THE LOTTERY

By Shirley Jackson
CHARACTERS
 The characters are the individuals that the story is about. The
author should introduce the characters in the story with
enough information that the reader can visualize each person.
 One character is clearly central to a story with all major events
having some connection to this character. She/he is the
PROTAGONIST.
 The character in opposition to the main character is called the
ANTAGONIST.
CHARACTERS
 Characters are...
 Individual - round, many sided and complex personalities.
 Developing - dynamic, many sided personalities that change
(for better or worse) by the end of the story.
 Static – Stereotypes; they have one or two characteristics that
never change and are often over-emphasized.
CHARACTERS
 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.
CHARACTERS
 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.
SETTING
• The setting is the location of the action. An author should
describe the environment or surroundings of the story in
such detail that the reader feels that he or she can picture
the scene. Unusual settings (such as a fantasy world) can be
interesting, but everyday settings can help a reader to better
visualize the story and feel connected to the plot.
SETTING
Some or all of these aspects of setting should be considered when
examining a story:
• place - geographical location. Where is the action of the story
taking place?
• time - When is the story taking place? (historical period, time of
day, year, etc.)
• weather conditions - Is it rainy, sunny, stormy, etc?
• social conditions - What is the daily life of the characters like? Does
the story contain local colour (writing that focuses on the speech,
dress, mannerisms, customs, etc. of a particular place)?
SETTING
The setting of Shirley Jackson's short story "The Lottery" takes
place in a small, nondescript town located in rural America on the
morning of June 27th. Jackson describes the weather on the day
of the lottery as being pleasant, clear, and warm, which gives the
reader a sense of tranquility and optimism. The town’s people
have performed the lottery for more than seventy years.
THEME
• Theme is a hidden element, but incredibly
important. In essence, theme is what your story all
about.
THEME
• "The Lottery," Shirley Jackson represents the notion of
the scapegoat as someone who is blamed for the evils
of a society and banished in order to expel sin and allow
for renewal. The townspeople are governed by mob
psychology and abandon their reason to act with great
cruelty.
CONFLICT
• Conflict is the essence of fiction. It creates plot. The
conflicts we encounter can usually be identified as one of
four kinds.
-Human versus Human
Conflict that pits one person against another.
-Human versus Nature
This involves a run-in with the forces of nature. On the one
hand, it expresses the insignificance of a single human life
in the cosmic scheme of things. On the other hand, it tests
the limits of a person’s strength and will to live.
 CONFLICT
• Human versus Society
-The values and customs by which everyone else lives are being challenged.
The character may come to an untimely end as a result of his or her own
convictions. The character may, on the other hand, bring others around to a
sympathetic point of view, or it may be decided that society was right after all.
Human versus Self
-Internal conflict. Not all conflict involves other people. Sometimes people are
their own worst enemies. An internal conflict is a good test of a character’s
values. Does he/she give in to temptation or rise above it? Does he/she demand
the most from him/herself or settle for something less? Does he/she even bother
to struggle? The internal conflicts of a character and how they are resolved are
good clues to the character’s inner strength.
CONFLICT
• Human vs. Nature
• Human vs. Self
TONE
 In literature, tone is the emotional colouring or the emotional
meaning of the work and provides an extremely important
contribution to the full meaning. In spoken language, it is
indicated by the inflection of the speaker's voice. The emotional
meaning of a statement may vary widely according to the tone of
voice with which it is uttered; the tone may be ecstatic,
incredulous, despairing, resigned, etc.
TONE
The tone of the lottery is ironic. There is irony within every part of
this story including the final climax. There is also a mood of
tension through the story.
PLOT
 A plot is a causal sequence of events, the "why" for the things that
happen in the story. The plot draws the reader into the characters’
lives and helps the reader understand the choices that the
characters make.
 A plot's structure is the way in which the story elements are
arranged. Writers vary structure depending on the needs of the
story. For example, in a mystery, the author will withhold plot
exposition until later in the story.
PLOT
Narrative tradition calls for developing stories with particular
pieces -plot elements - in place.
 Exposition is the information needed to understand a story.
 Complication is the catalyst that begins the major conflict.
 Climax is the turning point in the story that occurs when
characters try to resolve the complication.
 Resolution is the set of events that bring the story to a close.
PLOT
• Exposition
 Details of contemporary small-town American life are
embroidered upon a description of an annual rite known as "the
lottery". In a small village of about 300 residents, the locals are in
an excited yet nervous mood on June 27. Children gather stones
as the adult townsfolk assemble for their annual event, which in
the local tradition is practiced to ensure a good harvest (Old Man
Warner quotes an old proverb: "Lottery in June, corn be heavy
soon"), though there are some rumors that nearby communities
in the north are talking about giving up the lottery, and some
have done so.
PLOT
• Complication
 The lottery preparations start the night before with Mr.
Summers and Mr. Graves making the paper slips and the list of
all the families. Once the slips are finished, they are put into a
black box, which is stored overnight in a safe place at the coal
company. The story briefly mentions how the ballot box has
been stored over the years in various places in the town,
including a grocery store shelf, a barn, and in the post office
basement.
PLOT
• Climax
 On the morning of the lottery, the townspeople gather close to
10 a.m. in order to have everything done in time for lunch. First,
the heads of the extended families draw slips until every family
has a slip. Bill Hutchinson gets the one slip with a black spot,
meaning that his family has been chosen. The second round
would ordinarily be to select one household within the family,
but since there is only one Hutchinson household (Bill's adult
sister and daughter are counted with their husbands' families),
the second round is skipped.
PLOT
• Resolution
 The final round is for the individual family members within the
winning household to draw, no matter their age. Bill's wife,
Tessie, gets the marked slip. After the drawing is over and Tessie
is picked, the slips are allowed to fly off into the wind. In keeping
with tradition, each villager obtains a stone and begins to
surround Tessie. The story ends as Tessie is stoned to death while
she bemoans the unfairness of the situation.
POINT OF VIEW
 That someone is telling the story from his or her own point of view. This angle
of vision, the point of view from which the people, events and details of a story
are viewed, is important to consider when reading a story.
 Types of Point of View:
 Objective Point of View
With the objective point of view, the writer tells what happens without stating
more than can be inferred from the story's action and dialogue. The narrator
never discloses anything about what the characters think or feel, remaining a
detached observer.
 Third Person Point of View
Here the narrator does not participate in the action of the story as one of the
characters, but lets us know exactly how the characters feel. We learn about
the characters through this outside voice.
POINT OF VIEW
 First Person Point of View
In the first person point of view, the narrator does participate in
the action of the story. When reading stories in the first person,
we need to realize that what the narrator is recounting might not
be the objective truth. We should question the trustworthiness of
the accounting.
 Omniscient and Limited Omniscient Points of View
A narrator who knows everything about all the characters is all
knowing, or omniscient. A narrator whose knowledge is limited to
one character, either major or minor, has a limited omniscient
point of view.
POINT OF VIEW
• The point of view of "The Lottery" is the third person point of
view. A third person point of view places the narrator outside
of the events happening in the story.