1.The dark ending was not a typically lottery but throughout the story methods of foreshadowing was used by the author, Shirley Jackson. Characters throughout the story fear the lottery nervously but the dark suspicions are confirmed when “Tessie Hutchinson shouted to Mr. Summers. "You didn't give him time enough to take any paper he wanted. I saw you. It wasn't fair!"”(Jackson 5). Tessie instead of being excited for winning the lottery is extremely against winning which confirms that the lottery is nothing to be excited about. Jackson begins the story picturing the town as a the children were playing around as if nothing horrible was about to happen.…
Families in this story turn on one another, Though family is important to the lottery, all families must be there everyone in that family must be present as well. They community has names of everyone and everything. The list of everyone is how they pick names on who get to draw first. “Family relationships are essential to how the lottery plays out but these relationships mean nothing when it is time to stone the unlucky victim.”(SparkNotes Editors) Just like when Tessie draws from the box her kids and husband turn on her just like everyone else. “Although family relationships make up the lottery, they do not guarantee loyalty and love once the lottery is over.” (SparkNotes…
Let us take the Watson family as an example. The head of the Watson household, Mr. Watson, was the “lucky” winner in the past lottery. Since then, Mrs. Watson still grieves and mourns for the death of her husband. Jack Watson, their son, currently draws for their household. If ever the Watson family is chosen again, either Jack or Mrs. Watson will face death. Loneliness can drive an individual to suicidal thoughts and actions just to be reunited once more with their lost loved ones. The lottery has tremendously impacted families. You would be oblivious to this fact of course because for a lucky man like you, you aren’t included in the black, death box. This reason is why we are sorry for you. For not being able to feel the pain that this lottery has caused us. Though let us put this in a business perspective so you can better understand. Killing individuals would lessen the amount of workers in our village. Less workers means a smaller economy and a bad reputation. As a man who is devoted to his civic duties, I wouldn’t want to be known as the man who encourages breaking families with a piece of paper and…
"The Lottery" reminds us to look to tradition with scrutiny because not questioning our own actions can lead to things that go against our morals. "The Lottery" demonstrates this by showing the villagers calmly congregate to commit murder in order to prevent a bad year for the crops. We as readers see this as a crazy and horrifying , (also inefficient,) way to secure that the crops grow, whereas the villagers see this as a necessary ritual only because it is traditionally done. There is even evidence in the story that they don't need to act this way in that some of the neighboring villages no longer practice this ritual and the success of their harvest is somewhat equal to those who still practice. The villagers ignore that because they believe…
Family members and friends get themselves caught up it when they don’t know how and what they are doing. The lottery is nothing like today’s lottery when you get the right ticket you millions of dollars. No, it’s nothing like that. In this lottery when you get chosen or won it you get stones thrown at you by family members and friends of yours. Why do they throw stones at them, because it’s a tradition for the town.…
The idea that lemmings will commit mass suicide every few years by jumping off cliffs and drowning in the seas below were once attributed to drops in the lemming population. In theory, once a few lemmings died, other lemmings rapidly followed. While the lemming suicide hypothesis is a mere myth, it parallels a vulnerable aspect of human society--- following the crowd can have dangerous consequences.…
The Lottery is a short story written by Shirley Jackson in 1948, yet still, leaves a mark on any person who gets their hands on it today. The story starts out by setting an enjoyable atmosphere at the beginning of summer. The community gathers and the story almost fulfills the reader’s idea of a perfect town activity. However, the story has a sharp twist at the end that leaves the reader in shock. Jackson wrote the story to leave an impact and whom how quickly human nature can change. Shirley Jackson shows the duality of human nature in the characters of the children, Tessie Hutchinson, and Mr. Summers.…
Family becomes an overall importance when it comes to feelings, emotion and tradition. Each story involves the family or a family member that has been hurt or maybe even criticized. In “The Lottery” and “This is what it means to say Phoenix, Arizona”, the family member was either hurt or criticized. When Victor finds out about his father’s death, he is financially unstable. When Thomas says “I can lend you the money you need”, Victor disagrees at first, but reconsiders the deal. Although Victor and Thomas had past conflicts, they confided in each other. In “The Lottery”, the story begins with the town’s yearly tradition. Conflicts begins with one individual against society around her. Tessie Hutchinson refuses to accept the tradition when she…
The Lottery is set in the mid-morning in June in the early 1900s in which the town selects a ritual murder. The lottery is run by Mr. Summers since he had the time to devote to civic activities. People would gather around in the square at about ten o’ clock to start the lottery so they would be finished by lunch time. There would be a black wooden box that had papers inside of it to be drawn for one person to be killed for no apparent reason. No one could figure out why the town did this, it was a routine they did every year.…
Her actions show hypocrisy because, during the beginning of the story, she arrived at the ritual late and made playful banter with the person in charge of the drawing, Mr. Summers. Due to her laid back attitude concerning the lottery, she obviously does not think much of it, and most likely would've participated in the stoning if anyone else had drawn the dotted slip of paper, but when Bill draws the fateful piece of paper, she all of a sudden opposes the lottery. The lottery takes place because, as Old Man Warner says, “Lottery in June, corn be heavy soon,” which tells the reader that they see the lottery as some sort of fertility ritual. Jackson could possibly have made the story as a critique of democracy because while the vast majority agrees with the lottery, that doesn't make it right. Consequently, this leads onto a major theme in the story, tradition. The villagers in the story do the lottery because they believe it will bring good crops and that everyone in the past has done it. However, the villagers cease to truly examine the tradition and see what the cruelty of what they…
Jackson foreshadows the surprising ending. As more families are gathering the men’s “Jokes were quiet and they smiled rather than laughed.” Their actions reflect that something is on all of their minds, making them uncomfortable. As Mr. Summers begins to set up the box and stool, he asks for help, there was “hesitation.” This makes the reader question, why would anyone hesitate to help? As Mr. Adams and old man Warner converse, Mr. Adams says that in the “north village” they are deciding if they should get rid of “the Lottery. For what reason would they want to give up a tradition that has been continued for many years. The lottery must be in…
In this story there is a small town where people gather around annually to play the lottery. The children play in the beginning of the story around rocks which we later learn they will use to stone people to death. All awhile the men hang out and the women catch up on gossip. It is mentioned that the lottery has been a tradition for a very long time. For example, the box that is used for the slips of paper is described as battered and old from being used for such a long time. Eventually all of the people gather around with their families and started performing the lottery. They play by having the head of every family, usually the man of the house pull a slip of paper from a box and if you get a slip with a black dot on it your family is chosen. Next, every member of the family has to get a slip of paper from the box and which ever one person gets the marked paper is chosen as “the winner of the lottery’. If you are the winner then that means you are doomed to being stoned to death by everyone else. In part of the story two characters talk about how other towns have gotten rid of the lottery, one character gets very angered by this and starts talking about how you shouldn’t mess with tradition. I found it odd when in this story the mother of a family “Tessie” was the winner but her family didn’t seem to be negatively affected. As for everyone else in the village, they did not show any emotion of compassion or sympathy for her. It was as if everyone had already taken the mindset that it was better her than them and that the lottery wasn’t anything wrong because it has been around for such a long time that it has become the norm. I can relate with this story partially because my parents have followed old traditions from Mexico where a man’s role is to work and a woman’s role is to cook, clean and manage the household. For a majority of my life, my parents have raised my siblings and I with this mindset in place. I…
The narrator of "The Lottery" is not really only focused on the story. Rather than telling the reader about the character’s thoughts and feelings, Jackson simply shows the course of the lottery unfolding throughout the day. This represents the shocking nature of the ending, as our only explanation of the lottery's true purpose come from the villagers' nervous behavior, rather than from our observation into their thoughts. if the story had been told from one of the villagers' point of view it might have been a far less informative, but showing the real fear that was flowing between…
Everyone knew the rules of the lottery required all family members to redraw to conclude which member will be taken. However, Mr. Summers was without family, and he knew…
Adults accept this “Lottery” just as if it were any other custom, they make it seem normal. The text states, “[T]he men began to gather surveying their own children, speaking of planting and rain, tractors and taxes. They stood together, away from the pile of stones in the corner.” (Jackson 1) This shows that they are only focused on what is going to happen after this event, and not the fact that there is a pile of stones right beside them that are going to be tossed at them or their loved ones. Mrs. Hutchinson, a mother, had “clean forgot what day it was” even though her own child could be picked for the “Lottery”. This shows the lack of interest to this event making it seem like a normal day to forget. Even Mr. Summers, the drawer for the “Lottery”, does not care as he states, “guess we better get started, get this over with so’s[sic] we can get back to work”. He will be the one drawing who will be killed after this event, however he does not care. He just wants to go back to his daily routine like everyone else. This is yet another example of the emotions put towards this event by the adults. The adults treat this “Lottery” as a normal event and do not care about the possible outcomes; it is like any other day to them.…