The Lottery Character Analysis

When most people play the lottery today, they think about having wealth. Generally, people who win are happy about it whether they win one dollar or a million. The lottery in our society has grown to support education and it is often worth several million dollars. Usually, the winner of the lottery gains a lot of recognition for the money they win. But what would happen if there was a small town where people held a yearly lottery in which the “winner” was the member of the town who was not sacrificed? This question is answered in Shirley Jackson’s short story, “The Lottery.” In reading this story, and reading literary criticism about the story, there were many symbols and much symbolism in this story.

They played lottery and after while Mr. Summers said open up the paper, everyone opened their papers except Mr. Hill Hutchinson. This part was turning point in the story because Tessie began to change from being sarcastic to

The Lottery, and Christianity Shirley Jackson’s short story “The Lottery”, if left at face value, is a perverse tale of a small village sacrificial ceremony, which leaves a lasting impression upon the reader. However to take the story at face value would nearly be an exercise in futility, for then the reader would be missing the deeper meanings found in the delicate symbolism that Jackson places throughout the tale.

The Lottery is another story of a seemingly perfect town that sacrifices one for the sake of many, but in this instance, the sacrifice is in vain because it is just a superstitious tradition. The citizens of this town were blinded by tradition and rituals of the town even though many have forgotten why they do the lottery. Jackson shows this when she wrote, “The lottery was conducted--as were the square dances, the teen club, the Halloween program--by Mr. Summers. who had time and energy to devote to civic activities” (The Lottery 1). It likens these common and cheerful events such as dances and Halloween programs to the sacrificing of an innocent person to better their year. The village seemed so calm and peaceful, but they were still inclined to sin and did not feel much guilt when stoning. The Lotter depicts a dystopian society because a person is being immorally killed every year and no one is stopping it. The event has become dull and repetitive but is still being followed by the families in The Lottery. This theme is very common in dystopian societies and is shown in the evilness of the Lottery.

What is so important in Jackson’s story is Tess Hutchinson is reassured, in a sense, that she is apart of this collective body because when she is chosen from the lottery, she becomes rebellious and disagreeing of what the lottery is. It reassures her that she has been engaging in this horrific event every year and has now just realized that she feels the town is corrupt and unfair. The lottery also demonstrates ideological criticism. Tess makes a joke at the end of the passage, just before she is aware that she is chosen, exclaiming why she was late by saying, “Wouldn’t want me to leave m’ dishes in the sink now would you, Joe?”(965). This sarcastic remark is mocking her job as a spouse and the typical hereditary family she has been living in. Scholes explains this scene as a ideological

Tess’s tone in her last words before being stoned is desperate and hysterical, because she knows that her protests will not result in anything but death. The black box used in the lottery each year isn’t something that the reader would usually associate with a happy lottery. The box is described as, “shabby…splintered…faded and stained,” yet no one in the community wants to replace it because, “no one liked to upset even as much tradition as was represented by the black box.” The color black symbolizes the savage and evil nature of the lottery as well as the townspeople’s participation in it and the shabbiness of the box indicates how outdated the tradition truly is. Like the lottery, the box is well worn with its real purpose lost, and the townspeople are extremely reluctant in letting it go, even getting defensive when the idea of it is brought up. After the stoning of the “winner” occurs, the townspeople go on with their lives as if nothing out of the ordinary has happened. The lottery takes less than two hours so that the townspeople could, “…get home for noon dinner,” immediately following the execution. The normalcy of the lottery to the townspeople is horrifying and all throughout the story everyone seems ok with this evil tradition, children are shown laughing and their parents, gossiping and talking about work. When Tess Hutchinson chooses the paper slip with a black dot making her the “winner”, Bill Hutchinson, her husband, as

In "The Lottery," a small town follows its tradition although it does not even remember how the custom came about in the first place. The town folk do not even remember all the elements of this lottery. The original black box has been lost, but the new one, that is at least 80 years old, was made from parts of the original one. In this grotesque depiction of tradition, it is the custom of the townspeople to sacrifice a member of their community so the corn harvest is plentiful. Even the manner in which the person is killed is bizarre, stoning. No one seems to know why the lottery takes place, but they ridicule other towns that have stopped performing this ritual. Shirley Jackson is clearly letting us know what she

“‘Can you sacrifice people?' I asked. 'Take their magic that way?' 'Yes,' he said. 'But there's a catch.' 'What's the catch?' 'You get hunted down even unto the ends of the Earth and summarily executed.’” Although this is a quote from Ben Aaronovitch’s Midnight Riot, it relates to this story’s themes of human sacrifice. The Lottery by Shirley Jackson is a short story where a small village of about 300 people have a lottery held every June, and the winner, whoever draws a slip of paper with a black spot on it, is the person who everyone in the village throws stones at. and the story implies that they are killed. The reason that the village actually has a lottery is because it is a superstitious tradition from a long time ago for human sacrifice to help their crops grow, one which they are too scared to discontinue.

In the beginning she was very, in my opinion, cocky just because of the way she encouraged her husband to go up there and grab the paper. She seemed somewhat full of herself and slightly confident that she would not be chosen and yet she is the one who dies and only when her family is chosen does she say this tradition is wrong. I believe if anyone had been chosen, even if other members of her family were chosen, Tessie would not have been as vocal about it being wrong. I believe Tessie would have been like everyone else and stoned the person who was chosen, regardless of who it

Griffin, Amy A. in his article “ The lottery” asserts that,” in shirley jackson’s “ The Lottery’’ A good harvest has always been vital to civilizations. After the fields have been prepared and the seeds sown, the farmer can only wait and hope that the proper balance of rain and sun will ensure a good harvest. From this hope spring ritual. Many ancient cultures believe that growing crops represented the life cycle, beginning with what one associates with the end death. Seeds buried,apparently without hope of germination, represent death, but with the life forces of water and the sun, the seeds grows, representing rebirth, consequently, ancient peoples began sacrificial rituals to emulate this resurrection cycle. What began as a vegetation ritual developed into a cathartic cleansing of an entire tribe or village. By transferring one's sins to person or animals and then sacrificing them, people believe that their sins would be eliminated, a process that has been termed the "scapegoat" archetype ( guerin et al. 158). In her short story "The Lottery" Shirley Jackson uses this archetype to build on man's inherent need for such ritual. (44).

She suspects to be good friends with Mrs. Hutchinson when she shows up late to the assembly. Mrs. Delacroix was the first person to speak to Mrs. Hutchison. “Clean forgot what day it is”. Right after Tessie was picked to “win” the lottery, Mrs. Delacroix, “ and she selected a stone so large she had

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

In “The Lottery”, I believe the the main character is Tessie,or Mrs.Hutchinson because she’s the one that protested against the first lottery and was eventually stoned to death after the second lottery. After the first lottery, the center of the story had shifted towards her, and I believe it was because Tessie is the main character of the story.

The characters is the story created pretty equally, mostly everyone are looking forward to the lottery every year. In hope of better growth in corn and farming in general. Tessie is singled out as a “winner” because she is the one person in her family who draws paper with the mark on it. This is after her husband, Bill Hutchinson draws and wins the first time leading up to her whole family drawing once again.

He believes that the lottery will make society stable and towns that have stopped doing them are crazy fools.