A Unique Individual Formal Reader Response

Michelle Eva Morholt

July 1, 2013
Essay #1
ENGL-2600-Su-13-Maenhardt
Salt Lake Community College
Prof. Stephanie Maenhardt

Written and published in The New Yorker in June of 1948, Shirley Jacksons The
Lottery was an instant sensation. This influential short story has inspired a powerful readerresponse from readers for over a half-century. My initial reader-response of Jacksons tale
aligned with many of 1948s The New Yorker subscription holderssheer horror. In Come
Along With Me, Jackson recounts how hate mail and demands for her to explain exactly what this
story was about inundated her all summer. The Lottery garnered such a strong reaction that
hundreds of subscription holders voiced their disapproval by cancelling The New Yorker (213225). However, as a reader, it is important to not dismiss Jacksons story as a reactionary
rejection rooted in horror and repulsion. To truly understand The Lottery, Jackson commands
her audience to dig deeper and analyze all the layers of this classic American tale. Only after we
explore the subtext, themes, characterization, and symbols of The Lottery can we hold a
responsible claim to our reader-response criticism.
Formalist or New criticism method offers readers an opportunity to decode The
Lottery. According to Elisabeth A. Howe in Close Reading: An Introduction to Literature,
formalist criticism views the works in isolation and base(s) their reading solely on the facts of
the text (190). By focusing our analysis on the elements of Jacksons short story, critics can
distance themselves from the reactionary horror they experienced as readers and begin to decode
The Lottery. In an attempt to create further distance from my initial reader-response and in an
effort to discover the meaning of Jacksons tale, this submission focuses strictly on the
characterization and symbols Jackson employs.
Howe defines characterization as the depiction of the actors (82). In choosing the
characters of The Lottery Jackson employs symbolism. Most striking is Mr. Graves which one
can reason Jackson is referring to a gravethe resting place of a dead body. This character

foreshadows someone will surely die. Also, the word grave is a synonym for serious. I found
Jackson to be particularly poignant with this character. Mr. Graves serves as Mr. Summers
assistant in preparation and throughout the lottery. However, he has no speaking lines in the text
that adds an ominous tone to the story. It is as if he acts as the grim reaper. Furthermore, Jackson
displays subtlety and skill as an author when describing in The Lottery how Mr. Graves took
his familys draw in the lottery. Mr. Graves came around from the side of the box, greeted Mr.
Summer gravely and selected a slip of paper from the box (5).
In contrast, to Mr. Graves is Mr. Summer whose name is shared with the season of
preparation and prosperity. Old Man Warners recanting of the saying Lottery in June, corn be
heavy soon (6) aligns with this interpretation, but also infers a sacrifice is to be made so that a
reward can be reaped. The fact that Mr. Summer is the prosperous coal business owner implies a
dark and evil nature because he benefits from mining from the underworld. Old Man Warner is
also symbolic. The name Warner can be interpreted as giving a warning against abandoning the
ritual of the lottery. Also, the fact that he is 77 years old and has participated in that many
lotteries can be related to luckas in the lucky number seven. Apparently, Mr. Warner is doubly
lucky.
Mr. Adams can be perceived as a reference to Adam the first man created by God. He is
the first man to draw from the black box. Mr. Adams was the first to vocalize their questioning
of the lottery by mentioning, the north village theyre talking of giving up the lottery (5). His
wife Mrs. Adams goes so far as to report, Some places have already quit lotteries (6).
Interesting to note however that despite their doubts, in the end Adams chooses to uphold the
tradition. When it comes time to carry out the ritual sinful stoning of Tessie Hutchinson, Steve
Adams was in the front of the crowd of villagers (9).

Another character that is symbolic is the family Delacroix. As a former French student, I
know that Delacroix translates to of the cross. The fact that the villagers pronounced this
name Dellacroy (1) infers that this family is not of the cross or perhaps broken, two-sided
cross, or double-crossers. Mrs. Delacroixs manner throughout the story is very two-faced. She
is nice when Tessie arrives late and engages in casual conversation with her and the other
townsfolk. However, when faced with carrying out the ritual of the lottery, another side to her
nature is revealed when she selected a stone so large she had to pick it up with both hands and
turned to Mrs. Dunbar. Come on, she said. Hurry up (8).
One could analyze at length all of the symbolic natures of every named member of the
village. However, in the end the 31 named and 269 unnamed villagers meld together as a mob
and as a majority carry out a ritual that somewhere in time has lost its meaning. Perhaps at one
time the ritual lottery was performed to assure the success of the villageeither due to necessity
of survival or as a sacrifice to a higher power. We can speculate this because of the saying Old
Man Warner offers Lottery in June, corn be heavy soon (6). However, the fateful lottery of
Tessie Hutchinsons time reports that part of the ritual had been allowed to lapse such as the
salute, the tuneless chant, and also the exchange of wooden chips for slips of paper. The most
telling point of how this villages ritual meaning had changed from the past to a simply gruesome
task, can be found at the end of Jacksons story, Although the villagers had forgotten the ritual
and lost the original black box, they still remembered to use the stones (9). In the wake of the
Holocaust and the patriotically unquestioning World War II era, I think Jackson is challenging
her audience to think for themselves, stand up for what is right, speak up, and act out against
injustices.

Jackson chooses to emphasize her cautionary tale against blind conformity by making use
of symbols. The color black is found throughout the lottery as the color of the box that holds the
slips of paper and the coal that makes the damning black mark on the paper. This color infers sin
and death. The black box itself could lend reference to a coffin. At one time village used square
chips of wood to perform their lottery. Perhaps Jackson offers us a clue that the lottery is an
ancient sacrificial ritual that began before the invention of paper, to assure fruitful crops. The
drawing of the lottery occurs in the center of the village square. This may represent how boxed in
all conformists are. I also thought the square is a reference to the problems and sins that humans
create. While geometric shapes do occur in nature, rarely (outside of ice, crystals, and other
minerals) do they take to form of a cube or square. The use of stones to carry out the ritual
lottery carries a universal symbol of punishment and a painful death performed by many people
who typically reside together. Many biblical tales include townsfolk stoning to death their sinful
and guilty peers. This tradition continues today in many parts of the world.
After analyzing the meaning of the characterization and symbols of Jacksons The
Lottery according the formalist or new criticism critiquing guidelines one realizes that the
interpretation of this powerful short storyor any work of literature does not exist in a vacuum.
Symbols have prescribed meanings based on the context of the readers. However, symbols and
their meanings continue to evolve as people and their culture evolve. Perhaps, formalist criticism
and reader-response are not in direct conflict (190), as Howe informs. Being that the reader
and audience are responsible for creating the meaning of the symbols, all members of society
play an active role in creating the meaning of symbols. This privilege is not bestowed on the elite
members of society. The author or artist does not exclusively wield this privilege. We must
consider the motivation of the author to create and publish their work. Are they writing simply

for the sake of art? If so, then why have they published their work? The work of artists and
authors are a reflection of themselves, their time, culture and people. These interpretive
communities, as Stanley Fish defines them in his article "Interpreting the Variorum",
outlines that literary works and their interpretation are culturally constructed and defined.
Essentially, all literary text is culturally defined twice. First defined culturally by the authors
intent and second defined culturally by the readers intent. Granted, all of the interpretations of
the symbols found in The Lottery throughout this submission are influenced by my culture,
education, and all the experiences of my life.
Clearly, Jacksons work is a commentary of her time, our American culture, and human
tendencies. It is doubtful her motive for penning The Lottery was to present her body to an
unengaged, unresponsive and spoon-feed audience. At the time of publication the readerresponse was volatile and negative. Public uproar was so fervent that Jackson was forced to offer
an explanation for the meaning of the tale and motivation of her writing such an emotion stirring
piece. Quoted in the San Francisco Chronicle on July 22, 1948:
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 (Jackson).
Yes, Jackson intended to influence her audience. But she also meant to inspire her readers to
reflect on the meanings of the traditional symbols as well as the theme of the story and apply it to
their own dogma. She wants readers to reflect on the messages of The Lottery. She implores
her readers to revel in taking an active role in interpreting her story. Ultimately, Jackson desires
her audience to formulate A Unique Individual Formal Reader Response.

Works Cited
Artist Unknown. Worldpress. Digital Image. Google Images.
http://www.pryzrakworld.wordpress.com. Web. 29 June 2013.
Fish, Stanley E. "Interpreting the Variorum". Critical Inquiry 2.3 (1976): 465-485. Print.
Howe, Elisabeth A. Close Reading: An Introduction to Literature. Boston: Longman/Pearson,
2010. Print.
Jackson, Shirley. Come Along With Me. New York: Viking, 1968. Print.
Jackson, Shirley. The Lottery. The New Yorker 26 June 1948: Page 25. Print.
Jackson, Shirley. The Lottery. AmericanLiterature.com. Pages 1-10. Web.
http://www.americanliterature.com/Jackson/SS/TheLottery.html
Jackson, Shirley. Letter. San Francisco Chronicle. San Francisco. 22 July 1948. Print.