Everyone from the village, about 300 people, were gathered around the square for the lottery drawing. The drawing had been held there for many, many years. Everyone except Tessie. She soon arrived, rushing and out of breath. Tessie seems like she is a good housewife, but in the generation that this story is set in, she seems to be pretty outspoken and even a bit of a hypocrite.
The rules are explained by Mr. Summers, the man who conducts the lottery every year. Everyone from the village is in town at the lottery except two people: Clyde Dunbar, a man with a broken leg, and Tessie Hutchinson. Tessie eventually shows up late and stays by her family as the drawing occurs. When the head of every family reveals their papers, Tessie’s husband receives the paper with the black dot. Next, each member of the family draws again and Tessie has the paper with the black dot.
The Hutchinson family was the unfortunate winners of the first round and then they had to pick among themselves. Mrs. Hutchinson makes an accusation that her husband simply did not have enough time to draw a good slip of paper. This was the first conflict in this story. A woman, who previously had no objections to this yearly event, is now protesting the unfairness of the outcome because she was the unfortunate one. By reading this story you begin to wonder what the lottery really I because if it was really a lottery that would be the wrong response to a good thing.
The Lottery Summary The Lottery is a story which depicts a small town enacting its annual mandatory lottery. The historical stage is ambiguous but we are informed that the lottery predates anyone’s memory and occurs in towns and cities throughout the known world (although rumors say that some towns have stopped having it). The story is told in the third person and we are taken from a mood of happy celebration to the horrifying realization in the last sentence of what the lottery prize is. The Lottery happens in June every year in this small village of about 300 people. It’s a tradition that’s been held annually for well over 80 years.
Growing up, he always felt as if his mother was purposely embarrassing him and very strange compared to other mothers. He was embarrassed to have a white mother and having this “antique” bike makes it even worse. Plus she was the only white women in the neighborhood which would draw attention in the black community. This grasped the theme because every place Ruth went, she never truly felt at home but always lost. In this neighborhood, she didn’t feel at home because she wasn’t accepted by the entire community.
On June 27th the villagers of a small town gathered together for the Annual lottery. Once everyone had arrived Mr. Summers one of the Village leaders, followed by Mr. Graves, the post master entered the time square with the Black Box. Mr. Summers went over the rules and
“Here comes the carnival,” they’d say. They weren’t able to keep themselves clean on their way into town because they had to go by dirt road. Being ostracized, they were shunned by society as nothings and ridiculed. They worked so hard and tried to keep up with school but would be way too tired, they fell asleep in class and would get sent home with notes about being inattentive. This wasn’t their fault.
Dmitry expressed to Charlotte that her careless actions caused his whole life to change in a matter of moments. He told her how his injuries had forced him to leave work without pay and how he was struggling with expensive physiotherapy bills for his leg. He also described the emotional trauma that the incident had caused and how he now feels anxious and scared when crossing the street. Charlotte listened attentively to everything that Dmitry said and felt sorry for her actions. She explained that she was speeding because she was running late for a job interview and that she was not paying full attention to the lights, but she realized that she should have been.
The drawing has been around over seventy-seven years and is practiced by every member of the town. The surrealism of this idea is most evident through Jackson's tone. Her use of friendly language among the villagers and the presentation of the lottery as an event similar to the square dances and Halloween programs illustrate the lottery as a welcomed, festive event. The lottery is conducted in a particular manner, and with so much anticipation by the villagers, that the reader expects the winner to receive a prize or something of that manner. It is not until the very end of the story that the reader learns the winner's fate: Death, by friends and family.
Shelly Kasper Jodi Stapleton English 1102 The lottery symbolism “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson is a short story about how every citizen in a small town is forced to take part in the annual lottery. What the reader soon finds out is that this is not the type of lottery that one would want to win, and the only reason why the town holds this type of lottery every year is because of tradition. A cheerful tone seems to be set from the very beginning when Jackson describes a warm sunny summer’s day; school is just getting out and everyone appears content. Next she describes the children and adults gathering stones for the lottery. This is the first event that makes the reader question the action of the townspeople.