draws a slip of paper with a big black dot in the center. Not good. The villagers advance on her, and it becomes crystal clear what the prize for the lottery really is: a stoning. In The Lottery, Jackson uses tone, theme, and conflict to unwrap the story.

With visual imagery, Jackson tricks the audience into believing this is an innocent village; however, as the story unfolds, the dark nature of these residents becomes apparent. On the day of the lottery, individuals select a white slip from a tattered box. Ultimately, the resident possessing the slip marked with a black dot gets stoned to death. No one questions the lottery, and the original purpose remains a mystery. Some say it is beneficial for the village’s harvest. Only when Tessie Hutchinson discovers she is the winner, does she object to the lottery and argue how the system is unfair. Her protest fails, as the villagers persist in the brutal stoning. Jackson’s story reveals the dangers of blindly following tradition and the darker aspects of human nature, such as the absolute cruelty in people’s actions. Focusing on recent mass shootings and the parallelisms in attitudes between Jackson’s villagers and Americans reveal how daily life in the United States is becoming a lottery.

when everyone is gathered, each head of a household picks a piece of paper from a box. When the papers are opened, Bill Hutchinson is selected out. All members of his family then takes a paper from the box, and Tessie Hutchinson, his wife, gets the piece of paper with a black spot on

The Lottery By Shirley Jackson: A Delightful Village Conducting Civic Activities “The Lottery,” is a short story written by Shirley Jackson that uses the most skillful and destructive aspects to consistently tumble readers expectations about what is going to happen next or even at all. On an ordinary day, members of a rural village participate in a yearly drawing in which everyone's name is entered and due to its belief in an ancient superstition in which human sacrifice ensures good crops, the community stones the "winner" of the lottery. The lottery, taking place in a small village that may seem soothing, and a good place to raise a family is not always what it seems to be. The title along with the first few paragraphs confirm a false sense of hope to the audience. Throughout the short story, the author thoroughly present contrast, even from the names of Mr. Summers and Mr. Graves.

All of the villagers congregate in town square, attendance is called, and the head of each family steps forward to take a slip of paper from the black box.

Jackson uses the protagonist, Mrs. Hutchinson, to show an individual consumed by hypocrisy and weakness. Though it is hinted that she attempted to rebel and not show up to the event, Mrs. Hutchinson arrives late, with a nervous excuse of "forgetting what day it was". It is ironic that she, who almost stood up for her beliefs, is the one who wins the lottery, and is fated to be stoned. What is perhaps the most disturbing about Mrs. Hutchinson, however, is her sudden unleashing of her true self. Before the drawing she is friendly with the other women, pretending to be pleased to be present. The very moment that she sees is her family that draws

As Tessie’s protests continue and the Hutchinson family prepares to draw again the sense of apprehension is one again mounting, this time fearing for whoever wins yet still not knowing what their “prize” will be. “The crowd was quiet. A girl whispered, ‘I hope it’s not Nancy’”, the silence and fear of the crowds manifests in the reader as the three children and their parents all draw slips of paper. Tessie “wins” the lottery and when the narrator explains “although the villagers had forgotten the ritual, and lost they original black box, they still remembered to use stones” (6) its suddenly shockingly clear to the readers what the winner is to receive. The drastic switch from a light and cheerful tone with talk of the beautiful day and children playing to the closing like of “and they were upon her” (7) is in part why this story is so effective. The unforeseen sinister end of the story makes the revelation of the tradition much more shocking and unsettling than had the reader known from the beginning what the outcome would be. Jackson very effectively builds a sense of apprehension and foreboding as she slowly cues the reader into the reality of the situation.

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

Now that all the papers are handed out the men begin to unfold the slips of paper to reveal blank pieces of paper. However one man is left with a paper with a black dot on it. The man unlucky enough to receive this slip of paper is Bill Hutchinson. Promptly Tessie Hutchinson, Bill’s wife, begins to panic saying he didn’t have enough time to pick his paper. Being a reasonable official Mr. Summers allows Hutchinson and each of his family members to reselect a paper. Bill, his two sons, one daughter, and wife Tessie each take a paper and Tessie Hutchinson is left with the paper with the black dot. The townspeople begin to clear a space around Tessie Hutchinson. One of the younger boys from earlier in the story hands her son a stone. While she screams “It isn’t fair, it isn’t right,” the townspeople begin stoning her, the lottery “winner”.