The Lottery

By Shirley Jackson

CHARACTERS

 Old Man Warner: Oldest man in town

 Tessie Hutchinson: Woman who arrives late for the lottery
 Bill Hutchinson: Husband of Mrs. Hutchinson
 Bill Jr., Nancy, Little Dave: Children of Mr. and Mrs. Hutchinson
 School Friends of Nancy Hutchinson
 Mr. Martin: Bobby Martin's father. He operates a grocery store
 Mrs. Martin: Wife of Mr. Martin
 Joe Summers: Coal dealer who conducts the lottery. He has no children
 Mr. Summers's Wife: Shrewish woman
 Mr. Graves: Postmaster. He assists Mr. Summers
 Mrs. Graves: Wife of the postmasterr
 Bobby Martin: Boy who loads his pockets with stones that he will use after townspeople draw lottery numbers. He also helps build a pile of
stones
 Baxter Martin: Older brother of Bobby Martin
 Harry Jones: Boy who joins Bobby Martin in building the pile of stones
 Dickie Delacroix: Boy who joins Bobby Martin and Harry Jones in building the pile of stones

SETTINGS
 Morning of june 27th
 a small town that resembles most American small towns.
 normal summer morning
 the post office
 the bank
 june 20th
 10 o’clock in the morning
 Noon dinner

PLOT

The story opens with the villagers gathering for their annual lottery. Tessie arrives late, joking that she "clean forgot what day it was." The lottery
begins, with each male head of household drawing one lot from the black box. Tessie's husband draws the slip with a black dot, and her attitude
immediately changes. Suddenly, she protests the lottery, saying it "wasn't fair." She meets resistance, with her husband and friends telling her to "shut
up" and that they "all took the same chance." The lottery continues, with five slips being put in for Tessie's family members to choose. They all take a
slip and open them, with Tessie being forced to show hers. The crowd gathers stones as Tessie continues to protest. She is yelling that "it isn't fair.. it
isn't right" as the crowd closes in and stones her to death.

CONFLICT
The conflict occurs when Tessie starts complaining that his husband wasn't given ample time to pick.

THEME
 The reluctance of people to reject outdated traditions, ideas, rules, laws, and practices - Society wrongfully designates scapegoats to bear
the sins of the community
 The wickedness of ordinary people can be just as horrifying as the heinous crime of a serial killer or a sadistic head of state
 The unexamined life is not worth living
 Following the crowd can have disastrous consequences
SHIRLEY JACKSON
Shirley Hardie Jackson was an American writer known primarily for her works of horror and mystery. Over the
duration of her writing career, which spanned over two decades, she composed six novels, two memoirs, and
more than 200 short stories.

Born: December 14, 1916 in San Francisco, California in USA

Died: Heart failure on August 8th, 1965 in Bennington, Vermont

The tone of most of her works is odd and macabre, with an impending sense of doom, often framed by very
ordinary settings and characters.