Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery" is a classic work of American literature. Its spooky story and provocative ideas have made a lasting impression on readers all across the world. The setting of this 1948 short story is a little town. Every year, the locals take part in a lottery, but it is not your typical lottery. The climax is cruel and surprising, and the outcome is everything but positive. We will examine "The Lottery"'s main characters, storyline, and literary strategies used by Jackson. We will analyze the narrative's style and structure as well as the symbolism that enhances its intricate theme.
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Plot Summary: The Lottery
The story is set in a little town where the residents get together for their yearly lottery on a lovely June 27th. The lottery ends in two hours because there are only 300 inhabitants in the village. After summer break from school, the kids gather stones to build a pile in the square. Families stand together as men and women congregate as they get ready for the occasion.
Mr. Summers and the Lottery Tradition- Mr. Summers, who organizes the lottery, arrives with the black box, followed by Mr. Graves, the postmaster.
- The black box is not the original one used for the lottery, as the original was lost many years ago.
- Although Mr. Summers suggests creating a new box, the villagers prefer to keep the old one due to tradition.
- However, they do agree to replace the wooden chips with slips of paper for the lottery draw.
- Before starting, Mr. Summers and Mr. Graves prepare the slips of paper and lock the box at Mr. Summers’s coal company.
- They go over the list of families in the village, and Mr. Summers is sworn in.
- Some older villagers remember when there was a song and salute, but these customs are long forgotten.
- Tessie Hutchinson arrives late, flustered because she forgot it was lottery day.
- She joins her family at the front, and the crowd jokes about her tardiness.
- Mr. Summers asks if anyone is absent, and the crowd mentions that Dunbar is missing.
- Mrs. Dunbar volunteers to draw for her family, and the Watson boy agrees to draw as well.
- Mr. Summers ensures that Old Man Warner is present before continuing.
- Mr. Summers reminds everyone of the lottery rules: each family head will draw a slip of paper, and no one should look at their paper until everyone has drawn.
- He calls each name, and the family heads come up to draw.
- During the process, Mr. Adams mentions that some villages may stop the lottery, but Old Man Warner ridicules the idea, arguing that it would lead to chaos.
- Mrs. Adams says that other villages have already given up the lottery, but Old Man Warner dismisses this as “trouble.”
- Once all the names are called, the villagers open their papers, and it’s revealed that Bill Hutchinson has drawn the slip with the black dot.
- Tessie protests that it’s unfair because Bill didn’t have enough time to pick a paper.
- Mr. Summers asks if there are other households in the Hutchinson family, and Bill explains that his married daughter draws with her husband’s family.
- Tessie continues to argue that the lottery is unfair.
- Mr. Graves dumps the papers out of the box and adds five new slips for the Hutchinson family.
- Each member of the family draws a slip of paper.
- When they open their papers, Tessie discovers she has drawn the paper with the black dot.
- The villagers, now knowing Tessie has drawn the black dot, rush to grab stones.
- Tessie stands in the middle of the crowd, still shouting that the lottery is unfair.
- The villagers begin throwing stones at her, starting with a stone to her head, and soon everyone joins in, pelting Tessie with stones.
Critical Analysis of The Lottery
The underlying thematic conflict of “The Lottery” is the tension between the community’s blind acceptance of tradition and the horrific act that this blindness permits. The villagers are aware that they continue to carry out the lottery each year, but they fail to truly comprehend its consequences. Each character engages with this moral paradox throughout the story, although Tessie’s appearance midway through the text adds another layer of conflict.
Tessie’s Role in the Conflict- For a protagonist, Tessie plays a fairly limited role in the actual action of the story, remaining complicit in the brutal nature of the lottery until she becomes the victim of it.
- Only then does the central narrative conflict, Tessie’s singular objections to the event challenging the town’s group mindset, emerge.
- Highlighting this individual versus group dynamic enables Jackson to show why the thematic tension of the story is unresolvable.
- As Tessie’s inability to prevent her death suggests, the collective overpowers any singular effort to implement change.
- Jackson sets up this notion of a group mentality right from the beginning of the story, using the opening paragraph to describe both the size of the village and the way that the community gathers for the lottery.
- Her primary focus on groups of people, rather than exploring the identities of specific characters, emphasizes the importance of the collective over the individual.
- Highlighting the distinct arrivals of the children, men, and women takes precedence over establishing any of the story’s main characters in the first few paragraphs.
- Although Tessie has yet to make an appearance, this introduction to the town and their mysterious lottery serves as the text’s inciting incident.
- The first instance of character development accompanies the introduction of Mr. Summers, an individual who ironically ensures that the community’s group mentality remains intact.
- He essentially symbolizes the village as a whole, much like the shabby black box he uses for the paper slips represents the overall concept of the lottery: dark, outdated, and still in use.
- The rising action begins as the reader learns more about the history of the lottery and continues as Tessie abruptly arrives at the gathering.
- Many of the original aspects of the lottery no longer exist in the village’s collective memory, yet they still cling to the black box and the practice of the event itself.
- The fact that the community openly acknowledges these forgotten details suggests that they are less invested in accurately preserving a cultural practice and more interested in maintaining the status quo by repeating the same event year after year.
- The repetitive nature of the lottery makes Tessie’s late appearance even more surprising, especially considering that virtually every member of the community is present and invested in the proceedings.
- Tessie’s unique entrance into the narrative immediately establishes her character as one distinct from the rest and foreshadows her eventual attempts to resist the group mindset that the lottery evokes.
- When the process of the lottery finally begins, everyone in attendance initially appears to have a similar outlook on the day’s events.
- Each family participates, and despite an underlying sense of anxiety from some, Mr. Summers receives no pushback.
- This dynamic, which further emphasizes the collective understanding of the tradition, quickly shifts when Mr. Hutchinson draws the marked slip of paper.
- Almost instantly, Tessie exclaims that the drawing was unfair, an act which marks the climax of the story.
- The conflict between her as an individual and the rest of the community becomes more explicit, and the thematic tension between blind acceptance and the horrors it allows emerges more clearly as well.
- Mrs. Graves’s retort that “all of [them] took the same chance” reflects the shared, critical attitude which the group holds toward those who refuse to mindlessly follow tradition.
- Now that her life is in danger, Tessie is more aware of just how severe the consequences of the lottery can be.
- The falling action of the story includes the official selection of Tessie as the victim of the lottery and the onslaught of stones that begin to make their way towards her, inevitably leading to her death.
- What makes Jackson’s narrative unique is that the central conflict remains unresolved at the end. As the protagonist, Tessie is unable to effectively challenge the group mindset and the persistence of the tradition that ultimately kills her.
- This failure is one of the many ways in which Jackson creates suspense and horror throughout the story.
Major Themes in the Lottery
The Danger of Blindly Following Tradition- The village lottery culminates in a violent murder each year, a bizarre ritual that suggests how dangerous tradition can be when people follow it blindly.
- The villagers and their preparations seem harmless at first: a pathetic man leads the lottery, children gather stones, and everyone is preoccupied with a funny-looking black box.
- Tradition is common in small towns, linking families and generations, but Jackson exposes the dangers of revering tradition blindly.
- The villagers don’t know much about the origin of the lottery but continue to preserve the tradition nevertheless.
- The blind acceptance of the lottery has allowed ritual murder to become part of their town fabric.
- Old Man Warner is so devoted to the tradition that he fears the villagers will revert to primitive ways if the lottery is stopped.
- Despite having no compelling reason to continue the practice, the villagers feel powerless to change anything.
- The fact that no one stops to question the murder suggests that the tradition itself is reason enough for the villagers to justify it.
- The villagers persecute individuals at random, with the only reason for their victimization being the drawing of the wrong slip of paper.
- The lottery ritual ensures that everyone has the same chance of becoming the victim, even children.
- Each year, someone new is chosen and killed, and no family is immune from this random fate.
- What makes the lottery chilling is the swiftness with which the villagers turn against the victim.
- When Tessie Hutchinson draws the marked slip of paper, she loses her identity as a popular housewife and becomes just another victim.
- Her friends and family participate in her killing with enthusiasm, highlighting how individuals become invisible when caught up in the fervor of persecution.
- Tessie’s death demonstrates how societies can persecute innocent people for absurd reasons, based on characteristics they cannot control, such as race, gender, or social background.
- The villagers, like people in real life, persecute others without questioning why, showing how random and senseless such violence can be.
- The contrast between the peaceful setting of the village and the brutal murder that takes place there challenges the binary notion of peace and violence.
- The village’s commitment to the lottery suggests that individuals or groups can embody both peaceful and violent qualities simultaneously.
- The village is described as “clear and sunny, with the fresh warmth of a full-summer day,” evoking a peaceful mood that contrasts sharply with the violence to come.
- The matter-of-fact tone in describing the lottery reinforces the false sense of calm, hiding the dark truth of the event.
- This peaceful facade disappears in the final moments when the same people who care for Tessie, like her husband Bill, shift into violent roles, stoning her to death.
- Bill’s shift from a peaceful character to a violent one shows how easily individuals can embrace violence when it is justified by tradition.
- The juxtaposition of peace and violence in the story forces the reader to reconsider the simplistic binary of these concepts.
- Jackson explores the dark side of human nature, showing how people are capable of committing horrific acts when they conform to group norms without question.
- The villagers are ordinary people who, when part of a group, lose their moral compass and are willing to kill without remorse.
- Family dynamics and gender roles are central to the story, particularly in how Tessie’s family and her role as a wife and mother affect her treatment during the lottery.
- Her husband Bill, despite being her family, takes part in condemning her to death, demonstrating the powerlessness of individuals within the family unit in the face of tradition.
- Tradition serves as a force that binds the villagers together, but it also leads them to commit brutal acts without reflection or remorse.
- Old Man Warner’s unwavering commitment to the lottery symbolizes the dangers of blindly adhering to tradition for tradition's sake.
- The story presents a dystopian society where conformity is enforced through violence, showing the dangers of societal pressures and the suppression of individual thought.
- The villagers follow the lottery ritual without questioning its morality, highlighting the dangers of conformity in a society that values tradition over reason.
Symbols and Symbolism in "The Lottery"
The Lottery- The lottery itself is a powerful symbol in the story. It represents the randomness and inevitability of violence, as well as the arbitrary nature of societal rules.
- The lottery’s purpose is to select a scapegoat for the community's ritualistic sacrifice, which is carried out without question. It symbolizes how individuals or groups can become victims of societal expectations and customs without understanding why.
- The drawing of the lottery slip serves as a metaphor for how people are subjected to fate and chance, and how traditions can enforce harmful cycles that are passed down through generations.
- The black box in The Lottery symbolizes the tradition itself. Although it is old and worn, the villagers refuse to replace it, signifying how they cling to outdated traditions even when they no longer serve a rational purpose.
- The box’s black color is also significant, as black is traditionally associated with death and the unknown. The villagers’ fear of changing the ritual and their blind adherence to it are reflected in the box’s mysterious and ominous nature.
- The box is central to the lottery's ceremony, and its physical decay mirrors the moral decay of the tradition it upholds. Despite its deteriorating state, the villagers continue to use it, illustrating their unwillingness to challenge the status quo.
- The stones are perhaps the most direct symbol of violence in the story. Initially, the children are seen collecting them innocently, but as the lottery progresses, the stones take on a far more sinister meaning.
- The act of stoning is a brutal symbol of how the community, once it has chosen its victim, collectively participates in violence without hesitation or remorse. It emphasizes how tradition can strip away empathy and moral reasoning.
- The stones symbolize the power of the collective. Even though the villagers are capable of individual empathy and connection, they become a mob, unified only in their desire to perform the ritual sacrifice.
- Tessie Hutchinson, the lottery’s eventual victim, serves as a symbol of the individual who is sacrificed for the sake of tradition, regardless of innocence or fairness.
- Her initial carefree attitude and her late arrival at the lottery make her an outsider, but her role as the victim underscores how anyone, regardless of their status, can become a target in a society that values conformity over individual rights.
- Tessie’s name, which sounds like “test,” may symbolize how she is an unfortunate subject of the community’s cruel and arbitrary “test” of tradition and conformity.
- The setting of The Lottery plays a significant role in the story’s symbolism. The story begins on a “clear and sunny” day, creating a sense of normalcy and peace. However, this calm exterior contrasts sharply with the violent outcome of the lottery, symbolizing the way in which communities can hide their dark undercurrents beneath an appearance of harmony.
- The village itself represents the insular nature of societies that value tradition over progress. Its location, isolated from the larger world, suggests that the villagers are trapped in a cycle of ritual and conformity that they cannot or will not break free from.
- The title of the story itself is symbolic. A “lottery” is typically associated with a prize or a reward, yet in this case, the lottery leads to death, transforming the concept of a lottery into a symbol of violence and arbitrary fate.
- The use of the word "lottery" in the title lures readers into a false sense of hope or excitement, only to later subvert this expectation with the shocking reality of the lottery’s outcome. This illustrates how language and symbolism can shape our understanding of social rituals and expectations.
