3. SHIRLEY HARDIE JACKSON
• an American author.
• She was a popular writer in her time, and
her work has received increased attention
from literary critics in recent years.
4. •She is best known for the short story "The
Lottery" (1948), and for The Haunting of Hill
House (1959), which is widely considered to be
one of the best ghost stories ever written.
6. SETTING
• "The Lottery" takes place in an area named
"the village." Though it is thought to be
inspired by the small New England villages,
the village in the story is never formally
named.
7. CHARACTERS
• Tessie Hutchinson - The unlucky loser of the
lottery. Tessie draws the paper with the black
mark on it and is stoned to death. She is
excited about the lottery and fully willing to
participate every year, but when her family’s
name is drawn, she protests that the lottery
isn’t fair. Tessie arrives at the village square
late because she forgot what day it was.
8. CHARACTERS
• Old Man Warner - The oldest man in the
village. Old Man Warner has participated in
seventy-seven lotteries. He condemns the
young people in other villages who have
stopped holding lotteries, believing that the
lottery keeps people from returning to a
barbaric state.
9. CHARACTERS
• Mr. Summers - The man who conducts the
lottery. Mr. Summers prepares the slips of
paper that go into the black box and calls the
names of the people who draw the papers.
The childless owner of a coal company, he is
one of the village leaders.
11. CHARACTERS
• Bill Hutchinson - Tessie’s husband. Bill first
draws the marked paper, but he picks a blank
paper during the second drawing. He is fully
willing to show everyone that his wife, Tessie,
has drawn the marked paper.
12. CHARACTERS
• Mr. Harry Graves - The postmaster. Mr.
Graves helps Mr. Summers prepare the papers
for the lottery and assists him during the
ritual.
13. SUMMARY
• On a warm day in late June (the 27th, to be
exact), villagers gather in the square to
participate in a lottery run by Mr. Summers,
who officiates at all the big civic events. The
children arrive first and begin collecting
stones until their parents call them to order.
Mrs. Hutchinson arrives late and chats
briefly with her friend, Mrs. Delacroix.
14. SUMMARY
• Mr. Summers calls each head of the
household (always a grown man) forward to
a black wooden box, where each selects a
slip of paper. Once the men have chosen, Mr.
Summers allows everyone to open the paper
and see who has been selected. It is Bill
Hutchinson. His wife immediately starts
protesting – so we get the sense that they're
not about to win a couple million dollars.
15. SUMMARY
• There are five people total in the Hutchinson
family. Mr. Summers places five slips of
paper into the box and each member of the
family draws. Tess (Mrs. Hutchinson) draws
a slip of paper with a big black dot in the
center. Not good. The villagers advance on
her, and it becomes crystal clear what the
prize for the lottery really is: a stoning. Tess
protests in vain as the villagers attack her.
16. CONFLICT
• Individual vs. Society, showing the
individual's struggle against collectively
accepted norms. Tessie Hutchinson refuses
to accept that her family, and then she
herself, has been chosen for the Lottery, but
her protests are ignored and overpowered
by the collective assurance of the ritual's
acceptance.
17. • Old Man Warner represents
Society, the purpose which is
condoned by the village as
normal and even virtuous
18. • Tessie represents Man, the individual
who fights against norms but, in this
case, is destroyed by them. Her fight
comes from a selfish, personal desire for
her family to be spared by the Lottery;
since the society of the village expects
every member to be equally invested in
the outcome, her rebellion is quickly put
down.
19. • The outcome of the story shows
that Society, in this case, is
victorious, and there is no sign
that the Individual has had much
effect on other opinions.
21. THEMES
• The Danger of Blindly Following
Tradition
The village lottery culminates in a
violent murder each year, a bizarre
ritual that suggests how dangerous
tradition can be when people follow it
blindly
22. The Randomness of Persecution
• Villagers persecute individuals at random, and
the victim is guilty of no transgression other
than having drawn the wrong slip of paper
from a box. The elaborate ritual of the lottery
is designed so that all villagers have the same
chance of becoming the victim—even children
are at risk. Each year, someone new is chosen
and killed, and no family is safe.
23. • Tessie’s death is an extreme
example of how societies can
persecute innocent people
for absurd reasons.
24. • Just as the villagers in “The
Lottery” blindly follow tradition
and kill Tessie because that is
what they are expected to do,
people in real life often
persecute others without
questioning why.
