THE LOTTERY

Written By: Shirley Jackson - Mr. Harry Graves

PLOT: • The postmaster. Mr. Graves helps
- Exposition Mr. Summers prepare the papers for the lottery and
Morning of Jun 27th in a small village and its assists him during the ritual.
residents about 300 people, gather in the town square ➡ CONFLICT
to participate in the lottery which begins at 10 a.m. The - External Conflict:
children gather first, several young boys begin to select • Man vs Society
smooth round stones and pile them in the center of the • Tessie vs. the town/ tradition
town square. The men arrive chatting casually and ➡ POINT OF VIEW (P.O.V.)
making quiet jokes and soon after the women follow - Third Person
exchanging gossip. Mr. Summers who runs the coal ➡ THEME
business and officiates a town social events arrives with - Tradition and Sacrifice: In order to
a shabby black wooden box under his arm that has keep the tradition they sacrifice lives.
remained in use for over 77 years. ➡ TONE
- Rising Action - Deadpan, Detached, Calm
The story builds and gets more exciting when ➡ MOOD
all the men come forward to draw slips of paper out of - light and cheerful, but shifts to tense
the black lottery box. As the family's names are called and ominous.
out, comments from the crowd express remorse for ➡ SYMBOLISMS
those drawing. Names of heads of families are read off - The black box symbolizes the
of the list, and each man draws a slip of paper. Bill
fragments of the past that you can’t change no
Hutchinson has a black dot on his. Tessie Hutchinson
matter what you do.
protests that her husband didn’t have enough time to
- The stone are a source of fear as
choose. Each member of the Hutchinson family must
then draw another slip of paper. well as power and camaraderie.
- Climax - The black dot represents
Tessie “wins” the lottery – she gets the piece of impending death.
paper with the black dot.
- Falling Action
Tessie protests that it isn’t fair. The villagers
close in on her, and begin throwing stones.
- Resolution
Tessie gets stoned to death by the villagers. She
is the traditional sacrifice for that harvest season.
DETAILS:
➡ SETTING
- Old Village
- Towns Square
➡ CHARACTERS
- Tessie Hutchinson
• The unlucky loser of the lottery. Tessie draws
the paper with the black mark on it and is stoned to
death. 
- 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.
- Mr. Summer
• 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.
- 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.