THE LOTTERY

“The Lottery” is a short story written by Shirley Jackson. Tessie Hutchinson, wife of Bill
Hutchinson and a mother to 3, is the main character of the story. The story takes place in
Bennington, Vermont, United States. With a population of 300 at least, the townsfolk follow an
annual tradition where they draw lotteries but with a devastating twist that we will get into later.

The short story follows a 3rd person omniscient point of view through the whole story. In
my perspective, the narration was unclear and hard to follow. It was all over the place and I just
couldn’t use the words to imagine the scenarios in my mind. Wasn’t sure if I was the problem or
the author could do it better but I do think that the story would’ve been much easier to
understand if it was written in a view where it switches every chapter. But we have to remember
that this is a short story so, in a lighter note, I believe that the 3 rd point of view is perfect for this
short story, the only thing needed to change was the wording.

Let’s take into account that this is a story, we cannot forget the characters. In a typical
story, there is always a protagonist and antagonist. Yet, I could not see a single protagonist in
this story at all. You see, I see things in a different light, I always consider things that were not
mentioned in the story. Something along the lines of ‘What would Tessie do if someone else was
chosen?’. This is where I set my mind on this section of who’s who. Remember this is an annual
tradition, this proves that: No one is a protagonist, Everyone is the antagonist. Yes, you read
that right. Even Tessie Hutchinson, the main character, is an antagonist. I came to this conclusion
for the particular reason under the circumstance that if it was indeed someone else, Tessie
would’ve taken part in killing/sacrificing that person, no matter who it was.

In the story, the crowd maintains a stoic face, like sadists. You can even see that in Mrs.
Hutchinson’s family, where her children and husband were relieved, almost ecstatic, that they
were not the “chosen one”. This showed that everybody in the crowd were one-dimensional,
seeing that not one of them showed emotion and didn’t hesitate to throw a rock . The only one
being complex is Tessie herself, the reason being that she; A.) showed empathy and love for her
family to the point where she was willing to look like a bad sport for the sake of their lives. B.)
She was only trying to save herself and made up those excuses to make it seem like she’s not a
selfish person. Not only that, she also had a ‘suspect to victim’ trope for her character. Either
 THE LOTTERY
way, she still showed emotions in the story. Which makes everything stated above prove that her
character is complex.

Throughout the whole story, I felt rather bored reading it. It felt like the story was going
to go longer than I thought it would, which means I never saw the climax coming, nor did I feel
any emotions until the end of the story. I think the reason why I felt this way is because the
author didn’t give the side characters any personalities.

For centuries, people practiced traditions and beliefs like their life depended on it.
Following this statement, the story was written in the 1940’s, but the story took place a hundred
years ago, and it might sound strange but in the story, they practiced human sacrifice yearly for
their crops to grow lusciously. Very strange, I mean, killing just for the crops? Now that’s more
than low if you ask me… Moving on, no one would understand the story if they read it straight
without some thinking and past knowledge on human sacrifices. I think this is where the hole in
the story starts. The story would definitely be easier to understand if the author just added one
line, something along the lines of: ‘Well, I guess we’re losing another one, just like we always do
every year.’ I believe that that dialogue alone would explain the gloominess felt in the story.

This fiction has a lot of parts that are somewhat unnecessary long. One honorable
mention is the part where the draw was happening. The author could’ve made it shorter, it was
long making the and somewhat repetitive since we all already know how a ballot is done. If we
didn’t know, the instructions were already stated in the first part. Another honorable mention is
the section where they just described the black box. I genuinely think it was a waste of time to
read. The author could’ve just described the black box as old and decaying and would leave it as
that. And lastly, I think it would definitely be better if the author added longer dialogue that
would catch the attention of the readers. Seeing a full page with just a dialogue or two will
definitely bore the reader.

Well, we have now reached the end, let’s have a quick recap shall we? The short story
"The Lottery" by Shirley Jackson takes place a few hundred years ago on June 27 in a small
town. The townspeople start the day as they normally would, but then at 10:00 all the residents
 THE LOTTERY
had to report to the town square. Mr. Summers led the process. He brought with him a box with
small pieces of paper inside of it. His first order of business was to take role and make sure he
knew who was the head of each family and which members could not attend. After everyone
drew a ticket, The crowd looked around wondering which family had the piece of paper with the
black spot on it. It was Bill Hutchinson. Mrs. Dunbar told her oldest son to run and tell the news
to his dad back at home.

Tessie Hutchinson immediately becomes defensive, saying her husband didn't have
enough time, and it wasn't fair, but those around her encouraged her to calm down, including her
husband who told her to shut her mouth. Then Mr. Summers focused in on the members of the
Hutchinson family, which included Tessie and Bill along with their three children: Bill, Jr.,
Nancy, and Dave. Since Dave was only a toddler, Mr. Graves assisted him when it was his turn
to draw a slip of paper from the box. Once again after the five of them each had a slip of paper,
they opened them altogether. Bill, Jr., and Nancy smiled as they held their blank slips above their
head for everyone to see. Mr. Graves opened little Dave's and everyone sighed. Finally, Bill
reluctantly showed his blank slip, so everyone knew Tessie had the black spot. Mr. Summers
then instructed the crowd to "finish quickly" as they moved toward Tessie with the stones that
they had gathered earlier that day. Someone even handed little Dave a few pebbles. Mrs.
Hutchinson screamed that it wasn't fair as the crowd descended upon her.

To sum up everything that have been stated above so far, the morale of the story is to not
blindly follow traditions that inflict harm on others or yourself. They believed that human
sacrifice will help their crops grow, but they have zero no scientific proof and explanation to
prove that this ritual was indeed helping their crops grow. Another thing message is the
relationship between humans and violence, one where we think violence will solve anything and
everything.