THE

LOTTERY

by

Shirley Jackson

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 SHIRLEY JACKSON (1916-1965)

 Born in 1916 in San Francisco.

 She attended:
 The University of Rochester and then
 Syracuse University, where she
became fiction editor of the campus
humor magazine. 
 She who wrote six novels, two
memoirs, and over 200 short
stories.

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 SHIRLEY JACKSON (1916-1965)

 The University of Rochester and then

 She dropped out of college in her
sophomore year.

 She would have been part of the class of

1938.

 According to a biography about the author:

“Dropped out” isn’t exactly the right term
—her grades were so bad that year that at
the end of it she was asked to leave.

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 SHIRLEY JACKSON (1916-1965)

 In her biography of Jackson, Ruth

Franklin notes that
 the writer later commented that she
had been kicked out “because I
refused to go to any classes because
I hated them.”

 She spent the next year writing,

forcing herself to produce at least a
thousand words a day, and when she
applied to Syracuse University she
did so with the goal of making
writing her career.
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 SHIRLEY JACKSON (1916-1965)

 After graduating in 1940, Jackson moved

to New York City (Greenwich Village)
and she began to write professionally.

 In 1944, she and her husband moved to

Vermont.

 in 1948, her first novel, The Road

Through The Wall, was published. 

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 SHIRLEY JACKSON (1916-1965)

 As a side note:

 Ms. Jackson did spend some time in a

mental hospital. 

 She had a troubled relationships with

her mother and with her husband.

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SHIRLEY JACKSON
 Her works appeared in:
 The New Yorker, 
 Redbook,
 The Saturday Evening Post 
 The Ladies' Home Journal.

 Her most famous work is the short story "The

Lottery," it was published in ‘The New
Yorker’.
 In 1949, she relocated to Westport,
Connecticut.
 In 1959 her novel, The Haunting of Hill House,
was published and is considered one of the best
haunted house stories to ever be written.
, 7
SHIRLEY JACKSON

 **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.

 She was the mother of four children.

 She was a reclusive woman, for the last few

years of her life she was reluctant to discuss
her work with the public.

 She died of heart failure in 1965

at age 48.
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 “THE LOTTERY” VOCABULARY
 Profusely large amounts; to a great degree
 Liberty freedom
 Boisterous
rowdy, loud
 Reprimands
Scold; rebuke
 Scold
nagging woman; a person who is
constantly scolding or reprimanding
with loud and abusive speech
 Jovial
Jolly; joyful 9
 “THE LOTTERY” VOCABULARY
personal belongings, items
 Paraphernalia
associated with a specific activity

 Perfunctory performed merely as a routine duty

 Preceded Come before something in time

 Shabbier fallen into disrepair

 Lapse hiatus; break; interval or passage of

time 10
 “THE LOTTERY” VOCABULARY
 Soberly
seriously

 Disengaged To free from attachment

 interminably unending

 Petulantly With unreasonable irritation

 Stoutly Bulky in figure;
overweight
 Daintily delicately, in a lady-like fashion

 defiantly boldly resistant or challenging 11

 “THE LOTTERY” VOCABULARY

 Hastily With excessive speed or urgency

 Gravely Serious or solemn manner

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 PUBLIC REACTION TO THE
1948 THE NEW YORKER MAGAZINE
SHORT STORY OF

“THE LOTTERY”
• The short story is said to have generated
more negative letters from readers than any
other story previously published by the
magazine.

• Many cancelled their subscriptions to the

magazine

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 PUBLIC REACTION TO THE
1948 THE NEW YORKER MAGAZINE
SHORT STORY OF

“THE LOTTERY”
• Readers were offended by the work and its
suggestion that evil could be so easily and
commonly carried out.

• They felt the ending was a pointless,

arbitrary, and violent sacrifice.

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 PUBLIC REACTION TO THE
1948 THE NEW YORKER MAGAZINE
SHORT STORY OF

“THE LOTTERY”

• A few readers actually called the magazine to

see where the town was so that they could go
and watch the lottery.

• Shirley Jackson received over 300 letters that

summer alone—”I can count only thirteen that
spoke kindly to me.

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 SHIRLEY JACKSON’S

PARENTS’ REACTIONS

1948 THE NEW YORKER MAGAZINE

SHORT STORY OF

“THE LOTTERY”

• Even my own mother scolded me: ‘Dad and I

did not care at all for your story…it does
seem, dear, that this gloomy kind of story is
what all you young people think about these
days.

• Why don’t you write something to cheer

people up?’”
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 SHIRLEY JACKSON’S REACTIONS
TO THE PUBLIC’S REACTION
OF THE

“THE LOTTERY”

• Generally, Ms. Jackson refused to explain the

meaning of the story.
• She did once tell a journalist: “I suppose I
hoped, by setting a particularly brutal rite in the
present and in my own village, to shock the
readers with a graphic demonstration of the
pointless violence and general inhumanity of
their own lives [but] I gather that in some cases
the mind just rebels.
• The number of people who expected Mrs.
Hutchinson to win a Bendix washer at the end
would amaze you.” 17
 MEANING BEHIND THE PLOT

• In ancient Athens, Greece, Athenians

believed that human sacrifice promised
fertile crops.
• By transferring one's sins to persons or
animals and then sacrificing them, people
believed that their sins would be eliminated, a
process that has been termed "scapegoat"
• A similar ritual sacrifice occurs with Tessie
Hutchinson. and the statement in the story:
“Lottery in June, corn be heavy soon.”

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 HISTORICAL CONTEXT

• “The Lottery” was written in 1948. Ms.

Jackson’s writing was influenced by world
events and culture.

She was possibly influenced by the

• Depression,
• the Holocaust,
• WWII, and
• the McCarthy Era.

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 HISTORICAL CONTEXT

• By 1943 news of the Nazi concentration

camps had finally reached America.
• A number of Americans responded with
horror and concern that communities could
have stood by and silently allowed the
Holocaust to occur.
occur
• Ms. Jackson hints at a similar situation in her
story when the townspeople are unable to
fully question or prevent the brutal lottery
practice, and in fact, participate in it.

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 HISTORICAL CONTEXT
• Conformity was the norm post WWII;
Americans tended to imitate those around them
rather than follow their own separate paths.

• The media (especially TV) helped to spread

conformity throughout the US.

• In politics, people feared the spread of

Communism, leading to the Un-American
Activities Committee, the Hollywood blacklist,
and by 1950, McCarthy’s Communist “witch
hunt”
• In the story, the townspeople are swept away
by the tide of conformity, and the lottery goes
ahead as always. 21
 FORESHADOWING
• Foreshadowing is a literary device in which a writer gives
an advance hint of what is to come later in the story.
Foreshadowing often appears at the beginning of a story, or
a chapter, and it helps the reader develop expectations about
the upcoming events.
Bobby Martin stuffing his pockets with stones and the other
boys followed him.

Bobby, Harry Jones Dickie Delacrois- made a great pile of

stones in the square and guarded it against raids

Villagers kept their distance from the stool.

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• Foreshadowing is a literary device in which a writer gives
FORESHADOWING
an advance hint of what is to come later in the story.
Foreshadowing often appears at the beginning of a story, or
a chapter, and it helps the reader develop expectations about
the upcoming events.
 Mr. Summers asked for help to steady the box.
There was hesitation (fear) about the box.

There was a great deal of fussing to be done before Mr. Summers

declared the lottery Open.
Demonstrating that the lottery was a ritual.

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• Foreshadowing is a literary device in which a writer gives
FORESHADOWING
an advance hint of what is to come later in the story.
Foreshadowing often appears at the beginning of a story, or
a chapter, and it helps the reader develop expectations about
the upcoming events.
 “Some places have already quit lotteries.” Mrs. Adams said.”
Appears to be controversy, that lottery was discontinued.

The people had done it so many times that they only half listened to the
instructions…
Some were wetting their lips (Anticipation/Nervousness)

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 ALLUSION (BIBLICAL)

• An Allusion is a figure of speech, in which one

refers indirectly to a place, event, an object.
Circumstance or literary work by was of an
external reference.
•• “The
It is Lottery”
left to thealludes
audienceto to
themake the connection;
Biblical story in
whereJesus
which the connection is directlywoman,
frees an adulterous and explicitly
directing
stated
who (as opposed
is without to cast
sin to indirectly implied)
the first by the
stone. No one
author,stones
throws an allusion is instead usually termed as a
at her.
reference.
• In “The Lottery” no one stops the stoning and
Tessie becomes their scapegoat; she pays for
their sins. 25
 RITUAL WITHOUT MEANING

• Because there has "always been a lottery“,

the villagers feel compelled to continue this
horrifying tradition.

• They focus on its gruesome 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 society tends

toward violence instead of society's need for
civilized traditions. 26
 MOB VIOLENCE
• Mrs. Hutchinson’s death is a mob action, if it was
an individual act it would be called murder.

• As a group act it is called a "ritual."

• When Mrs. Hutchinson arrives at the ceremony
late, she chats sociably with Mrs. Delacroix. But
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.
• On the individual level, the two women regard
each other as friends, but on the group level,
they betray that relationship, satisfying the mob
mentality. 27
 COLOR SYMBOLISM

Black:
The color for death,
death mourning,
mourning
punishment
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.

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 SHAPE/COLOR SYMBOLISM

Black Box–
The box is old; the paint is peeling, and the wood is splintered. This
condition reflects the fading of the tradition in other villages as well as
the villager's questioning of the lottery in this village. However, they
will not replace the box, just like they will not stop the lottery

Black box:
Coffin? Evil secret hidden away?
Black spot on paper:

Sin? A “black mark” on one’s record is

negative; black mark: unclean? 29
 SETTING SYMBOLISM

•The Lottery Itself:

• Symbolizes any number of social problems
that we blindly continue even though they are
outdated

•The setting:
• No specific name/place indicates this is any
town, USA;
USA the contrast of the town with the
ritual helps build suspense

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 NAME SYMBOLISM
• Summers: the season of summer is
associated with youth, strength, growth, prime
of life, warmth, leisure, prosperity, happiness,
blooming, blossoming

• Graves : the obvious grave = place of

entombment/death
• Grave = serious;
serious hints that the lottery may not be a
frivolous contest (“Mr. Graves said gravely”)
• Critics have said:
Ms. Jackson creates balance by having Mr.
Summers and Mr. Graves share in the
responsibilities of the ritual:
Life brings death, and death recycles life.
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 PARABLE
Parable= a simple story used to illustrate a moral or
spiritual lesson, as told by Jesus in the Gospels.

• Many believe “The Lottery” to be a modern-day

parable—a story that presents a moral lesson
through characters who represent ideas.

• The focus in a parable is not to develop

character or other typical plot elements.

• You’re not told the lesson in a parable—you are

to figure out what the lesson is. 32
 THEMES
• THEME = means an underlying message or in other words a
big idea. For example: Love and Friendship

• Horrifying acts of violence can take place

anywhere at anytime, and they can be committed
by the most ordinary people.

• Following the crowd can have disastrous

consequences.

• The unexamined life is not worth living.

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 THEMES
• THEME = means an underlying message or in other words a
big idea. For example: Love and Friendship
• Acts of violence, hatred, murder are not acceptable
just because many people participate

• Society is reluctant to reject outdated traditions,

ideas, rules, laws, and practices.

• People are not all good or all evil but a mixture of

both.
• Other ideas/themes can be applied to “The Lottery”
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 IRONY
• Irony (3 Types)= is the contrast between what is
expected and what is real.
• Situational Irony- When what happens is the opposite of
what is expected. Most examples of irony in “The Lottery are
this kind.”
• Verbal Irony- A contrast between the intended meaning of
what is spoken and what the apparent meaning is to the
hearer.
• Dramatic Irony- When the audience knows something a
character does not.

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 IRONY
Situational Irony:
When what happens is the opposite of what is expected. Most
examples of irony in “The Lottery are this kind.”
• The story’s setting (June 27th ) typical a pleasant
• Situational summer morning except people are gathering
for an event that is anything but pleasant.

• Situational • It is suppose to be a strict ritual, but overtime

parts of the ritual have been altered or stopped
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 IRONY
Situational Irony:
When what happens is the opposite of what is expected. Most
examples of irony in “The Lottery are this kind.”

• Situational • Old Man Warner says how primitive it would

be not have a lottery. “Next thing you know,
they’ll be living in caves.” He says petulantly
“There’s always been a lottery.”

• Mrs. Hutchinson screams, “It isn’t fair, it isn’t

right. And then they were upon her.”
• Situational • **Actually, the lottery is perfectly fair. Each
person, theoretically, has an equal chance of
“winning.” 37
 IRONY
Verbal Irony: A contrast between the intended meaning of what
is spoken and what the apparent meaning is to the hearer.

• Verbal • Tessie Hutchinson shouted “Mr. Summer, you

didn’t give him time enough to take any paper e
wanted. I saw you. It wasn’t fair!”

• Ironic, Tessie had just told Bill to hurry up and

get the paper. Tessie’s viewpoint changes when
it affects her family.

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