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Shirley
Jackson
(December
14,
1916
–
August
8,
1965)
was
an
influential
American
author
. A popular writer in her time, her work has received
increasing attention from literary critics in recent years. She has
influenced such writers as
Neil Gaiman
,
Stephen King
,
Nigel Kneale
and
Richard Matheson
.
[1]
She
is
best
known
for
the
short
story
The
Lottery
(1948),
which
suggests
a secret, sinister underside to bucolic small-town America. In her
critical biography of Jackson, Lenemaja Friedman notes that when
Lottery
was
published
in
the
June 26,
1948,
issue
of
The New Yorker
,
it
received
a
response
that
New
Yorker
story
had
ever
received.
Hundreds
of letters poured in that were characterized by, as Jackson put it,
[2]
In
the
July
22,
1948,
issue
of
the
San
Francisco
Chronicle
Jackson
offered
the following in response to persistent queries from her readers about
her intentions:
Explaining just what I had hoped the story to say is very difficult. I
suppose, I hoped, by setting a particularly brutal ancient rite in the
present
and
in
my
own
village
to
shock
the
story's
readers
with
a
graphic
dramatization
of
the
pointless
violence
and
general
inhumanity
in
their
own lives.
Analyzing of “The Lottery”
This story happened on a wonderful “morning of June 27th
which was clear and sunny, with the fresh warmth of a
full-
summer day”. At the beginning, the happy children make
readers feel comfortable and guide readers think that this story is a
happy and easy one. However, it turned out to be a cruel and
horrible one.
The story told us about a lottery, but it never told us anything
about the award the winner may have. The third person dramatic
point of view allowed the author to keep the outcome of the story a
surprise. The outcome is ironic because the readers are led to
believe everything is fine because we do not really know what
anyone is thinking. This point of view enables the ending to be
ironic.
Here are some examples: A lottery is typically thought of as
something good because it usually involves winning something
such as money or prizes.
In this lottery it was not what they win
but what they lost, the winner even had to die. So the title is the
first great irony. The people of the town were happy and going on
as if it was every other day. The situation where Mrs. Hutchinson
was jokingly saying to Mrs. Delacroix
was
awful that cannot truly be forgotten. It’s also an irony that Mr.
Summer was always trying to innovate the traditional ritual, but he
never said anything about stopping this horrible tradition and
“Although the villagers had forgotten the ritual and lost the
original black box, they still remembered to use stones.” At the end
of the story when Mrs. Hutchinson is chosen for the lottery, it is
ironic that it did not upset her that she was chosen. She was upset
because of the way she was chosen. She showed this by saying
isn't fair, it isn't right
story. The most horrible irony is that the stones the innocent
children gathered at first were used in such a violent and atrocious
way at last.
There are also many foreshadowers in this story. When
Shirley Jackson writes about the children gathering a pile of stones
and filling pockets, it is fairly evident that the stones are going to
be used in a manner not conducive to continued life.
The fact that
the men gathered away from the rock pile indicates to the readers,
that they knew that what was going to happen was wrong. They
don’t have the enthusiasm as the children, who apparently were
not mature enough to realize what they were doing.
They thought
of it as a sort of a playtime. That Tessie was the last to show up for
the drawing had indicated that she would be involved in the climax
of the story. Because there could not have been any other use for
Jackson’s to emphasis on Mrs. Hutchinson’s late arrival. The
names of the characters also suggest a certain meaning. Mr.
Summer's name suggests that he had become a man of leisure
through his wealth. And Mr. Graves' name is simply a
foreshadower of the grave situation to come. The
story, Tessie Hutchinson, rebels against the lottery by screaming at
the end of the story,
can be associated with the word testy or tizzy, which means
someone who is in an angry or rebellious state. The name Warner
can be seen as a literal warning against ceasing the tradition of the
lottery.
A Literary Analysis of
A Literary Analysis of
Shirley Jackson's short story,
lottery in this story is used for a public stoning, contrary to the first thing that comes to a
reader's mind when they think of winning the lottery; a big sum of money. The reader sees
both literal and metaphorical meaning of this story because for one it shows for face value
what the entire story is about, and hidden behind it is the notion of the scapegoat b
eing
picked like a lottery number.
The setting of the story in respects to the story's environment served to illustrate the mood
of that particular time in the story. It serves a small role in words, but adds detail to enhance
the feeling the reader gets when reading the story. The setting takes place in the town
square, where the story starts out with
were blossoming profusely and the grass was richly green.
and buoyancy fills the air. Also, some foreshadowing is being used because the town
square is a clue that the lottery must hold some kind of importance. Another piece of
foreshadowing is when
of stones in one corner of the square...,
winner. The only place where setting is a factor is the beginning, because the setting stays
the same, and the environment does not change in the two hours that the story took place
in.
Essentially, this story is told in the limited omniscient point of view. The histories of selected
characters were told, but the thoughts of the characters were omitted from any part of the
story. The point of view is used to conceal what is going to happen next. By using limited,
the thoughts of the characters are left out, and therefore, since they know what the lottery
is, they surely think about it. If the author was to put the thoughts of the character in the
story, then the ending would have been given away at the start of lottery ritual, because the
dreadful consequences of drawing the black dot would be all the people are thinking about.
Many Characters are introduced into this story. Flat characters are introduced in the
beginning of the story, either setting up stones or adding to the mood of the story.
men began to gather, surveying their own children, speaking of planting and rain, tractors
and taxes
casualness of the scene at the start of the story. Flat characters were also used to say
things pertaining to the events of the story. When the Hutchinsons were being called up to
the box, some women say things like this:
called, and Mrs. Graves said,
the flat characters with round characters. The round, developing protagonist, Tessie
Hutchinson, is presented indirectly throughout the story, and is motivated by
the choosing
of her family to change her style of thinking to opposing the lottery and its injustices.
A round static character who officiates the lottery is Mr. Summers. He has
to devote to civic activities
him, because he had no children and his wife was a scold.
idea of the lottery, and to see through that the operation runs smoothly. He is the
personification of the antagonist, while the real antagonist is the box, which represents the
institution of the lottery.
The struggle between the protagonist and antagonist was a physical struggle for Mrs.
Hutchinson to protest the fairness of this lottery. The lottery struggles against the protest,
by staying resolute.
black box, they still remembered to use stones.
surprise. The conflict is resolved with Tessie being stoned. It is fairly achieved because the
lottery's purpose was unknown until the time when Mrs. Hutchinson is stoned by the
villagers. That is when the reason for the lottery and the protest against it by Mrs.
Hutchinson is revealed to the reader directly. The device of suspense is utilized when the
people of the village must open their papers and see who is the one picked for the lottery.
There is no telling who was picked, and the reader at that point does not even know why
they are picked, but the possibilities for what the lottery may be keep the reader in
suspense to see who the winner is, and what happens to them.
Chance in the story is used as the basis of the entire plot. Everyone gathers in the town
square to partake in this event of chance, and whoever gets picked will have to pay the
price. The author uses chance to initiate the story and to send the message of her theme,
that in life scapegoats for anything are chosen seemingly randomly, and are not fair at all.
The explicit theme opposes popular notions of life because people want to live in a perfect
world. Jackson uses the institution of the lottery to give the audience a reality check of what
is going on in the real world. Tessie Hutchinson sums up the moral of the story that her use
as a scapegoat
The author's use of symbolism reinforces the meaning of the story in showing that the
scapegoat problem of society is wrong. The lottery and the stones symbolize the way and
the fashion in which people today are used as scapegoats. Other minor uses of symbolism
are shown through characters of different generations. There are the children, the adults,
and Old Man Warner, who represent the past, present, and future respectively. For the
children
most of them; they tended to gather together quietly for a while before they broke into
boisterous play.
understand much about this stoning, they seemingly do what they are taught by the adults,
but some children do not like to see this, showing a slight longing for change in the future
when little Nancy's
hing her
skirt.
longing to preserve the youth so they can go on in the future. The present, in Mrs.
Hutchinson is shown as a state of protest, wanting change from the pas
t, and lastly, Old
Man Warner's static attitude stays throughout the story, an attitude to keep things the
same. In response to the lottery being removed in some places he says
trouble in that,
nt and future shows some
hope for the future because the present is working to break away from the bonds of the
past, and slowly attempt to phase out the bad institution. However, it is up to the reader to
determine to what extent it will be phased out since the ending shows the present being
chastised.
My estimate of this story is that the message of the story teaches about life, and the reality
of life. The ending of the story is quite unfair since Tessie is chosen by a complete random
drawing to get stoned, and it shows the position of many scapegoats today. Corporations
that fail most always find one person to blame for the entire failure of the company. It
shows that in the future, blaming people without any basis should not be done, after seeing
how many people today are being targeted.
This story does not show any type of formula, since it ends up surprising the reader with
the protagonist losing in the end. She does not get what she wants, so she ends up being
beaten by the system. This type of story would not be for the immature reader as the
reader expects for the winner to get something good, but the author pulls the rug from
under them and gives them an ending other than expected. The mature reader reads this
as a fact of life, and recognizes the faults of society.
Tessie
is a character of tardiness or procrastination, anxiety
,
whining and annoyance;
however,
she
never questions the reasoning behind the
lottery
, only why
it
is
her that
has to death
The Black Box
The
black
box
is
a
physical
manifestation
of
the
villagers'
connection
to
tradition; Jackson is pretty explicit on this point, when the subject of replacing
the
box
comes
up:
one
liked
to
upset
even
as
much
tradition
as
was
represented by the black box
box may
, in part, be
made up of shards of the previous boxes, back to the original Black Box. We
have to admit, this reminded us of the practice of collecting Christian relics, like
hair or bone from the bodies of the saints or pieces of the Cross. We noted, in
the Delacroix Family
Christian
iconography
in
this
story.
Well,
this
seems
like
it
may
be
another
example: the villagers use this relic of an earlier time to perpetuate their violent,
unmerciful traditions.
Like the lottery as a whole, the black box has no functionality except during this
two hours every June:
year
underfoot in
the post office and sometimes it was set on a shelf in the
Martin grocery and left there
has become obscure with the passage of time. It is well worn, but the villagers
are reluctant to let it go, again, like the lottery itself. In fact, we don't think it's
too far- fetched to say that the villagers' treatment of the box represents their
thinking on the subject of the lottery as a whole: they're a bit terrified by both
the
box
and
the
lottery
,
but
they're
also
too
frightened
(and,
perhaps,
fascinated), to drop either one.
The Stones
Well, as the narrator observes,
only
is
stoning
a
particularly
horrifying
way
to
imagine
dying,
it's
also,
always,
a
crowd-generated death. In other words, stones allow everyone in the village to participate
freely
in
the
ritual,
from
the
youngest
children
to
Old
Man
Warner.
Stones
are
also
significant
as
murder
weapons because
the
first
human
tools
were
made
of
stone;
this
lottery really does seem to have its ancestors in the earliest type of violent human ritual.
What's
more,
stoning
comes
up
specifically
in
the
religious
texts
of
all
three
of
the
Abrahamic
religions:
Christianity,
Judaism,
and
Islam.
So
it's
not
just
an
early
form
of
murder;
stoning
has
a
strong
religious
association
with
community
punishment
of
abomination;
in
other
words,
stoning
is
the
classic
means
for
expelling
an
outsider
to
reinforce group beliefs.
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