The Lottery- Evan, Faith, Joaquin, Suriah by Suriah Ta

Title of the Story

sta118 — 2024-09-03 17:14:52 UTC

The title of the story The Lottery reflects the main event and conflict in the story. The Lottery focuses on the process of preparing for the town’s lottery, indicating the traditional history surrounding it, then revealing the lottery itself. The title itself is ambiguous as it has no words denoting a positive or negative connotation to the lottery, aligning with how the story is written to eventually reveal the true nature of the lottery.

Tone of the Story

ewang213 — 2024-09-03 17:22:36 UTC

Towards the beginning of the short story, the setting and character actions radiate a relatively relaxed and even a potentially joyful tone. The relaxed tone is demonstrated through the setting, which is “clear and sunny, with the fresh warmth of a full-summer day; the flowers were blossoming profusely and the grass was richly green” (Jackson 1); the characters “gather[ing] in the square” (Jackson 1) potentially demonstrates a more joyful (rather festive) tone. A change in tone towards ambivalence, however, occurs when Mr. Summers starts the lottery drawing and Old Man Warner first mentions lotteries are “[n]othing but trouble” (Jackson 4). In many ways, Old Man Warner’s complaints foreshadow the horrific ending. The horrific ending, though, starts with a more tense tone. This occurred as the different families opened their pieces of paper and eventually as the Hutchinsons opened their pieces of paper. The sudden, horrific tone occurs when Tessie becomes the chosen winner and the villagers throw the rocks.

Symbols

sta118 — 2024-09-03 17:27:08 UTC

Lottery box
The lottery box represents respect for tradition. Despite being worn down, people do not want to replace it. Whenever the idea of replacing it is mentioned, people hesitate, and it is never done. Throughout the story, we see elements of how the lottery process is not as true as it is to the original, with rituals being forgotten and the box not being the original. The one thing that is original and respects tradition is the throwing of rocks, revealing how although tradition is respected, there is a selective nature in respecting it.
The stones
The stones symbolize collectivism and violence within society. In the beginning of the story, there is ambiguity to the stones, and they almost seem to be used for something innocent as children are involved in collecting and making a pile of stones. Soon this ambiguity surrounding the stones' purpose dissipates when Tessa throws a fit for winning the lottery. When the villagers, of all ages, gather around Tessa and take joy in throwing stones at her, it alludes to mob mentality, and how mob mentality can cause humans to not question inflicting violence on others.

Main Characters

2024-09-03 17:28:44 UTC

The main characters of The Lottery are Mr. Summers, Bill Hutchinson, and Tessie. Mr. Summers conducts the lottery every year. He is in charge of marking the folded papers, which determine the villagers' fate. Due to the fact that Mr. Summers runs the lottery no differently than any other year, he is a flat character, because his character doesn't develop. Bill Hutchinson is Tessie Hutchinson's husband, who which he later takes part in murdering. He first chooses a marked paper, then a blank paper, leaving Tessie with the marked paper. Bill Hutchinson is a dynamic character, because he chooses to betray his wife in the end, leaving her dead. Tessie Hutchinson is also a dynamic character. In the beginning, she expresses little concern for the lottery, because she doesn't believe in the chance that she will "win" the lottery. However, when she is chosen, her feelings automatically change as she protests that the lottery "wasn't fair." In the end, Tessie is stoned to death.

Biography

sta118 — 2024-09-03 20:45:32 UTC

https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/CX3008100250/SUIC?u=oxnarduhsd&sid=bookmark-SUIC&xid=e02eebd5

Related Artwork

ewang213 — 2024-09-04 04:09:09 UTC

Discussion Question

sta118 — 2024-09-05 06:23:23 UTC

Are there traditions you follow primarily because they are tradition? At what point do you think it is appropriate to reconsider a tradition?
How can we apply Tessie's reaction to reality?
What societal theme might this story represent?

Plot

2024-09-05 15:27:11 UTC

Exposition - The story begins by informing the reader that the story takes place on June 27th, which is a clear and sunny day. It is told that the entire town of 300 people is gathered in the square. It is also told that there is a lottery where the entire town enters to win.
Conflict (inciting incident) - The conflict begins later in the story when Bill Hutchinson “wins” the lottery and the reader finds out that it isn’t a good thing to win the lottery, as Bill Hutchinson looks down in a mixture of shock and sorrow.
Rising Action - The story develops as the reader finds out that the winner of the lottery has their family members enter another lottery, where the reader understands that something bad will happen to the winner of that smaller lottery.
Climax - Tessie Hutchinson starts to make excuses for why the lottery wasn’t fair. She then “wins” the lottery and pitifully starts to find more excuses for why she shouldn’t have won.
Falling Action - The entire town starts to gather around Tessie Hutchinson as her cries for change begin to dissolve.
Resolution - The townspeople start to throw objects -primarily stones- at Tessie and the story ends. The reader can infer that Tessie is stoned to death.