TEXTUAL ANALYSIS

OF

THE LOTTERY

READER – RESPONSE CRITICISM

I was in 9th grade when our teacher first introduced this short story to us. That
time, I have no idea what was the story all about, and I was just kind of shocked and
fascinated about what I’ve watched. Now, I’ve changed and matured, and this story was
introduced to me again, by our great teacher, Sir Edmund. Considering the plot and
theme of the story, it is clear that there is something weird going on. All members of the
community gathered to participate in a lottery, where the winner of the lottery will be
stoned to death. So, Tessie was just as excited as everybody. But when her husband
got the paper with a black dot, she started shouting “It isn’t fair!”. There is a movie that
is similar to this. In the movie, the guy participated in an execution, but when he found
out that the people who participated in the execution will be killed, now he doesn’t the
execution and even tried to escape.

Based on my interpretation of this story, it is a game of survival, where only the

powerful, smart, and greedy will be able to survive. I have this crazy interpretation of Mr.
Graves and the black box that was used in the lottery. Based on my interpretation, Mr.
Graves represents or symbolizes death or the so called Grim Reaper. While the black
box symbolizes the portal of souls.

PSYCHOANALYTIC CRITICISM/ BIOGRAPHICAL CRITICISM

So, Shirley Jackson was known for her horror and fictional literary works. She
was considered as one of the darkest or haunted writer by the readers. I found some
interesting facts about Shirley that are connected to her literary works.

First, Shirley struggled with agoraphobia, depression, and anxiety. Shirley turned
these things into a fictional horror story. And I think her disorder, agoraphobia, has
something to do with the story. Shirley’s personality reflects to the main character in the
story. Like Shirley, Tessie was afraid of escaping the lottery, even though she and her
family have the chance to leave the town, because she’s afraid that they would be
punished by the members of the community. Tessie’s choice was similar to Shirley’s
disorder, where it finds escaping or calling for help a difficult thing to do.
 Second is that her mother disliked her throughout her life. Her mother tends to
criticize her instead of praising her and being proud of her. Her parents didn’t even
attend to her wedding. Because of this, Shirley felt like she doesn’t belong, and that
reflects to the story, where Tessie seems like she differ from other residents and that
she was unlucky to be stoned to death despite of her loyalty.

SOCIOLOGICAL CRITICISM

In the story, one of the residents said that other towns gave up or discontinued
the lottery, and that they were the only one who still practices this kind of ritual. This
shows the commitment and the loyalty of the people for their culture and belief, that
once a culture and political belief is set, it must be followed and continued until the end.
In the story, old man Warner stated that “lottery in June, corn heavy soon” which means
that if they do the lottery, there will be a plentiful of corn for them.

However, it doesn’t mean that all cultural beliefs must be obeyed even if it
violates the rights of the people or it doesn’t cause any good to its followers. We can all
see and point out the wrongs in the cultural beliefs and society of the story. And it’s
obvious that the lottery doesn’t do anything but killing and suffering. If we put it in a
different situation, like what we are experiencing right now, we are all followers and we
believe in our government, but not until we see the incompetence and the harm that
they’ve caused. We tend to bow our heads and sacrifice ourselves for the sake of our
belief, but it’s the opposite when we start to feel the danger of it. This story serves as a
message that we must complain and protest about the law when it’s obviously wrong,
and we must speak up and fight our lives.

NEW HISTORICIST CRITICISM

The story was written in June 26, 1948, during the cold war, which was started in
1947. When the cold war started, the United States starts sending its soldiers to fight.
And the simplest ideology of war I could think of is that, if they send more soldiers to
fight and to defend, the better the chance of winning the war. Just like in the story, the
more people they sacrifice in the lottery, the more corn they will harvest soon. They
believe that sacrificing one’s life can strengthen something, or by sacrificing, their
quality of life will be better.

The time reflects to its literature; and I think cold war reflects to the story “The
Lottery” by Shirley Jackson.