'A Sound of Thunder' Summary

The story begins with the protagonist, Eckels, arriving at Time Safari Inc.
Eckles is there to attend a hunting expedition into the past via a time machine.
He meets the guide, Mr. Travis, and his assistant Lesperance. They travel to
prehistory with two other hunters to kill a Tyrannosaurus Rex.
Mr. Travis explains that the hunters must do everything he tells them and that
they cannot leave the path set for them in the past. They can only kill dinosaurs
that were going to die at that moment so their actions do not alter the future.
Mr. Travis explains how, even an action as small as stepping on a mouse, can
dramatically change the future.
The hunters are confronted by the Tyrannosaurus shortly after they arrive and
walk out onto the path. Eckles, in panic, retreats from the men and steps off
the path before returning to the time machine. The other men kill the
Tyrannosaurus and Mr. Travis threatens Eckles. When they return to the
future, Eckles discovers that he had stepped on a golden butterfly,
dramatically altering the future. Mr. Travis shoots Eckles in retaliation.

'A Sound of Thunder' Analysis

Bradbury's short story is a warning of the misuse of technology and the
responsibility we have to everything in our environment. First, Eckles fails to
heed the warnings and rules that Mr. Travis sets before their journey. His
careless actions have tremendous consequences. However, Time Safari Inc. also
represents the irresponsible use of technology. Even though they set rules and
do their best to not alter the future, they are still a time travel hunting
company. They use this incredible technology, not for the betterment of
mankind, but to take rich men hunting. Mr. Travis blames Eckles for their
future, yet Mr. Travis and the company provide this service. The company's
existence points to a lack of forethought and the arrogance of man using
incredible technology for frivolous ends.

Summary of The Fir-Tree

The narrator begins the story by describing the main character: a little fir
tree that is growing in a forest. It has plenty of sun, wind, and companionship
from other trees. However, the fir tree is not content. In fact, it takes no
pleasure in the sun or birds or clouds as it longs to be much larger like the giant
pines surrounding it. The fir tree does not even like it when children pass by
and comment on how pretty it is because they say it is "little." Each year, the
little tree continues to grow, but it is still not as tall as the other trees in the
forest. In winter, the tree is still small enough that a hare hops over it, and
this greatly embarrasses the tree. Eventually, though, during its third winter,
the fir tree is large enough that the hare must now run around it. Yet, the tree
is still not satisfied. It continues wishing to be tall and old and says, "There is
".nothing else worth caring for in the world

In autumn, when the woodcutters cut down the tallest trees, the fir tree is
very curious as to its fate. It asks the swallows and storks, who tell it that
these massive trees are made into masts for ships that sail all the way to
Egypt. The fir tree exclaims its desire to see the sea, wanting to grow old and
tall and become the great mast of a ship. It ignores the sun, who admonishes it
.to enjoy its youth

At Christmas time, the fir tree notes that some trees that are younger and
smaller than it have been chopped down and carried away. It is envious of this
and asks the sparrows where these trees are taken. When they explain that
they have seen these trees in people's houses, "adorned with all sorts of
beautiful things," the fir tree trembles in excitement, no longer wishing to be a
ship's mast but to be "standing in the warm room, with all that brightness and
splendor" around it. Even though it does not know what happens to these trees
afterwards, the fir tree is certain that something even more wonderful will
occur. The air and sun continue to tell the fir tree to be content and rejoice
.with them, but it does not

Eventually, the fir tree is chopped down and taken to be a Christmas tree. For
one night, the tree is decorated and celebrated. The following day, however, it
is taken to a small loft and remains there for several months before being
taken outside to be chopped up for firewood. The story ends with the fir tree
in a fireplace remembering the days of its youth as the fire consumes it.

The Open Window Summary

The open window summary offers a great way of learning about the story in brief.
It follows the life of Framton, who moves into a new town. He wishes to cure
his nerves and his sister helps him as she lived there. She arranges a meeting
with one of her acquaintances, Mrs Sappleton. On reaching her house, he
encounters her niece, Vera. She points to an open window and tells him about the
reason behind it. She tells Framton that her aunt’s husband and his two brothers
got killed in a tragic hunting accident.

Moreover, she warns him that Mrs Sappleton anticipates their return so she
keeps the window open. Finally, Mrs Sappleton comes to meet him and tells him
that she is waiting for her husband. This disturbs Framton and he gets horrified
when he sees three male approaching him in hunting gear. Thus, he flees the
house.

The Open Window Summary in English

The open window summary takes us through Framton Nuttel’s arrival at a new
town. The story is written by Saki. Framton is not a social man so his sister has
set up him to know her acquaintances.

He arrives at her acquaintance’s house, Mrs Sappleton. Her niece, Vera, greets
him. She entertains him till the aunt arrives to greet him. During this encounter,
we learn a few things about the Sappletons.

When talking to Vera, Framton reveals to her about his lack of social skills. Thus,
she starts telling him about the story of the open window. She says it was a great
tragedy which took place in her aunt’s life.

The open window summary explains the great tragedy that took place three years
ago. Vera points at the large French window which was open even in the chilly
weather. Thus, she begins to tell all about it.
Mrs Sappleton’s husband and her two brothers left through the same window for
hunting. However, she says the earth swallowed them up as they never returned.
Thus, her aunt still in grief keeps the window open waiting for them to return.

She describes the same exact way in which they left. Her husband was carrying a
white coat. At this point, her aunt comes in to greet Framton. She apologizes for
being late and hopes Vera amused him meanwhile.

After that, to Framton’s shock, Mrs Sappleton makes a remark on the open
window. She tells him it is open as she is waiting for her husband and brothers to
return from a hunting trip.

This convinces Framton even more of Vera’s story. He is shocked to see her still
fixated on their death. Moreover, Mrs Sappleton continues looking at the open
window anticipating their return.

But, what shocks Framton the most is the arrival of three men in hunting attire.
They approach the house and Framton is convinced they are ghosts. Thus, he runs
away frantically.

Finally, we see Vera has a story for this as well. Framton’s reaction confuses Mrs
Sappleton. But she assures her that Framton got scared of the
hunting dog because he has a phobia of dogs.

Thus, we look at how Vera is so good at spinning tales. She utilizes the situation
at hand and is quick to whip tales back to back without any hesitation.

Conclusion of The Open Window Summary

The Open Window summary tells us about the ability of clever people weaving
deceptive stories to be manipulative to others. Moreover, it also shows how tough
it can be to determine the truth in a story.

The Bet Summary and Analysis of The Bet

Summary
Fifteen years ago, a party was thrown at a banker's home, where many
intellectuals such a journalists and lawyers attended. During that party, the
group in attendance had many lively discussions, ultimately turning to the topic
of capital punishment.

As the group argued, the two sides of the debate coalesced into two
representatives: the banker, who is for capital punishment and believes that it
is more merciful, and a lawyer, who believes that life imprisonment is the
better option, due to its preservation of life. The lawyer believes that any life
is better than none, and that life cannot be taken away by the government,
since life cannot be given back if the government realizes that it made a
mistake.
The banker and the lawyer decide to enter into a bet, with the banker wagering
that the lawyer could not withstand 5 years of imprisonment. The lawyer, young
and idealistic, decides to up the ante and makes the bet longer: 15 years. If he
could last to the end of his sentence, the lawyer would receive two million
rubles for wining the bet.
The banker cannot fathom his good fortune, and even offers the young lawyer a
way out, saying that he is being hasty and foolish. Nevertheless, the lawyer
decides to stick to his word and the bet is carried out.

For fifteen years, the lawyer lives on the banker's property, in a small lodge,
and has no human contact. He can have any item that he desires. At first, the
lawyer does not comfort himself with any liquor or tobacco, confining himself to
playing the piano. But as the years progress, he gives in and spends much of his
time drunk or asleep.

Later, the main focus of his time becomes books, as he searches for adventures
and comforts that he cannot possess physically. He takes great advantage of
the banker's ability to provide any book, and asks that the banker test the
result of his reading by firing two shots in the garden if his translations of
several languages is indeed flawless. The banker acquiesces and confirms the
lawyer's suspicion that he has mastered languages.

As the years go by, the lawyer reads virtually every genre under the sun. He
makes his way from the lighter reading of the early years, to the dense text of
the Gospels and Shakespeare. The banker, by this time, has gone broke due to
his own recklessness and gambling. He begins to worry that the lawyer's bet
with him will ruin him financially.

The banker begins to hope against all hope that the lawyer will break his vow
and lose the bet. He doesn't even feel remorse at his evil thoughts, excusing
them on the basis that they are in his own best interest. In fact, the banker
even manages to convince himself that the lawyer is getting the better end of
the deal, since he will still be relatively young at 40, and, with the 2 million
rubles, relatively rich.

With this in mind, the banker goes to investigate how the lawyer is doing. He
finds that his prisoner is asleep at his desk, looking much older and careworn
than he ever imagined him to be. After observing him for a few seconds, the
banker notices a letter on the table.

In it, the lawyer proclaims his intention to renounce earthly goods in favor of
the spiritual blessings. The prisoner has become entirely embittered during his
captivity. He has developed an intense hatred for other humans and believes
that there is nothing that he or they can do to ever reconcile this chasm. To
prove his seriousness, the lawyer decides to leave his prison five hours before
the appointed time, and renounces his claim to the two million, thereby freeing
the banker from his debt and from financial ruin.

The banker cries and kisses the prisoner with relief. The next day, watchmen
alert the banker of the lawyer's escape, and the banker is unsurprised. He
walks over, takes the letter from the lodge, and locks it in a fireproof safe.

Analysis
In The Bet, Chekov decides to analyze which is worse: life imprisonment or
capital punishment. In order to do this, he sets up a bet that would likely never
take place in real life. This is typical of Chekov, who likes to examine
philosophical questions (against the backdrop of a simple plot) as they might
play out in real life, with real consequences, rather than simply examining them
in the abstract.
Through this story, Chekov demonstrates the pitfalls of idealism and the
foolishness of youth. Had the lawyer been older and wiser, he would never have
decided so impulsively to go through with this bet. Had he had a family, a wife,
children–any support structure that depended on him–he would not have agreed.
So the bet also demonstrates the selfishness of man and youth. With nothing
to lose, and two million to gain, the lawyer cannot think of a reason to reject
the bet.

It is very interesting that Chekov does not show the readers the thoughts of
the lawyer as he makes this bet. The only time that we see the thoughts of the
lawyer clearly is later in the story, through a letter. We never see the lawyer's
thought process wholly unvarnished and unfiltered, as we often see the
thoughts of the banker. This allows the lawyer to remain a pure model of
idealism, sacrificing years of his life to prove his moral principles, something
that most would find hard to stomach in real life. It lends the lawyer a
polished, holier aura.

The story also shows the toll that separation from human society can take on a
person. Whereas at first the lawyer was full of virtue, eschewing wine and
tobacco, he later gives himself in to his vices, drinking and smoking constantly.
He has lost some of his idealism, even as he continues to seek to prove it, and
himself, right.

The story is left rather open-ended, with the reader left with a sense that the
story hasn't finished. Chekov may have done this on purpose, to prompt the
reader into thinking about the consequences of the banker and the lawyer's
actions. What ultimately is the fate of the lawyer? Does he live out his days
happily? Is the banker able to live remorse-free, feeling no guilt over taking so
many years away from a young, bright man? Maybe the old banker realized the
vanity and emptiness of his life; we will never know.

The banker does feel some contempt for himself, but the story does not give
the reader much more detail than that. It is possible that the banker struggles
with his decisions for the rest of his life as he does choose to hold onto the
lawyer's last letter, but it is equally possible that he simply forgets about the
lawyer in a few years time, locking away all thought of him from his mind.

Summary of The Treasure of Lemon Brown

Greg Ridley was a normal kid. He had bad grades and his father wouldn't get
off his back about it. Greg was a keen sportsman but due to his bad grades, his
father forbade him to play. His father thought sports was a joke and life was
all about education and finding a good job.

During the story Greg went to an abandoned building, looking for something to
do on a Friday night. With the rain of the night coming in, Greg started to
explore the old house. During this, he came across some unwanted encounters,
or so he initially thought.

In the house, he met an old man named Lemon Brown, who lived in the building
and was rumored to have a treasure. Initially, Lemon threatened Greg with a
razor until the man realized Greg meant no harm. Greg didn’t believe the
stories, but he asked Lemon about the treasure anyway.
Lemon Brown tells Greg that he used to be a famous blues singer, but he didn’t
sing anymore because he's too old and life became hard. Lemon said he hadn’t
given up on the blues but more so it had given up on him.

Thugs often came to bother Lemon, which happened during the story. They
were after his rumored treasure, but Greg decided he wanted to help defend
Lemon against the thugs, which was a scary encounter for both Lemon and Greg.

After they got rid of the thugs, Lemon slowly let loose about his treasure and
said to Greg that the only treasure he had was his music and family memories.
The author showed that every man had a treasure, it's just about finding it.
Greg didn’t understand what Lemon Brown meant at first, but he eventually
realized that music and family were the most important things in Lemon
Brown's life - therefore his treasure.

What is The Treasure of Lemon Brown About?

The Treasure of Lemon Brown is a heartwarming story about the importance of

following your dreams and finding what matters in life. Walter Dean Myers does
an excellent job of illustrating the power of music, and family and how they can
be seen as treasures if you get the right perspective. This is a great story for
readers of all ages.

The underlying message of The Treasure of Lemon Brown is that it's never too
late to follow your dreams. Lemon Brown was a blues singer who gave up his
music when he got older, but he eventually realized that it was the most
essential thing in his life.

The book offers some deep messages and lessons to children, but it's also a fun
and easy read. The story is fast-paced and engaging, and readers will be eager
to find out what happens next. Walter Dean Myers is a masterful storyteller,
and the Lemon Brown story will be educational as well as fun for the students.

Lemon Brown's Story

After the thugs had left, Greg and Mr. Brown continued talking. Lemon tells
Greg of his accomplishments in the past as a well-known blues singer and
harmonica player. He used to be famous.

In addition, he had a wife and son but when his wife died, his sister-in-law took
custody of the boy which resulted in Lemon losing contact with him over time.
Furthermore, once he lost access to his son, Lemon's musical abilities began to
decline because he no longer had a reason for playing music.

What is Lemon Brown's Treasure?

When Mr. Brown's son went off to war, Lemon didn't know if he would come
back home. Later on, he found out that his son had died in battle and was
carrying around his dad's old "mouth fiddle" as well as some clippings of when
Lemon used to play back at home.

His son must have really loved him to carry those things around with him while
at war. When Lemon realized this, the clippings became his treasure because
they meant so much to him now knowing what they represented - the love of a
father and son. Lemons also believed that every man had their own sort of
treasure like this one.

After the thugs were gone and Lemon had finished his story, the rain let up.
Lemon told Greg he should go home, and Greg agreed. As he walked home,
though, he started thinking about the lecture his dad was going to give him. It
made him smile a little—he realized he’d learned something important from
Lemon tonight. He now understood better what his own father did for him and
why it mattered. So, now students know what Lemon Brown's Treasure is.

Analysis one Friday morning

An analysis of “One Friday Morning” by Langston Hughes shows that the story
mostly follows a traditional plot structure, but also has non-linear elements.
The plot relies on foreshadowing elements and flashbacks which point to the
situation of African Americans at the time when the story takes place.

The story focuses on Nancy Lee Johnson, a high school student who is
discriminated against because she is African American. Another
important character is Miss O’Shay, the vice principal.

The events take place in an unnamed city in the North of the United States.
The social setting explores the challenges faced by African Americans, the
school seen as a support system, and the ideals of a multicultural society and
the American Dream.
The events are described by a limited third-person narrator, who is mainly
focused on Nancy Lee’s perspective. The narrator is explicit, especially when
presenting Nancy Lee’s thoughts and feelings and her reactions to the events in
the story.

The language used by the narrator is descriptive. The story is told through a

mix of dialogue and narration, which helps convey the characters’ perspectives
while focusing on Nancy Lee’s experience.

You can read a more detailed analysis in the following pages.

A very old man with enormous wings

Summary Full Plot Summary
One day, while killing crabs during a rainstorm that has lasted for several days,
Pelayo discovers a homeless, disoriented old man in his courtyard who happens
to have very large wings. The old man is filthy and apparently senile, and speaks
an unintelligible language. After consulting a neighbor woman, Pelayo and his
wife, Elisenda, conclude that the old man must be an angel who had tried to
come and take their sick child to heaven. The neighbor woman tells Pelayo that
he should club the angel to death, but Pelayo and Elisenda take pity on their
visitor, especially after their child recovers.

Pelayo and Elisenda keep the old man in their chicken coop, and he soon begins
to attract crowds of curious visitors. Father Gonzaga, the local priest, tells the
people that the old man is probably not an angel because he’s shabby and
doesn’t speak Latin. Father Gonzaga decides to ask his bishop for guidance.

Despite Father Gonzaga’s efforts, word of the old man’s existence soon
spreads, and pilgrims come from all over to seek advice and healing from him.
One woman comes because she’d been counting her heartbeats since childhood
and couldn’t continue counting. An insomniac visits because he claims that the
stars in the night sky are too noisy. The crowd eventually grows so large and
disorderly with the sick and curious that Elisenda begins to charge admission.
For the most part, the old man ignores the people, even when they pluck his
feathers and throw stones at him to make him stand up. He becomes enraged,
however, when the visitors sear him with a branding iron to see whether he’s
still alive.
Father Gonzaga does his best to restrain the crowd, even as he waits for the
Church’s opinion on the old man. The crowd starts to disperse when a traveling
freak show arrives in the village. People flock to hear the story of the so-called
spider woman, a woman who’d been transformed into a giant tarantula with the
head of a woman after she’d disobeyed her parents. The sad tale of the spider
woman is so popular that people quickly forget the old man, who’d performed
only a few pointless semimiracles for his pilgrims.

Pelayo and Elisenda have nevertheless grown quite wealthy from the admission
fees Elisenda had charged. Pelayo quits his job and builds a new, larger house.
The old man continues to stay with them, still in the chicken coop, for several
years, as the little boy grows older. When the chicken coop eventually collapses,
the old man moves into the adjacent shed, but he often wanders from room to
room inside the house, much to Elisenda’s annoyance.

Just when Pelayo and Elisenda are convinced that the old man will soon die, he
begins to regain his strength. His feathers grow back and he begins to sing sea
chanteys (sailors’ songs) to himself at night. One day the old man stretches his
wings and takes off into the air, and Elisenda watches him disappear over the
horizon.

A good man is hard to find

Summary Full Plot Summary
The grandmother tries to convince her son, Bailey, and his wife to take the
family to east Tennessee for vacation instead of Florida. She points out an
article about the Misfit, an escaped convict heading toward Florida, and adds
that the children have already been there. John Wesley, eight years old,
suggests that the grandmother stay home, and his sister, June Star, says
nastily that his grandmother would never do that.

On the day of the trip, the grandmother hides her cat, Pitty Sing, in a basket in
the car. She wears a dress and hat with flowers on it so that people will know
she is “a lady” if there’s an accident. In the car, John Wesley says he doesn’t
like Georgia, and the grandmother chastises him for not respecting his home
state. When they pass a cotton field, she says there are graves in the middle of
it that belonged to the plantation and jokes that the plantation has “Gone with
the Wind.” Later, she tells a story about an old suitor, Edgar Atkins Teagarden.
Edgar brought her a watermelon every week, into which he carved his initials, E.
A. T. Once he left it on the porch and a black child ate it because he thought it
said eat.

The family stops at a restaurant called the Tower, owned by Red Sammy Butts.
Red Sammy complains that people are untrustworthy, explaining that he
recently let two men buy gasoline on credit. The grandmother tells him he’s a
good man for doing it. Red Sam’s wife says she doesn’t trust anyone, including
Red Sam. The grandmother asks her if she’s heard about the Misfit, and the
woman worries that he’ll rob them. Red Sam says, “A good man is hard to find.”
He and the grandmother lament the state of the world.

Back in the car, the grandmother wakes from a nap and realizes that a
plantation she once visited is nearby. She says that the house had six white
columns and was at the end of an oak tree–lined driveway. She lies that the
house had a secret panel to make the house seem more interesting. Excited, the
children beg to go to the house until Bailey angrily gives in. The grandmother
points him to a dirt road.

The family drives deep into the woods. The grandmother suddenly remembers
that the house was in Tennessee, not in Georgia. Horrified at her mistake, she
jerks her feet. Pitty Sing escapes from the basket and startles Bailey, who
wrecks the car. The children’s mother breaks her shoulder, but no one else is
hurt. The grandmother decides not to tell Bailey about her mistake.

A passing car stops, and three men get out, carrying guns. The grandmother
thinks she recognizes one of them. One of the men, wearing glasses and no
shirt, descends into the ditch. He tells the children’s mother to make the
children sit down because they make him nervous. The grandmother suddenly
screams because she realizes that he’s the Misfit. The man says it’s not good
that she recognized him. Bailey curses violently, upsetting the grandmother.
The grandmother asks the Misfit whether he’d shoot a lady, and the Misfit
says he wouldn’t like to. The grandmother claims that she can tell he’s a good
man and that he comes from “nice people.” The Misfit agrees and praises his
parents.

The grandmother continues telling him he’s a good man. The Misfit tells the
other two men, Hiram and Bobby Lee, to take Bailey and John Wesley into the
woods. The grandmother adjusts her hat, but the brim breaks off. The Misfit
says he knows he isn’t good but that he isn’t the worst man either. He
apologizes to the grandmother and the children’s mother for not wearing a
shirt and says that he and the other men had to bury their clothes after they
escaped. He says they borrowed the clothes they’re wearing from some people
they met.

The grandmother asks the Misfit whether he ever prays. Just as he says no,
she hears two gunshots. The Misfit says he used to be a gospel singer, and the
grandmother chants, “pray, pray.” He says he wasn’t a bad child but that at one
point he went to prison for a crime he can’t remember committing. He says a
psychiatrist told him he’d killed his father. The grandmother tells the Misfit to
pray so that Jesus will help him. The Misfit says he’s fine on his own.

Bobby Lee and Hiram come back from the woods, and Bobby Lee gives the
Misfit the shirt Bailey had been wearing, but the grandmother doesn’t realize
it’s Bailey’s. The Misfit tells the children’s mother to take the baby and June
Star and go with Bobby Lee and Hiram into the woods. Bobby Lee tries to hold
June Star’s hand, but she says he looks like a pig.

The grandmother starts chanting, “Jesus, Jesus.” The Misfit says he’s like
Jesus, except Jesus hadn’t committed a crime. He says he gave himself this
name because his punishment doesn’t seem to fit the crime people said he
committed. A gunshot comes from the woods. The grandmother begs the Misfit
not to shoot a lady. Two more gunshots come from the woods, and the
grandmother cries out for Bailey.

The Misfit says that Jesus confused everything by raising the dead. He says
that if what Jesus did is true, then everyone must follow him. But if he didn’t
actually raise the dead, then all anyone can do is enjoy their time on earth by
indulging in “meanness.” The grandmother agrees that perhaps Jesus didn’t
raise the dead. The Misfit says he wishes he had been there so he could know
for sure. The grandmother calls the Misfit “one of my own children,” and the
Misfit shoots her in the chest three times.

Bobby Lee and Hiram return, and they all look at the grandmother. The Misfit
observes that the grandmother could have been a good woman if someone had
been around “to shoot her every minute of her life.” The Misfit says life has no
true pleasure.
Summary and Analysis: Medicine for Melancholy All Summer in a Day

This story is set on the planet Venus, where the sun shines for only two hours
once every seven years. It opens on the day that the sun is due to make its
appearance once again. Margot and the other children in her school on Venus
are nine years old. Margot came from Earth to Venus five years ago. Therefore
she accurately recalls the sun and the way it looked and felt as it shone on her
when she was back in Ohio. However, this is not the case with the other
children. They were far too young to remember what the sun was like when last
it shone upon them. They can only imagine the warmness of that sun upon their
arms and legs. Margot tells the others that the sun is round like a penny and
hot like a fire in the stove. The other children accuse her of lying, and they
show their resentment of her seeming superiority by locking her in a closet.
When the Venus rains finally stop and the sun comes out, it sends a flaming
bronze color throughout the jungle growth. The children soak up the life-giving
sunshine until the rains start to fall again. The children now know that Margot
was telling the truth about the sun. Then and only then do they remember that
Margot is still locked in the closet.

Prior to the sun's appearance, the children are described as being so pale that
they are almost colorless. The rain has washed the yellow from their hair, the
blue from their eyes, and the red from their lips. The good qualities in their
personalities have also seemingly been washed away because the children are
quick-tempered and spiteful. That they are cruel by locking Margot in a closet
never occurs to them. The sun, however, depicts a restoration for the children.
It gives color to their washed-out appearance, and it also enables them to
possess new encouragement, strength, and wholeness in their lives. Finally the
children remember Margot, but for her, it is too late — she must wait seven
years to see the sun again

The lottery
Summary Full Plot Summary
The villagers of a small town gather together in the square on June 27, a
beautiful day, for the town lottery. In other towns, the lottery takes longer,
but there are only 300 people in this village, so the lottery takes only two
hours. Village children, who have just finished school for the summer, run
around collecting stones. They put the stones in their pockets and make a pile in
the square. Men gather next, followed by the women. Parents call their children
over, and families stand together.

Mr. Summers runs the lottery because he has a lot of time to do things for the
village. He arrives in the square with the black box, followed by Mr. Graves, the
postmaster. This black box isn’t the original box used for the lottery because
the original was lost many years ago, even before the town elder, Old Man
Warner, was born. Mr. Summers always suggests that they make a new box
because the current one is shabby, but no one wants to fool around with
tradition. Mr. Summers did, however, convince the villagers to replace the
traditional wood chips with slips of paper.

Mr. Summers mixes up the slips of paper in the box. He and Mr. Graves made
the papers the night before and then locked up the box at Mr. Summers’s coal
company. Before the lottery can begin, they make a list of all the families and
households in the village. Mr. Summers is sworn in. Some people remember that
in the past there used to be a song and salute, but these have been lost.

Tessie Hutchinson joins the crowd, flustered because she had forgotten that
today was the day of the lottery. She joins her husband and children at the
front of the crowd, and people joke about her late arrival. Mr. Summers asks
whether anyone is absent, and the crowd responds that Dunbar isn’t there. Mr.
Summers asks who will draw for Dunbar, and Mrs. Dunbar says she will because
she doesn’t have a son who’s old enough to do it for her. Mr. Summers asks
whether the Watson boy will draw, and he answers that he will. Mr. Summers
then asks to make sure that Old Man Warner is there too.

Mr. Summers reminds everyone about the lottery’s rules: he’ll read names, and
the family heads come up and draw a slip of paper. No one should look at the
paper until everyone has drawn. He calls all the names, greeting each person as
they come up to draw a paper. Mr. Adams tells Old Man Warner that people in
the north village might stop the lottery, and Old Man Warner ridicules young
people. He says that giving up the lottery could lead to a return to living in
caves. Mrs. Adams says the lottery has already been given up in other villages,
and Old Man Warner says that’s “nothing but trouble.”

Mr. Summers finishes calling names, and everyone opens his or her papers.
Word quickly gets around that Bill Hutchinson has “got it.” Tessie argues that it
wasn’t fair because Bill didn’t have enough time to select a paper. Mr. Summers
asks whether there are any other households in the Hutchinson family, and Bill
says no, because his married daughter draws with her husband’s family. Mr.
Summers asks how many kids Bill has, and he answers that he has three. Tessie
protests again that the lottery wasn’t fair.

Mr. Graves dumps the papers out of the box onto the ground and then puts five
papers in for the Hutchinsons. As Mr. Summers calls their names, each member
of the family comes up and draws a paper. When they open their slips, they find
that Tessie has drawn the paper with the black dot on it. Mr. Summers
instructs everyone to hurry up.

The villagers grab stones and run toward Tessie, who stands in a clearing in the
middle of the crowd. Tessie says it’s not fair and is hit in the head with a stone.
Everyone begins throwing stones at her.