The Lottery is a famous short story written by Shirley Jackson and published in 1948. It takes place in a small town and depicts the lottery system the townspeople use to select one person to be stoned to death each year. The story explores themes of tradition, sacrifice, and the danger of blindly following rituals without questioning them. The Lottery was highly controversial when it was first published due to its disturbing subject matter, but it is now considered a classic American short story and is often studied in high school English classes.
What is the setting of The Lottery?
The Lottery takes place in a small, rural village of about 300 residents. The exact location is never specified, which contributes to the story’s universality. The time is contemporaneous to when it was published in 1948. On June 27th each year, the villagers gather in the town square to carry out their annual lottery. The setting evokes a quaint, bucolic feel at first, but an ominous tone slowly builds as the horrific ritual is revealed. The juxtaposition of wholesome small-town life with brutal violence heightens the horror.
Who are the main characters in The Lottery?
The main characters are:
– Tessie Hutchinson: The woman who “wins” the lottery by drawing the piece of paper with the black mark. She protests the unfairness of the process before being stoned by the villagers, including her own family.
– Bill Hutchinson: Tessie’s husband who stands solemnly by during the lottery proceedings.
– Mr. Summers: The cheerful leader of the lottery proceedings. He carries out his duties with efficiency but shows no remorse about the nature of the event.
– Old Man Warner: The oldest man in town who staunchly defends the lottery as an important tradition. He represents the backwards, unreasonable mindset that allows such rituals to continue.
– The townspeople: They show up and silently participate in the lottery every year, failing to question or challenge it. Their groupthink mentality represents how otherwise normal people can perpetrate evil when swept up by mob mentality.
What is the plot summary of The Lottery?
| Plot Point | Summary |
|---|---|
| Exposition | The villagers gather on a warm summer day for the annual lottery held each June 27th. The heads of households draw slips of paper from a black box. |
| Rising Action | Tessie Hutchinson arrives late and protests about her husband drawing for their family. Mrs. Delacroix selects the slip of paper for the Hutchinsons. |
| Climax | Bill Hutchinson draws the paper with the black spot, meaning his family has been selected. After each family member draws, Tessie has the marked paper. |
| Falling Action | Although Tessie protests the unfairness, the townspeople insist the lottery must proceed. They gather stones as she urges them to redo the drawing. |
| Resolution | The townspeople, including Tessie’s own family members, stone her to death to complete the lottery ritual. |
The story begins by depicting the quaint setting and residents gathering for what seems like a small town tradition. Only as the lottery proceeds does it become clear that someone is destined for a violent, disturbing fate. The climax hits when we learn Tessie has drawn the marked slip condemning her to death by stoning at the hands of friends and family. The resolution provides no solace or hope as the ritual sacrifice is carried out.
What are some major themes in The Lottery?
Conformity
The village people conform to the cruel tradition without protest. Their willingness to blindly follow and failure to challenge the ritual demonstrates the danger of complacency.
Tradition vs. Progress
Old Man Warner and the villagers cling to the lottery because “it’s always been done this way.” They resist change, even if the tradition is harmful. This theme explores resistance to progress in favor of outdated traditions.
Randomness of Persecution
The random selection of the victim highlights the arbitrariness of scapegoating certain groups. It suggests there is no rhyme or reason to persecution.
Mob Psychology vs. Individual Conscience
The herd mentality overtakes individual morality as villagers sacrifice one of their own to pointless violence. Only Tessie protests while others succumb to mob psychology.
Unquestioned Rituals as Dangerous
The story warns against the dangers of following rituals without questioning their purpose or morality. Real-world examples include war and discrimination cloaked as “tradition.”
What is the symbolism in The Lottery?
The Black Box
The tattered, aged black box represents the antiquated, sinister tradition of the lottery ritual. Its color evokes darkness, evil, and mystery.
Stones
The stones the villagers use to kill Tessie symbolize ritual sacrifice, mob violence, and the brutality lurking beneath their provincial facade.
Time of Year
A harvest festival motif pervades the setting with blooming flowers, green grass, and food preparations. The juxtaposition of spring renewal and fertility with death highlights the lottery’s senseless contradiction.
Names Drawn
The arbitrary, random selection of names from the box reflects the lack of reason or justice around who is persecuted by society.
Three-Legged Stool
The rickety stool used as a platform for the box demonstrates how the lottery ritual is unsteady and built on an unstable foundation of illogic and cruelty.
Was The Lottery based on a true story?
No, The Lottery is not based on any specific true events. As a work of fiction, the story represent broader themes about human nature rather than one factual account. However, some literary analysts note parallels between the theme of ritualized mob violence and historical events like the Holocaust, lynching in the American South, and the McCarthy-era Red Scare. While not explicitly modeled after them, The Lottery taps into the dangers of unquestioned conformity Jackson may have observed in these periods. The timelessness of the story’s message contributes to its endurance as a disturbing fable about human cruelty taken to extremes.
What was the reaction to The Lottery when it was first published?
The Lottery generated an unprecedented response when it appeared in The New Yorker magazine in 1948, with the overwhelming majority of letters being negative. Many readers were shocked, disgusted, and enraged by the violent ritualistic human sacrifice described in the story. Some called it “outrageous” and “gruesome.” The New Yorker reportedly received hundreds of letters demanding an explanation for publishing such a macabre story. However, a few early readers recognized the story’s power and brilliance. The media scholar Marshall McLuhan wrote to praise Jackson’s technique for dramatizing the dangers of social conformity. Despite the backlash, The Lottery went on to become highly acclaimed and anthologized as a leading American short story of the 20th century.
Why was The Lottery so controversial?
Elements of The Lottery that generated controversy include:
– Graphic violence – The description of ritual/human sacrifice was shocking for the time. Stoning someone to death violated standards of propriety.
– Horrifying plot twist – The story diverges from an idyllic town setting to the revelation of sinister traditions. Readers felt tricked by the surprise ending.
– Uncomfortable social commentary – By portraying collective violence and conformity, the story challenged Americans’ postwar self-image as a progressive, moral society.
– Portrayal of ordinary people – Making the townspeople into murderers indicted everyone’s potential for evil, which offended many.
– Female protagonist – Having a woman meet such a tragic fate challenged gender conventions in fiction.
– Hopeless conclusion – The ending offered no resolution, redemption, or comfort for readers.
Overall, The Lottery’s realism in depicting an unthinkable ritualevil perpetrated by everyday people packed a profoundly unsettling punch for postwar audiences. It held up a mirror that many did not want to gaze into.
How did The Lottery reflect common themes in Shirley Jackson’s work?
Throughout her writing, including novels like The Haunting of Hill House and We Have Always Lived in the Castle, Shirley Jackson frequently explored:
– The thin line between civility and barbarism
– Dark forces lurking beneath quaint American towns and home life
– Societal pressure to conform to traditions and norms
– Isolation of outsiders and forgotten groups
– Mob mentality and groupthink overriding individual conscience
– Gender roles and relations
– Superstition mingling with small town life
– Ominous, eerie, unsettling atmosphere
The Lottery exemplifies Jackson’s interest in the dark side of human nature, the fragility of morals and ethics, and the latent capacity for evil within seemingly “normal” communities. Her signature blend of haunting realism, ironic tone, and disturbing themes unite some of her most famous works.
How did The Lottery reflect common themes in American literature?
The Lottery exemplifies some hallmarks of classic American literature:
– Loss of innocence – Like many American novels, the story starts idyllic before pivoting to evil. This theme includes works like The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and To Kill a Mockingbird.
– Conformity and rebellion – Rebelling against social conformity links The Lottery to counter-culture classics like On the Road and The Catcher in the Rye.
– Societal criticism – Its warning about blindly following traditions fits traditions of questioning norms, including The Scarlet Letter and The Crucible.
– Horror – The shocking pivot to violence puts The Lottery in conversation with American Gothic and horror classics like Edgar Allan Poe’s stories.
– Pragmatism – The practical, unemotional way the villagers carry out the lottery aligns with the pragmatism of American authors like Hemingway.
– Naturalism – Starkly showing human cruelty fits with the naturalist works of Jack London and Stephen Crane.
By blending lush setting details with pragmatic horror, Jackson contributed lasting social commentary in the American literary tradition.
How did The Lottery reflect Shirley Jackson’s own life and views?
Growing up in California, Jackson did not fit in with small-town social mores and felt like an outsider, experiences she channeled into complex female protagonists. Her fascination with witchcraft and the occult also influenced the darkly magical realism of stories like The Lottery. After moving to rural Vermont as a mother of four, Jackson drew inspiration from quaint New England towns but also felt isolated. This outsider perspective fueled her intimate, subversive portrayal of small town conformity and violence simmering beneath tranquil surfaces. The Lottery and much of Jackson’s work contain strong feminist themes on rigid gender roles and oppression of women that resonated with her own frustrations. Above all, Jackson brought a clear-eyed vision and blend of Gothic romanticism with domestic realism to capture the nuances of her setting and themes.
Conclusion
Shirley Jackson’s The Lottery endures as a staple of American literature classrooms for good reason. In just a few pages, Jackson manages to construct an immersive small town setting then upend it with a shocking ritualistic tradition that illuminates timeless themes about human evil and conformity. Her unflinching portrayal of mob violence enacted by ordinary people packs a visceral punch. The lottery itself works as a metaphorical Rorschach test reflecting readers’ own fears – whether of oppression, persecution, scapegoating, or whatever form groupthink gone wrong takes in society. Jackson blends an ironic tone, evocative folksy setting, and pragmatically described horrors to warn against the dangers of blind obedience to group norms. Controversial in its day, The Lottery continues to unsettle readers, reminding us we all have the capacity for good or evil within.