Alexa Gian Q.

Caballero
9-Perseverance
THE LOTTERY
The Lottery was published in New York on June 29, 1948 by Shirley Jackson. The
story characters are Tessie Hutchinson; she is the one who protested about the unfair
lottery and the one being stoned to death, Mr. Joe Summers; he runs a coal business,
Mr. Harry Graves; the post master who helps Mr. Summers to prepare the papers for the
lottery and assists him during ritual, Old man Warner; the one who wants to preserve the
culture, Mrs. Graves; the wife of Mr. Graves and claiming that the lottery is fair after all
and everyone took an equal chance, Mr. Bill Hutchinson; the husband of Tessie
Hutchinson, The Hutchinson Children, Bill Jr., Nancy, and Dave; Nancy has supporters
in the crowd who openly express hope that she is not the one chosen, Mr. and Mrs. Martin;
the parents of Baxter and Bobby and they run a grocery store, Baxter Martin; the oldest
son in the Martin Family, Mr. and Mrs. Adams; the first to draw in the lottery which make
sense alphabetically, Delacroix Family, The Watsons, The Dunbars, and The Boys;
Bobby Martin, Dickie Delacroix, and Harry and Bobby Jones.
On the warm day in late June, 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. Its just another day in an
idyllic small town. Mr. Summers calls each head of the household forward to a black
wooden box where it selects a slip of paper. Once the man has chosen, Mr. Summers
allows everyone to open the paper and see whose been selected. The lucky person
selected: Bill Hutchinson. His wife immediately starts protesting---so we get the sense,
somehow, that they are not about to win a couple million dollars. 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. Tess protests in vain as the villagers attack her.
The dialect used in the story was pure English. Shirley Jackson’s story “The
Lottery” has a title that is meant to be both realistic and ironic. It is realistic because there
is, indeed, a tradition that is systematically followed in the settlement. For me, the title of
the story would be “Stone” because with a stone the villagers have a culture, that is they
have to stoned a person to death, because of a stone the story highlighted the stoning
that is an act of killing by throwing stone to someone. I learned in this story is to not blindly
follow your traditions simply because they’re traditions. Traditions should give a good life
to the citizens.