The Lottery Short Story

Short Story Paper

Plot: The Lottery takes place is a small community somewhere in the world. It is a warm sunny June day. The town folk are getting ready for some kind of town meeting. They all are meeting in the town square. The children come first and start to collect stones, for what reason we don't know yet. The men and women are next to arriving. One of the last to arrive was Mr. Summers, who would run the show, and Tess Hutchinson. There is some commotion as she is late and jokes that she forgot what the day was. Mr. Summers starts to call the head of the house up one by one. They all go up to the back box, which sits in the middle of the square, and draw out a piece of paper. They have to hold it, without looking, until every family has come forward for their chance to draw.

All of the families have looked at their paper and to their relief they had a blank paper. There is excitement to know who is the "lucky" family member to have the black dot. It is the Hutchinson's, to their dismay. Tess is protests loudly that her Mr. did not have the same amount of time to pick his piece as the others. Now everyone in the family has to take their chance at the black box. Each member of the family draws a piece of paper and sees who has the black dot now. The towns' people are quiet as one child "whispered I hope it's not Nancy" (Jackson, 1948). The oldest person in the community Old Man Warner is upseted by this statement as he thinks "people ain't the way they used to be" (Jackson, 1948).

Tess has chosen the paper with the black dot. She is still protesting that it was not a fair drawing. As she protests we see what the rock, the children had gathered, are for.

Structure: The story is set up in chronological order of the day. Jackson mixes foreshadowing throughout the story. Early on the boys are collection smooth stones. I thought that they would be using them to skip in a pond. By stating that they lottery happens on the same date every year makes you wonder why. She makes it sound like a good thing that they can be done and home by noon dinner. Old Mans statement about "lottery in June, corn be heavy soon" (Jackson, 1948) hints that it has to do with their harvest. Tess says "Wouldn't have me leave m'dishes in the sink, now would you, Joe?" (Jackson, 1948). This makes me think that she might not be coming home and Joe would not want to do the dishes that she had to leave.

When the black box is brought in and Mr. Summers asks for help they hesitate. Like no one want to have to touch the box until they have to. When they boy has to go draw for his family and someone states "Don't be nervous, Jack" (Jackson, 1948). This is a hint that there is a reason to be afraid of the box.

Characters: The main characters are Tess, Old Man, and Mr. Summers. Mr. Summers is hard, and task orientated. He speaks slowly and loud so that everyone can hear and there will be not questions in the end. Tess seems to be a little scattered when she first appears. How can she forget what day it was? The lottery impacts each and every one of them, to forget shows that she thinks little of it. In the