Amity School of Languages

“The Lottery”
Shirley Jackson

Module IV- Short Stories

 Amity School of Languages

Shirley Jackson
• Shirley hardie jackson was born december
14, 1916 in san francisco, ca. Jackson
received her ba in english from syracuse
university. She married stanley edgar
hyman, a staff writer and literary critic at
the new yorker in the 1940s. She and
hyman had 4 children. Jackson's writing
career flourished with publications in the
new yorker, mademoiselle, fantasy and
science fiction, charm, the yale review, the
new republic, the saturday evening post, and
reader's digest. She also published several
collections of stories. Jackson died of
heart failure on august 8th, 1965 in
bennington, vt.
 Amity School of Languages

Ancient Ritual Sacrifice

• In ancient Athens, Greece, Athenians believed that
human sacrifice promised fertile crops.
• Each year in ancient Athens, as one story goes, during the
annual festival called Thargelia, citizens would stone to
death a man and a woman selected for this purpose.
• Death is thought to bring prosperity to the community
• By transferring one's sins to persons or animals and then
sacrificing them, people believed that their sins would be
eliminated,
eliminated a process that has been termed the "scapegoat"
archetype
• A similar ritual sacrifice occurs with Tessie Hutchinson.
• This explains the village member's remark, “Lottery in June,
corn be heavy soon.”
 Ritual without meaning
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• Because there has "always been a lottery“,

the villagers feel compelled to continue this
horrifying tradition.
• They focus, however, on its gruesome rather than
its symbolic nature,
nature for they "still remembered to
use stones" even after they have "forgotten the ritual
and lost the original black box“.
• The story may be saying that humanity's
inclination toward violence overshadows
society's need for civilized traditions.
 POV: 3rd Person Objective
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• There is very little conflict in the story—only

Tessie’s objections present any conflict at all.
• At the end of "The Lottery," the reader
discovers with horror what is about to happen,
but the story ends with the casting of the first
stones. Jackson prefers to leave the gruesome
details to the reader's imagination.

• The conflict occurs within the reader as

the reader notes foreshadowing in the story with
growing uneasiness
 Male vs. Female
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• A conflict between male authority and female

resistance is subtly evident throughout “The
Lottery.”
• Early in the story, the boys make a great pile of
stones in one corner of the square, while the girls
stand aside talking among themselves, looking
over their shoulders at the boys.
• When Tessie draws the paper with the black
mark on it, Tessie does not show it to the
crowd; instead her husband Bill forces it
from her hand and holds it up. up
 Women’s roles
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• Tessie Hutchinson defies the

concept of the passive and
selfless woman.
woman
• Tessie's actions are decidedly unlike
the behavior expected of the ideal
wife and mother in the era. Tessie is
hardly self-sacrificing.
• She even jeopardizes her married
daughter by suggesting that she
join the Hutchinson family in the
final lottery drawing.
 Women vs. Women
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• At the beginning of the story, the girls stand

together watching the boys gather the stones, but
as those girls become women, the involvement in
marriage and childbearing that the lottery
encourages pits them against one another,
blinding them to the fact that all power in their
community is male.
• A most grievous betrayal of another woman occurs
when Tessie turns on her married daughter and
attempts to jeopardize her safety.
• Jackson emphasizes women's turning against one
another, too, through her pointed depiction of the
brutality of Mrs. Delacroix and Mrs. Graves in
setting upon Tessie.
 Mob violence
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• The heinous actions exhibited in groups (such

as the stoning of Mrs. Hutchinson) do not take
place on the individual level,
level for individually
such action would be deemed "murder."
• On the group level, people classify their heinous act
simply as "ritual."
• When Mrs. Hutchinson arrives at the ceremony
late, she chats sociably with Mrs. Delacroix.
Nevertheless, after Mrs. Hutchinson falls victim
to the lottery selection, Mrs. Delacroix chooses
a "stone so large" that she must pick it up with
both hands.
• Whereas, on the individual level, the two women
regard each other as friends, on the group level, they
betray that relationship, satiating the mob mentality.
 Foreshadowing…
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• Setting is idyllic; readers expect the lottery to be a

positive experience
• Some of the boys create a "great pile of stones in one
corner of the square."
• the men of the village arrive they stand away from
the stones, joke quietly, and smile instead of laugh.
• since the lottery is to take only two hours, the villagers
plan to be home in time for lunch. (how can they eat after
this?)
• Mr. Summers, a jovial man who conducts the lottery
ceremony, sets the tone of the event with both his
name and his mannerisms.
• The lottery takes place every year when the nature cycle
peaks in midsummer, a time usually associated with
cheerfulness.
 Amity School of Languages
Symbolism

• Black: the color for death,

death mourning,
mourning
punishment,
punishment penitence in western civilization.
• The black box used to draw lots and the slip of
paper with a black mark pointing out the
'winner' are mentioned too frequently to be
coincidental.
• Black box: coffin? Evil secret hidden away?
• Black spot on paper: sin? A “black mark” on
one’s record is negative; black mark: unclean?
 Amity School of Languages
Symbolism
• Stones are a universal symbol for punishment, burial,
burial
and martyrdom:
martyrdom they indicate a morbid ceremony.
• Chips of wood: now discarded for slips of paper,
suggest a preliterate/ancient origin,
origin like the
ancient sacrificial rituals for crops.
• The setting: no specific name/place indicates this is
anytown, USA;
USA the contrast of the town with the ritual
helps build suspense
• Square: (village square) may represent the four corners
of the earth—earthly opposed to heavenly; human-
created as opposed to natural; boxed in; concealed.
 Amity School of Languages
Symbolism: Names

• Tessie Hutchinson:
• Anti-ritualAnn Hutchinson held that neither
church nor state was needed to connect a
believer to his or her God. (In the end, Tessie
rejects the lottery ritual, saying “it isn’t
right.”)
• Tessie, diminutive for Theresa, derives from the
Greek theizein, meaning “to reap”, or, if the
nickname is for Anastasia, it will translate literally
“of the resurrection”. (sacrifice for sins;
contrast with Delacroix—“of the cross.”)
 Amity School of Languages
Symbolism: Names
• Summers: the season of summer is associated
with youth, strength, growth, prime of life, warmth,
leisure, prosperity, happiness, blooming,
blossoming
• Mr Summers is the head of the coal business, which could
symbolize close contacts with the underworld, evil; lurking
just beneath the surface.
• Coal is earthly (as opposed to heavenly); black; formed
in the process of many years (long-term process);
formed from compressed, decaying matter; early
chemistry used a black spot to symbolize coal.
• Marxist critics point out how Mr. Summers, who would
have been one of the wealthier citizens, leads the lottery—
those with money control the people’s activities.
 Amity School of Languages
Symbolism: Names

• Graves : the obvious grave = place of

entombment/death
• Mr. Graves quietly assists Mr. Summers, with
“Graves” hinting at a dark undertone.
undertone
• Grave = serious;
serious hints that the lottery may not
be a frivolous contest (“Mr. Graves said gravely”)
• Critics have said that Jackson creates balance by
juxtaposing Mr. Summers and Mr. Graves to
share in the responsibilities of the ritual: Life
brings death, and death recycles life.
 Amity School of Languages
Symbolism: Names

• Adams : reference to the first man, the

first sinner
• While he seems to be one of the few who
questions the lottery when he mentions that
another village is thinking about giving up the
ritual, he stands at the front of the crowd when
the stoning of Tessie begins. Like the biblical
Adam, Adams goes along with the sin; he
follows others in their evil.
 Amity School of Languages
Symbolism: Names

• Old Man Warner: Resistant to change

and representing the old social order, he
warns about how important the event is to
the survival of the village.
• Old man Warner is 77 years oldold the
number 7 has many connotations, but one
common connotation is that 7 is lucky …he
has been lucky to avoid the lottery so many
times.
 Amity School of Languages
Symbolism: Names

• Martin : associated with Mars, the Roman god

of fertility and war. The following are just FYI:
• St. Martin: Patron of drunkards, to save them from
falling into danger. (The origin came from St. Martin’s
day coinciding with the feast of Bacchus, god of wine.)
• St. Martin’s goose. The 11th of November, St. Martin’s
Day, was at one time the great goose feast of France.
The legend is that St. Martin was annoyed by a goose,
which he ordered to be killed and served up for dinner.
He died after eating dinner, and a goose has been ever
since “sacrificed” to him on the anniversary.
• St. Martin’s bird is the raven,
raven long associated with death and
departed spirits
 Amity School of Languages
Symbolism: Names

• Dunbar: breaking this name down into its 2

syllables, one can come up with:
• 1. dun – to treat cruelly; or a dull, brownish gray
color
• 2. bar - Something that impedes or prevents
action or progress; relatively long, straight, rigid
piece of solid material used as a barrier, support,
or fastener; A standard, expectation, or degree of
requirement;
 Themes
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• Not all rituals are beneficial, positive or

civilized
• Acts of violence, hatred, murder are not
acceptable just because many people participate
• Traditions and rituals should be questioned;
group mentality can be harmful
• People are not all good or all evil but a mixture of
both.
• Many more ideas/themes can be applied to
“The Lottery”