Social Conformity

Sherri Schumacher

Sikoff English 101

Tue/Thurs @1:30 PM

October 4, 2011

The Lottery

When you think of the lottery the first thing that comes to mind probably isn't death by stoning, but in Shirley Jackson's short story "The Lottery" that is exactly what it is referring to. In this story the winner of the lottery does not receive a large sum of money instead they are reward with death by stoning. In this story, Jackson uses symbols; actions, names, objects, and statements of characters to give hint as to the direction of the story and to support her many themes.

The purpose of the lottery is to ensure good rain for the crops. The lottery is held in June leading to the saying "Lottery in June, corn be heavy soon." (Jackson p. 315) The belief is that if they sacrifice a resident of the village then they will have good crops.

The opening scene in this story has them all gathering in the town square. This is a foreshadowing to the fact that the lottery must hold some kind of importance, since it is held where all other important events are held. It also starts with the boy's of the town gathering a large pile of rocks "Bobby and Harry Jones and Dickie Delacroix eventually made a great pile of stones in one corner of the square,"(Jackson p. 312) which hint's that something bad is probably to come. The kind of day described is kind of ironic considering the events that are about to occur, "the fresh warmth of a full-summer day; the flowers were blossoming profusely and the grass was richly green" (Jackson p. 311) all of this seems like a rather cheerful day, not a day of death.

This story is told from an omniscient point of view. The characters thoughts are not stated, but the histories of some of the characters were briefly told. The thoughts of the characters are left out so as to conceal what will happen next. If we knew what they were all thinking, we would know that if you get the black dot then you will be stoned to death. This is surely on the minds of all the towns' people throughout the story. If we were to know the thoughts then the ending would be given up.

There are many types of characters in this story. The flat characters were used in the beginning to set up the mood of the story, "The men began to gather, surveying their own children, speaking of planting and rain, tractors and taxes" (Jackson p. 312), and the boys gathered piles of stones. The flat characters were also used to say things pertaining to the events in the story, such as some of the comments as the Hutchinson's were being called up to the box, such as ""Be a good sport, Tessie." Mrs. Delacroix called, and Mrs. Graves said, "All of us took the same chance""(Jackson p. 316).

The protagonist in the story is Tessie Hutchinson. She is presented throughout the story, after the choosing of