The Picture of Society in “The Lottery” by
Shirley Jackson
Shirley Jackson’s short story “The
Lottery” was first published in the New Yorker, in
1948 and it aroused a lot of controversy among
the newspaper’s readers. Those who read
Jackson’s story were totally confused and
unable to understand the author’s intentions. In
1948 issue of the San Francisco Chronicle
Jackson accounted for her reasons behind
writing the story:
Explaining just what I had hoped the
story to say is very difficult. 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 in Kosenko 1985: 27)
Although the author succeeded in
startling the readers, the motives for portraying
the American society in such a way were still
unclear.
Is there any correspondence between
the writer’s personal experiences and the image
of society she depicts in “The Lottery”? First of
all, the village described in the story seems to be
similar to a rural area in which Jackson lived
when she wrote it. Secondly, the short story
villagers’ violence may have its origin in an
incident from Shirley Jackson’s life. She created
the story after she had been pelted with stones
by some school children while she had been
going home. What is more, Lynette Carpenter
makes the interesting remark that Jackson had a
tendency to bestow her own features of
character on her heroines. Tessie Hutchinson’s
fear and social rejection may represent the
authors’ suffering at lack of her friends’ loyalty
and the necessity to withdraw from the
university.
The themes themselves are not new:
evil cloaked in seeming good; prejudice and
hypocrisy; loneliness and frustration;
psychological studies of minds that have slipped
the bonds of reality. (Friedman 1975: 44)
The author uses numerous symbols in
order to portray the worst flaws of human nature.
The names of her characters are deliberately
chosen.
The protagonist’s surname – Tessie
Hutchinson - the villagers’ scapegoat, links her
to Anne Hutchinson, who suffered prejudice
because of her Antinomian beliefs that were
considered heretical by the Puritan society. As a
result, she was banned from Massachusetts in
1638. The use of this surname indicates that
Tessie lives in a community which is totally
deprived of tolerance. There are also another
names, distinctly symbolic, used by Jackson to
show the ignorance of the sacrificial lottery,
which the small village holds every year. These
sacrifices, which used to be held to appease the
god of harvest, have become meaningless in
their culture. One of the most important men in
the town is Mr Summers. Summer is the season
of year. It is the season of growing, the season
of life. His name partly represents the old pagan
fertility ritual because the harvest that is being
sacrificed to is grown in summer. The fact that
the villagers stick to such primitive rituals is the
indication of their worst instincts.
What is the lottery and what function
does it fulfil in this community? Jackson
describes an “average” New England village
with “average” citizens engaged in a deadly rite,
the annual selection of a sacrificial victim by
means of a public lottery. Not until the end of the
story does the reader suspect that the “winner”
will be stoned to death by the rest of the
villagers. The lottery mentioned above is the
essential part of the village tradition. In the
middle of the story, Old Man Warner emerges as
a supporter of the lottery quoting an old village
proverb, “Lottery in June, corn be heavy soon.”
(Jackson 1976: 208) However, the lottery does
not only represent the tradition. It is also an
essential element of the social order. It serves to
instil an unconscious fear in the villagers that if
they rebel against the social rules, they might be
selected in the next lottery. There are no direct
attempts of abolishing the lottery. The only
citizens whose behaviour shows rebellious
impulses are the Adams and Tessie Hutchinson.
Mr and Mrs Adams, whose last name suggests
a humanity that has not been entirely effaced,
briefly mention other villages that are either
talking about giving up the lottery or have
already done it. Because of the subconscious
fear, they do not suggest that their village should
give it up. Their reservation may indicate a
vague sense of guilt concerning what they are
about to do.
As for Tessie’s rebellion, she does not
object to the lottery itself but only to her
selection as its scapegoat. She would not have
had anything against the fact that someone else
had been chosen. Stoning Tessie is the only
way in which the villagers may express their
dissatisfaction with the social rules and repress
their own temptations to rebel. As far as the
nervous laughter of the crowd is concerned, it
expresses uncertainty about the validity of the
taboos that Tessie breaks. Yet, the anger at the
rebellious victim is what dominates as the
villagers are aware of the dire consequences
that resisting the social rules may have.
One of the most important elements of
the collective order in the village is the social
ladder and the division of work which is closely
connected to it. Those who are at the top of the
ladder – Mr Summers, Mr Graves and Mr Martin
control the town. As Mr Summers is the major of
the village and has the largest business in the
town; Mr Graves is the village’s second most
powerful official – its postmaster and Mr Martin
is the owner of the grocery shop, they rule the
village economically. What is more, they also
govern the town politically and administer the
lottery. As Kosenko writes in his essay A
Reading of Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery”:
It is no coincidence that the lottery takes
place in the village square ‘between the post-
office and the bank’ – two buildings which
represent government and finance, the
institutions from which Summers, Graves, and
Martins derive their power. (Kosenko 1985: 27)
There is a direct relationship between
Mr Summers’ interests as the town’s wealthiest
businessman and his supervising the lottery.
When Tessie Hutchinson’s husband forces her
to open the lottery slip to the crowd, the reader
learns that: “ It had a black spot on it, the black
spot Mr Summers had made the night before
with a heavy pencil in his coal-company office.”
(Jackson in Kosenko 1985 :28) As Kosenko
writes, the black dot on the lottery slip
symbolizes “(…) the blackness (evil) of Mr
Summers’ (coal) business (…)” (Ibid)
Furthermore, although the lottery’s conduct
seems to be democratic, it is just an illusion. Mr
Summers, who officiates the annual event,
wears jeans in order to convince the villagers
that he is just one of the common people.
However, he also wears a “clean white shirt”
(Jackson in Kosenko 1985: 29), a garment more
appropriate to his class. What is equally
important, although his appeal for help in
conducting the lottery may sound democratic –
“Some of you fellows want to give me a hand?”
(Ibid), Mr Martin, who reacts, is the third most
influential person in the town. It is obvious for
villagers that Mr Summers’ question is formal.
They realize that “it is not just anyone who can
help Summers” (Kosenko 1985: 30) The fact
that the lottery is democratic on the surface
prevents the citizens from criticizing the class
structure of their society.
Probably the first and most important
was placing this story in a normal, civilized town.
These were people who were going about doing
things that everyone does during the day and
took a quick break from that to see who gets
stoned to death this year.
"but in this village, where there were only about
three hundred people, the whole lottery took less
than two hours, so it could begin at ten o'clock in
the morning and still be through in time to allow
the villagers to get home for noon dinner."
Secondly, this lottery is placed as a normal,
once a year occurance. Nobody seems to
question the fact that the townspeople continue
with this tradition. In fact, some go so far as to
speak down about other towns who've given up
their lotteries.
"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."
"Some places have already quit lotteries." Mrs.
Adams said.
"Nothing but trouble in that," Old Man Warner
said stoutly. "Pack of young fools."
As a third element, Jackson appeals to the
family urge in all of us by making sure to include
little Davy in the process. We are met head on
with the mortifying thought of a small child
helping to stone his mother (and the thought that
the table could have been reversed with mother
stoning son). Again, this all seems like a natural,
normal thing.
"The children had stones already. And someone
gave little Davy Hutchinson few pebbles."
The biggest thing to realize with all of these
examples, is that Jackson made this very real.
The appeal of the story is that you could be
reading historical fiction. There is debate about
whether this story was written mainly as a piece
of feministic literature or simply a statement
about mankind and our nature to be followers,
but the basic appeal of the story is in its "real"
nature.
The setting of the story is important because it
helps create the ironic tension between what the
inhabitants should be like and how they actually
are.
1. The setting is a "modern" small town for
Jackson's time, with a traditional belief system.
The beliefs are archaic, however, so the
juxtaposition of the happy town, where people
gather at street corners to talk of "planting and
rain, tractors and taxes", with the ritual sacrifice
is the first ironic contrast in the setting.
2. A second important aspect of the setting is
that it occurs during the summer, less than a
week after midsummer, the summer solstice
(when the sun appears to stand still, and when
the sun is highest and longest in the sky);
midsummer was a time when people gathered
together to celebrate the sun and its life-giving
power. Yet the ritual the townspeople perform is
a stoning. (Biblical allusions abound-the
sun/son, life vs original sin and throwing the first
stone)
3. The physical setting, the clear, sunny day,
with flowers blooming profusely, rich green
grass, and children on summer vacation is in
direct contrast with the dark deed that the
townspeople with participate in.
The setting of "The Lottery" has all the
appearance of being a wholesome small town in
rural America. Through imagery and detail, like
"the flowers were blooming profusely, and the
grass was richly green," Jackson conveys a
pastoral feeling of a gentle summer. The men
speak of tractors and farming, and the women
wear "faded house dresses and sweaters."
Only as Jackson develops the events occurring
at the town square does the reader begin to
question the premise of the story; the reader
begins to wonder why exactly do the boys fill
their pockets with large stones and what the
purpose of the ancient black box is. Jackson's
use of setting in "The Lottery" is one of the
greatest assets to the story; by creating a
perfectly normal looking town, Jackson makes
the gruesome stoning in the end seem even
more horrific and disturbing, primarily because
the citizens and setting were portrayed to be so
average and common place. Through the use of
setting in "The Lottery," Jackson argues that
blindly following tradition can make even the
most innocent seeming of small towns seem
monstrous.
The Lottery Characters
Tessie Hutchinson. The woman selected by
the lottery to be sacrificed, she is stoned to
death by the villagers at the very end of the
story. ...
Davy Hutchinson. The youngest Hutchinson
child, Davy, is too young to understand the
proceedings of the lottery. ...
Mr. Joe Summers
Old Man Warner
Mrs. Janey Dunbar
Jack Watson
At a Glance
Mr. Summers, the official who conducts the
lottery.
Mr. Graves, the postmaster, who brings the
stool for the black box.
Bill Hutchison, who draws the first black dot.
Tessie Hutchison, who draws the second black
dot and is stoned to death by her fellow
villagers.
Clyde Dunbar, whose wife draws for him
because he's at home with a broken leg.
Old Man Warner, the oldest man in the village
and a defender of its traditions.
The Watson boy, who draws for his mother.
What are the symbols in "The Lottery" by
Shirley Jackson?
In "The Lottery" the black box itself is a symbol.
When the unnamed narrator mentions the box.
No one in the town remembers the original box,
so the current box they are using, which is
also...
What is the moral lesson of the story, "The
Lottery"?
One moral in this story has to do with the nature
of violence. Violence can occur anytime, and
there is no rhyme or reason to it. The most mild-
mannered person can be capable of vicious
acts.
Tessie Hutchinson is the main character of
Shirley Jackson's “The Lottery.” She is an
outspoken mother of three. Unlike the other
women in the town, Tessie seems to play a
more active role in her marriage. She calls out to
her husband as he goes up to draw a lot, which
draws laughter from the rest of the crowd.
Tessie is also the only character in the short
story to verbally express dissatisfaction with the
lottery system.
Tessie’s family name, Hutchinson, alludes to the
17th-century religious dissenter Anne
Hutchinson. Just as Anne sought to reform her
religious community, Tessie seeks to undermine
the lottery, suggesting the results are not fair.
However, both women are punished for their
transgressive attitudes: Anne was
excommunicated and exiled, and Tessie is
killed.
Tessie can be interpreted in a variety of ways.
One interpretation positions her as hypocritical
and selfish. From the moment she enters the
story, Tessie is disruptive. She arrives late and
forces everyone to accommodate her presence
as she moves to the front of the crowd. After the
results of the first round of the lottery are
revealed, she immediately calls for a redo.
Tessie proves that she is willing to sacrifice
others in exchange for her own well-being,
characterizing her as selfish. In a randomized
lottery, there is little room for unfairness, but
Tessie still alleges that Mr. Summers cheated
her husband.
Tessie’s selfishness becomes even more
evident when she demands that her married
daughter participate in the family lottery. Tessie
does not try to protect her children from death.
Instead, she attempts to increase her own odds
of living. In her final moments, she screams that
the lottery is unfair and immoral. However, she
has likely helped stone countless others in
previous lotteries. By this reading, Tessie’s
objections only begin when her own life is in
danger.
However, another interpretation suggests that
Tessie can be read as a rebel. By this reading,
her late arrival is a way of protesting the lottery
as an institution. By openly disrespecting the
solemnity of the occasion, she undermines its
role as a cultural cornerstone. She is also the
only person to openly criticize the lottery and its
alleged injustice. Even her husband and children
remain silent when the Hutchinsons draw the
marked paper. Though her protests do not
initially call for an end to the lottery, by the end
she has decreed the lottery as unjust and
immoral. However, as a voice of dissent, Tessie
is silenced at every turn. Her husband tells her
to “shut up” and her friends urge her to “be a
good sport.” Ultimately, her bid to change her
society for the better ends as revolutions often
do: with death.
Yet another reading positions Tessie as nothing
more than a hapless victim of circumstance.
This interpretation speaks to the injustice of
society and the dangers of tradition. That
anyone in the crowd could have won the lottery
does not change the fact that Tessie is going to
die. The tragedy of her death does not lie in who
she is as an individual, but in the injustice it
represents. By this reading, Tessie’s declaration
at the end of the story is a perso Character List
Tessie Hutchinson - The unlucky loser of the
lottery. Tessie draws the paper with the black
mark on it and is stoned to death. She is excited
about the lottery and fully willing to participate
every year, but when her family’s name is
drawn, she protests that the lottery isn’t fair.
Tessie arrives at the village square late because
she forgot what day it was.
Old Man Warner - The oldest man in the village.
Old Man Warner has participated in seventy-
seven lotteries. He condemns the young people
in other villages who have stopped holding
lotteries, believing that the lottery keeps people
from returning to a barbaric state.
Mr. Summers - The man who conducts the
lottery. Mr. Summers prepares the slips of paper
that go into the black box and calls the names of
the people who draw the papers. The childless
owner of a coal company, he is one of the
village leaders.
Bill Hutchinson- Tessie’s husband. Bill first
draws the marked paper, but he picks a blank
paper during the second drawing. He is fully
willing to show everyone that his wife, Tessie,
has drawn the marked paper.
Mr. Harry Graves - The postmaster. Mr. Graves
helps Mr. Summers prepare the papers for the
lottery and assists him during the ritual.nal
epiphany:
What is the main idea of the story The Lottery by
Shirley Jackson?
The story describes a fictional small town in
contemporary America which observes an
annual rite known as "the lottery". The purpose
of the lottery is to choose a human sacrificial
victim to be stoned to death to ensure the
community's continued well-being.
What are the important events in the story "The
Lottery" by Shirley Jackson?
What are the important events in the story?
"The Lottery" by Shirley Jackson?Mr. Summers
calls each head of the household to take a piece
of paper from a box.Bill Hutchinson is the lucky
person selected.His wife, Mrs. Tess Hutchinson
protested.The Hutchinson’s 5 family members
got into a lottery, Mrs. Tess Hutchinson got the
paper with black dot.
Mrs.Tess Hutchinson got stoned to death.
Plot Overview
The villagers of a small town gather together in
the square on June 27, a beautiful day, for the
town lottery. In other towns, the lottery takes
longer, but there are only 300 people in this
village, so the lottery takes only two hours.
Village children, who have just finished school
for the summer, run around collecting stones.
They put the stones in their pockets and make a
pile in the square. Men gather next, followed by
the women. Parents call their children over, and
families stand together.
Mr. Summers runs the lottery because he has a
lot of time to do things for the village. He arrives
in the square with the black box, followed by Mr.
Graves, the postmaster. This black box isn’t the
original box used for the lottery because the
original was lost many years ago, even before
the town elder, Old Man Warner, was born. Mr.
Summers always suggests that they make a
new box because the current one is shabby, but
no one wants to fool around with tradition. Mr.
Summers did, however, convince the villagers to
replace the traditional wood chips with slips of
paper.
Mr. Summers mixes up the slips of paper in the
box. He and Mr. Graves made the papers the
night before and then locked up the box at Mr.
Summers’s coal company. Before the lottery can
begin, they make a list of all the families and
households in the village. Mr. Summers is sworn
in. Some people remember that in the past there
used to be a song and salute, but these have
been lost.
Tessie Hutchinson joins the crowd, flustered
because she had forgotten that today was the
day of the lottery. She joins her husband and
children at the front of the crowd, and people
joke about her late arrival. Mr. Summers asks
whether anyone is absent, and the crowd
responds that Dunbar isn’t there. Mr. Summers
asks who will draw for Dunbar, and Mrs. Dunbar
says she will because she doesn’t have a son
who’s old enough to do it for her. Mr. Summers
asks whether the Watson boy will draw, and he
answers that he will. Mr. Summers then asks to
make sure that Old Man Warner is there too.
Mr. Summers reminds everyone about the
lottery’s rules: he’ll read names, and the family
heads come up and draw a slip of paper. No one
should look at the paper until everyone has
drawn. He calls all the names, greeting each
person as they come up to draw a paper. Mr.
Adams tells Old Man Warner that people in the
north village might stop the lottery, and Old Man
Warner ridicules young people. He says that
giving up the lottery could lead to a return to
living in caves. Mrs. Adams says the lottery has
already been given up in other villages, and Old
Man Warner says that’s “nothing but trouble.”
Mr. Summers finishes calling names, and
everyone opens his or her papers. Word quickly
gets around that Bill Hutchinson has “got it.”
Tessie argues that it wasn’t fair because Bill
didn’t have enough time to select a paper. Mr.
Summers asks whether there are any other
households in the Hutchinson family, and Bill
says no, because his married daughter draws
with her husband’s family. Mr. Summers asks
how many kids Bill has, and he answers that he
has three. Tessie protests again that the lottery
wasn’t fair.
Mr. Graves dumps the papers out of the box
onto the ground and then puts five papers in for
the Hutchinsons. As Mr. Summers calls their
names, each member of the family comes up
and draws a paper. When they open their slips,
they find that Tessie has drawn the paper with
the black dot on it. Mr. Summers instructs
everyone to hurry up.
The villagers grab stones and run toward
Tessie, who stands in a clearing in the middle of
the crowd. Tessie says it’s not fair and is hit in
the head with a stone. Everyone begins throwing
stones at her.
Understanding The Lottery
The final rise in conflict in "The Lottery" is
between the reader and the characters of the
story. Tessie Hutchinson reveals the black dot
on the paper showing that she has won the
lottery. The woman is in a near panic as she
begins to run. The town follows and the piles of
stones which were shown in the first lines
reappear. This revelation is far more terrifying
than the actual violence, which is cut short. The
reader can feel almost betrayed by the people of
the town just as Tessie is betrayed. To maximize
this impact the author ends the story just as the
reader understands completely what has
happened with the victim's statement ‘It isn’t fair.
It isn’t Right.’.
One of the things that makes "The Lottery" by
Shirley Jackson such a power story is that the
author is able to create a nearly perfectly timed
rise in action. Every piece of information builds
on the natural tension of not understanding what
is happening in the story and make the reader
more tense without giving away much
information. This creates a slow, but growing,
rise in conflict that is never really resolved in the
story, but left with the reader even after the story
has concluded. Instead, the author cuts the story
off at the very moment of revelation and peak
action.
The action really begins as the drawing of the
lottery begins. The head of each household
picks out one slip of paper and reveals it to the
town. This feels reasonably normal until the end
since lotteries at fairs and other events are not
that uncommon. At the point that one of the
families is chosen the panic and fear appears
and makes it clear that something bad is
happening.
Drawing the Tickets
At this point the actions of the story is also
condensed with descriptions shorter and time
moving faster. Tessie Hutchinson insists there
was something unfair and tries to convince the
town to redo the lottery because it was unfair,
but no one is listening. Even now though she
doesn't try to convince them to stop the lottery
only that someone else should be its target. At
this point there is no doubt that something bad is
going to happen, though what that is remains
unclear until the last seconds of the story.
The Lottery Box
The first clear hint that the lottery is a truly
important event in the life of this town is the
appearance of the lottery box. There are a
number of important clues to the overall themes
of the story in the box. People are actually
hesitant to touch the box. At this point that fear
is subtle and the reader may hardly notice, but it
hints at things the reader doesn't yet know and
is strange enough to make most readers
uncomfortable simply due to being strange.
The other important point the lottery box helps to
make clear is the age of the lottery. The box
itself is not the original lottery box, and no one
knows exactly what happened to the original
box. This is important because the basic conflict
of "The Lottery" is that of unquestioned tradition
and both the age of the tradition and lack of
connection to the original meaning are important
to that point. The events that happen in "The
Lottery" may have once had a meaning, but that
meaning has been lost and has little more
connection to the original reasons than the box
does to the original lottery box.
Starting The Lottery
The next major point in the story is the beginning
of drawing names for the lottery. With everyone
in town having arrived to draw from the box it is
clear that entering the lottery is not a choice.
Every person and every household in the town is
required to enter, including women and children.
Even if the reader has not sensed anything
negative about the lottery yet, it is clear just how
vitally interested everyone is in the outcome.
This helps to make that outcome important to
the reader because they will understand that it
isn’t simply a meaningless ritual. In addition it is
important that the reader understand that
children are involved in these events because it
is the teaching of traditions that keeps them
alive.
The Lottery Ending
One of the parts of the story which can, in the
first reading, feel unimportant is a conversation
between two older men. This hints at the
ultimate end of the ritual of the lottery. They are
commenting on the rumors that other towns
have actually abandoned the lottery. Their
disgust at the abandonment of traditions is
reinforced by the idea that it is a step back for
civilization. This is not only ironic because the
reader almost certainly finds the events in "The
Lottery" barbaric. Beyond that irony though this
conversation is important to understanding the
themes of "The Lottery". It is this anger at failing
to continue to do things the ways they have
always been done, and the possibilities of
change that give the strongest hints as to the
meaning of " The Lottery". They also create
conflict between the reader and the characters
once the reader understands the lottery.