The Lottery

Pono Ng
23 September 2014
Angela Henning
English Comp. II
The Lottery In the short story The Lottery by Shirley Jackson the reader finds a small town that has an annual lottery in which everyone is a part of. Men, women, and children of all ages are to participate in this gathering. In this short story the context is significantly similar to that of the video and give the reader a good and clear picture of what truly goes on. The lottery takes place in a small farm town with about 300 residents who are eager to attend the lottery and see who gets to be the last person. In the text there are children playing and gathering rocks, even the youngest of them. Families make their way into the common area where the lottery is to take place. The setting in the text compared to the movie weren’t the same as pictured in my head. Having cars and structured buildings was not what was expected but more of a (little house on the prairie) type of scene. “The morning of June 27th was clear and sunny, with the fresh warmth of a full-summer day; the flowers were blossoming profusely and the grass was richly green.” When reading through it there seemed as if nothing was wrong and it was another normal day, but while watching the movie there was a slight sense of anxiousness that you could notice if paying attention. When gathering you see people talking but not being very happy and spirited like you do when reading. This story has a unique type of theme because for a normal person the lottery is something that you would want to win and its an exciting time, but for the town folk its just another lottery that they do every year as long as they could remember. It says that the oldest man was participating in it for seventy-seven years, as it was a normal thing to do. Growing up in that town you weren’t taught anything differently. “"They do say," Mr. Adams said to Old Man Warner, who stood next to him, "that over in the north village they're talking of giving up the lottery." Old Man Warner snorted. "Pack of crazy fools," he said. "Listening to the young folks, nothing's good enough for them. Next thing you know, they'll be wanting to go back to living in caves, nobody work any more, live hat way for a while. Used to be a saying about 'Lottery in June, corn be heavy soon.' First thing you know, we'd all be eating stewed chickweed and acorns. There's always been a lottery," he added petulantly. "Bad enough to see young Joe Summers up there joking with everybody."” This theme shows the danger and effect you can have on people when you blindly follow a tradition when not even knowing why you even do it in the first place. Even when not knowing why they do this tradition they still try to preserve in as you see in the text and movie. Along with that in the story we see that Tessie is one of the housewives who supports the lottery. But when she picks the piece of paper with the black mark on it, she isn’t the same person who was almost under a trance and is now trying to convince the others that its not a good idea and that hey should redo it or stop it from happening. Seems like once its you who is at risk they try to deny being apart of it. The main character that stood out seemed to be Tessie because of the way she reacted towards the end of the story. Being so lively in the beginning then showing so much passion to try and convince the town that they shouldn’t do this lottery and that it wasn’t fair for her to be the one. She states that her family didn’t have enough time to pick. “Tessie Hutchinson was in the center of a cleared space by now, and she held her hands out desperately as the villagers moved in on her. "It isn't fair," she said. A stone hit her on the side of the head. Old Man Warner was saying, "Come on, come on, everyone." Steve Adams was in the front of the crowd of villagers, with Mrs. Graves beside him. "It isn't fair, it isn't right," Mrs. Hutchinson screamed, and then they were upon her.” Seeing the movie and then reading the text you can see a difference in tone and character when going through the story. Old Man Warner is meaner and more raw when talking to the others and Tessie. Being the oldest in the town and wanting to get it over with; his voice putting people down when they whisper of other towns giving up the lottery instead of keeping the tradition going. In conclusion, there are many signs of symbolism being used in the short story. It almost seems as if it they weren’t entirely explained. Even in todays society we have some traditions that we don’t know how they started but continue to do them because that is what we grew up with and have no need to change and stray from those ideas and beliefs. In the story there was a modern day peer pressure when it was time to stone Tessie. “The pile of stones the boys had made earlier was ready; there were stones on the ground with the blowing scraps of paper that had come out of the box Delacroix selected a stone so large she had to pick it up with both hands and turned to Mrs. Dunbar. "Come on," she said. "Hurry up." Mr. Dunbar had small stones in both hands, and she said. gasping for breath. "I can't run at all. You'll have to go ahead and I'll catch up with you." The children had stones already. And someone gave little Davy Hutchinson few pebbles.” All though they were all friends with the family once someone said to start they had no hesitation to do the deed. Even her own son was handed pebbles because he knew no better.

Word Count : 1035