"THE LOTTERY"

Shirley Hardie Jackson (December 14, 1916 – August 8, 1965) She was a writer for the New York Times and had a amazing writing career. She influenced Neil Gaiman,Stephen King, Nigel Kneale, andRichard Matheson.

In a small town the citizens prepare to commence the annual lottery. The lottery is when all the citizens pull slips from a tattered old box and one of the slips is marked. If you pulled the marked slip you would be stoned to death.

When Mrs. Hutchinson goes up she pulls the marked slip and complains about how unfair it is since the rich people get to pull last. Then she gets stoned to death.

Themes:

• Being the winner isn't always good.
• Old traditions aren't always the best.
• The rich always get unfair advantages.

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• Protagonist: The Hutchinson Family
• Antagonist: The townspeople
• Dynamic Character: Mrs. Hutchinson
• Static: Mr. Summers
• The story is told from the third person.

The third person is important because you are able to see the story from an almost God like position by seeing everything from a big perspective.

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Tone: Calm, Shirley made the story seem like it was so normal.
For example "guess that's everyone. Old Man Warner make it?" The people just seem so calm like this isn't even a big deal.

Mood: The mood of "The Lottery" is eerie. "And someone gave little Davy Hutchinson a few pebbles." Even the lady's own kid was stoning her to death.

Setting: "The morning of June 27th was clear and sunny, with the fresh warmth of a full-summer day; the flowers were blossoming profusely and the grass was richly green."

This is important to the story because amongst the stoning that is taking place the setting is still beautiful and in a happy time of the year.

Foreshadowing: "You didn't give him time ... I saw you it wasn't fair" This shows since Tessie is complaining the most that she might be the one that actually gets picked.

Tradition v.s. New Ideas:
This is a conflict because some people believe that the lottery should be banned, but others wish to stay with tradition.

Imagery: "The black box grew shabbier each year" Showing that even though this would decide who would die they still are calm and don't freak out if the box just a little shabby even though it holds their fate.

Symbolism: "by now it was no longer completely black but splintered badly along one side to show the original wood color" This shows how tied these people are to tradition that they don't even want to replace the box.

Metaphor: The black box is a metaphor for death and tradition. "but no one liked to upset even as much tradition as was represented in the black box."

This story connects to executions. Most executions are done by a terrorist group who thinks they're right. Just as in the lottery the citizens think it's okay to kill people who have done no harm.