The Lottery

Study Guide by Course Hero

ABOUT THE TITLE

What's Inside "The Lottery" refers to the story's climactic event, when the
townspeople's fate of being stoned to death is decided by
drawing lots.
j Book Basics ................................................................................................. 1

d In Context ..................................................................................................... 1

a Author Biography ..................................................................................... 2 d In Context

h Characters .................................................................................................. 3

k Plot Summary ............................................................................................. 6 War, Communism, and Anxiety

c Plot Analysis ............................................................................................... 7 In the wake of the Nuremberg trials (1945–46, in post-World
War II Germany) and the growing critical examinations of the
g Quotes ......................................................................................................... 12
bombing of the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki,
l Symbols ...................................................................................................... 13 communities worldwide struggled with the well-documented
suffering of civilian populations in World War II; the horrors of
m Themes ....................................................................................................... 13 man's inhumanity were never closer to everyday
consciousness. Among the popular accounts were Life
e Suggested Reading .............................................................................. 14
Magazine's 1945, large format photos of the condition of the
inmates at the liberation of Buchenwald concentration camp,
and John Hersey's Hiroshima, published in The New Yorker in

j Book Basics
1946 and taking up the whole issue. On succeeding days in
1948, the United Nations passed the genocide convention,
which defined genocide and the crimes that could be punished
AUTHOR under the convention.
Shirley Jackson
At the same time, America was immersed in new conflicts
YEAR PUBLISHED stirred up by past fears. The Cold War had started; this period
1948 of nonviolent political hostility between the United States and
its allies and the Soviet Union was linked to the Western
GENRE
powers' fear of the growth of weapons of mass destruction.
Horror
The Red Scare had also begun—the belief that agents of
PERSPECTIVE AND NARRATOR communism or radical socialism sympathetic to Russia lived in
"The Lottery" is told by a third-person omniscient narrator. the United States, working to subvert democracy. In the United
States loyalty oaths were demanded of federal employees;
TENSE Communist sympathizers were scouted; friends turned against
"The Lottery" is written in the past tense. friends and neighbors. In "The Lottery," some see an example
of the atmosphere of paranoia that afflicted close-knit
The Lottery Study Guide
communities during that time. In the preface to The Magic of
Shirley Jackson, a collection of three of Jackson's novels and
11 of her short stories, the writer's husband specifically cited
the long shadow of the concentration camps and the atom
bomb as incitement to horror in her works.
Lotteries
As a means of raising money, enforcing shared values, and
promoting community spirit, a lottery is a practice as old as the
Roman Empire and common in America since colonial times. In
"The Lottery" the unnamed village is isolated by a reliance on
tradition even as other towns have given up the practice. For
the early readers of the story, a life and death lottery in a small,
rural village struck, apparently, very close to where they lived.
According to Jackson in the essay "Biography of a Story,"
many readers "wanted to know ... where these lotteries were
held, and whether they could go there and watch." No doubt
such responses confirmed Jackson's sense of the potential
violence in our uncritical impulses to belong to the crowd, a
prominent theme in "The Lottery."
Shocked, Bewildered Readers
The editors of The New Yorker requested that the date of the
lottery—June 27—match the date of the story's publication, and
Jackson agreed. Later she recalled picking up her mail on June
28, 1948, "never supposing it was the last time for months that
I was to pick up mail without an active feeling of panic."
Hundreds of readers canceled their New Yorker subscriptions
in protest over the story, angry that the magazine would
publish such a disturbing piece. Over 300 readers, a record for
The New Yorker, wrote to the magazine; only 13 were
supportive. Most of the letter writers simply didn't understand
the story. Others inquired if the rituals described in the story
really happened. Even Jackson's family was appalled. The
story remains one of the most controversial and well-known
pieces The New Yorker has published.
Though readers sought ancient parallels to the story, Jackson
preferred to let the work speak for itself. When a writer at the
San Francisco Chronicle asked Jackson about the meaning of
"The Lottery," Jackson said an explanation was difficult. "I
suppose, I hoped ... to shock the story's readers with a graphic
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Author Biography 2
dramatization of the pointless violence and general inhumanity
in their own lives." She would receive letters about the story for
the rest of her life.
The New Yorker's stock response to readers said "The Lottery"
was "just a fable" with many possible interpretations. The
editors explained that the story was meant to show "how the
forces of belligerence, persecution, and vindictiveness are, in
mankind, endless and traditional."
A Complicated Legacy
"The Lottery" has been adapted many times for television, film,
and the stage. Some variants add new characters or follow
existing characters. The 1951 radio broadcast explored Mr. and
Mrs. Hutchinson's feelings about the lottery and added a new
character, a schoolteacher, who protested the ritual. A 1996
film adaptation picked up the story of Mrs. Hutchinson's son
after her death. In 1953 "The Lottery" was made into a ballet, a
transformation Jackson called "completely mystifying."
Satirical television shows in the 21st century, such as South
Park and The Simpsons, have also adapted the well-known
plot. The story continues to exemplify the darkness, plot twists,
and psychological horror in Jackson's work as a whole.
a Author Biography
Shirley Jackson was born in San Francisco on December 14,
1916 (although Jackson often claimed to have been born in
1919). She is known for unsettling, macabre short stories and
novels in which she portrayed psychological horror within
domestic settings. Her interest in writing fiction began when
she was in her teens.
At Syracuse University she met her future husband, Stanley
Edgar Hyman. They graduated and married in 1940 and moved
to New York City, where Jackson wrote short fiction for
magazines and Hyman became a staff writer for The New
Yorker, a position he would hold his whole life. "The Lottery,"
her best-known work, was published in The New Yorker on
June 26, 1948. The story generated more mail than the
magazine had ever received about a fiction work. Jackson
would receive letters from readers wanting to know the story's
meaning for the rest of her life.
The Lottery Study Guide Characters 3

Jackson wrote many other short stories that tackled absurdity

and abnormal psychology. She also wrote longer works: dark
Gothic novels and humorous family memoirs:
Life Among the Savages (1953)
Raising Demons (1957)
The Haunting of Hill House (1959)
We Have Always Lived in the Castle (1962)
There have been many adaptations of "The Lottery." NBC
broadcast a radio version in 1951; a television adaptation
followed in the early 1950s. A short film produced in 1969
introduced the actor Ed Begley Jr., while a full-length film
appeared in 1996.
Jackson died of a heart attack on August 8, 1965. New York
Times critic Eliot Fremont-Smith said of her:
She was a master of complexity of
Mr. Summers
Mr. Summers is an outgoing man with a cheerful personality.
He is brisk and efficient in conducting the lottery, as if it's just
another of the popular events he coordinates. He also takes
time to joke with the participants, his neighbors. Old Man
Warner finds his joking disrespectful. Though Mr. Summers has
authority in the lottery proceedings, he's an object of pity
among the townspeople as a childless man with a scolding
wife.
Old Man Warner
Old Man Warner is dismayed by the changes he sees around
him in the next generation, including rumors of nearby villages
giving up the lottery. He associates the lottery with other time-
bound traditions that mark a civil society.

mood, an ironic explorer of the

dark, conflicting inner tyrannies of
the mind and soul."

h Characters

Tessie Hutchinson
Initially jocular and friendly, Mrs. Hutchinson is the only villager
to show up late to the lottery, as if she is unconsciously
avoiding it. She becomes frightened and angry when she
realizes she will be the lottery's victim.

Bill Hutchinson
Mr. Hutchinson appears stoically accepting of his fate.
Although he commands authority in the family, he defers to the
town's authority in the lottery. Unlike his wife, Mr. Hutchinson is
compliant when his name is chosen.

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The Lottery Study Guide Characters 4

Character Map

Bill Hutchinson
Meek man

Spouses

Tessie Hutchinson
Housewife; winner/victim
of the lottery

Neighbors

Neighbors

Mr. Summers
Old Man Warner
Jovial man; conducts
Elderly advocate for tradition
the lottery

Main Character

Other Major Character

Minor Character

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The Lottery Study Guide
Full Character List
Character Description
Tessie Hutchinson, a housewife, is the
story's main character and the
Tessie winner—or victim—of the lottery. She's
Hutchinson the mother of four, one married
daughter and three young children, and
the wife of Bill Hutchinson.
Bill Hutchinson is Tessie Hutchinson's
Bill husband and the father of their four
Hutchinson children. He is the head of household
chosen in the first lottery drawing.
Mr. Summers is the lottery official. He
runs the local coal business year-​round.
Mr. Summers He is the head of many civic events in
the village, such as the square dance
and the teenage club.
Old Man Warner is the oldest man in
town. The lottery tradition is even older
Old Man
than he is, and he respects it
Warner
accordingly. He has drawn in the lottery
for 77 years.
Mr. Adams is the first head of
household to draw in the lottery since
the names are called in alphabetical
order. He and his wife tell Old Man
Warner that some nearby towns are
thinking of giving up lotteries or have
Mr. Adams
done so already, suggesting they are
open to the possibility of change.
However Mr. Adams is in the front of
the villagers when the stoning begins,
indicating that he has given in to the
tradition.
Mrs. Adams mentions that some places
Mrs. Adams
have "already quit lotteries."
Dickie Delacroix is Mr. and Mrs.
Dickie
Delacroix's young son. He is seen
Delacroix
gathering stones as the story opens.
Mr. Delacroix (a name that translates as
"of the cross") is a lottery participant,
Mr. Delacroix
drawing for himself, his wife, and his
son.
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Characters 5
Mrs. Delacroix is a housewife and the
mother of young Dickie Delacroix. She
Mrs. Delacroix is mild mannered and encourages
Tessie to "be a good sport" when her
family's name is drawn.
Horace Dunbar is a boy who is not old
Horace
enough to select a slip on behalf of his
Dunbar
family.
Mrs. Dunbar is a housewife. She fills in
for her invalid husband as the head of
household during the lottery. She is
nervous in taking her husband's place in
Mrs. Dunbar the lottery but shows courage by doing
so anyway. She also wants to escape
the censure of the villagers, some of
whom don't approve of a woman
drawing for her family.
Mr. Graves, the postmaster, assists Mr.
Summers with the practicalities of
conducting the lottery. He is committed
Mr. Graves
to following the rules and making the
lottery process run as smoothly as
possible.
Mrs. Graves is the wife of Mr. Graves.
She is cordial to her neighbors and a
willing lottery participant. She is in front
Mrs. Graves of the crowd when the stoning begins.
Mrs. Graves reminds Tessie that
everyone in the lottery took the same
chance.
Bill Jr. is Bill and Tessie Hutchinson's
oldest son. He is not yet old enough to
Bill
draw for himself as a head of
Hutchinson Jr.
household, so he draws with his family
during the final lottery drawing.
Davy Hutchinson is Bill and Tessie
Hutchinson's youngest son. He draws
Davy with his family during the final lottery
Hutchinson drawing. During the stoning, he is given
a few pebbles to participate in killing his
mother.
Eva is Bill and Tessie's oldest daughter.
Since she is married, she draws with
Eva
her husband's family and does not
Hutchinson
participate in the final lottery drawing
with the rest of the Hutchinsons.
The Lottery Study Guide
Nancy is Bill and Tessie Hutchinson's
Nancy
12-​year-​old daughter. She draws with
Hutchinson
her family.
Bobby is Mr. Martin's young son. He is
Bobby Martin seen gathering stones as the story
opens.
Mr. Martin is the grocer who assists Mr.
Mr. Martin
Summers in conducting the lottery.
The Watson boy is a lottery participant
Watson boy
drawing for himself and his mother.
k Plot Summary
The Gathering
On the morning of June 27 in a small village, 300 residents
gather in the town square to participate in the lottery, which
begins at 10:00 a.m. The children, recently dismissed from
school for the summer, gather first. Several young boys begin
to select smooth, round stones and pile them in the center of
the square.
The men join the children, chatting casually and making quiet
jokes, and the women follow, exchanging gossip. Soon Mr.
Summers, who runs the coal business and officiates at town
social events, arrives with a black wooden box under his arm,
and Mr. Graves, the postmaster, follows with a three-legged
stool. People hesitate when Mr. Summers requests help, but
Mr. Martin and his oldest son Baxter help steady the stool
while Mr. Summers stirs the slips of paper in the box.
The Ritual
The black box has remained in use for over 77 years, since
before Old Man Warner was born. The box has grown shabby
with time, and Mr. Summers suggests making a new one. Not
wishing to upset tradition, the villagers never make a new one,
although other aspects of the old ritual have been "forgotten or
discarded." For example, Mr. Summers substitutes slips of
paper for the chips of wood used in the older tradition. The
growing population made it necessary to use material that
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Plot Summary 6
would fit in the box more easily.
Before the lottery can begin, Mr. Summers records lists of
heads of families, heads of households in each family, and
members of each household. The postmaster swears in Mr.
Summers as the lottery official. In prior years the official
performed a recital, described as a "tuneless chant," and
saluted each resident who came up to draw a slip. Now the
official greets each resident without a salute. Even without the
full ceremony, his position is endowed with significance and
respect.
The First Drawing
Mr. Summers chats with Mr. Graves and the Martins for a while
and then turns to the crowd. At that point Tessie Hutchinson
runs along the path leading to the square. She explains to her
amused friend Mrs. Delacroix that she forgot what day it was,
only remembering when she looked out her window to see her
family gone. The crowd lets Tessie through to stand next to
her husband, and the villagers remark with good humor that
she made it after all. Mr. Summers jokes about her late arrival,
and Mrs. Hutchinson says lightly that she had to finish washing
the dishes. The crowd laughs.
Mr. Summers asks if any residents are missing. Clyde Dunbar
isn't there; he has broken his leg. His wife has to draw for him
since their son is not old enough. The crowd disapproves of a
woman drawing, while recognizing there is no other option. Mr.
Summers also affirms, to the crowd's approval, that the
Watsons' oldest son is drawing this year.
Mr. Summers explains the rules that the residents have heard
many times: the official will read the names of each family. The
head of each household will come up and draw a paper from
the box, keeping the paper folded until everyone eligible to
draw has taken a slip. The men approach the box in
alphabetical order by last name and solemnly greet Mr.
Summers as they take their paper.
As the names are called, the residents talk among themselves.
Mrs. Delacroix notes that the time since the last lottery has
gone very quickly. She is visibly nervous as her husband goes
forward. The men holding slips are also anxious. Tessie
Hutchinson says, "Get up there, Bill," when her family name is
called, making the people near her laugh.
The Lottery Study Guide
Old Man Warner talks with Mr. and Mrs. Adams about the
"north village" where "folks" are talking about giving up the
lottery. Old Man Warner is derisive, saying nothing is good
enough for the "young folks"—they might as well live in caves
and quit working. He repeats a familiar saying: "Lottery in June,
corn be heavy soon," connecting the lottery to the harvest.
Mrs. Adams points out that some towns have already stopped
lotteries.
Mrs. Dunbar wishes the men would hurry and tells her son to
run back and let his father know the outcome. Old Man Warner
announces that it is his 77th lottery, and the crowd encourages
the Watson boy as he draws for the first time.
After the heads of each household have drawn their slips, they
pause until Mr. Summers approves, and they open their slips all
at once. The women all begin to ask, "Who's got it?" They
gradually learn that Bill Hutchinson has been selected. While
Bill Hutchinson says nothing, Tessie Hutchinson shouts to Mr.
Summers that he didn't give her husband enough time to take
any paper he wanted. Other women in the crowd quiet her,
saying they all took the same chance. Bill Hutchinson tells her
to shut up.
The Second Drawing
Mr. Summers prepares for a second lottery drawing. He
mentions that the first drawing took longer than expected, so
they need to hurry. He asks Mr. Hutchinson if there are any
other households in the Hutchinson family. Mrs. Hutchinson
says that her daughter Eva and her husband Don should "take
their chance." Mr. Summers reminds her that daughters draw
with their husbands' families. Bill Hutchinson agrees this is fair.
He then says there are no other households; the family
includes only his wife and their three youngest kids, Bill Jr.,
Nancy, and Davy. Given this, the second drawing, in which all
the heads of households in the Hutchinson family would have
drawn a slip, will be skipped. The ritual will move to the final
drawing.
With Tessie Hutchinson protesting quietly, Mr. Graves takes
Bill Hutchinson's slip back and adds it to the box, which now
contains five slips of paper. In the final lottery drawing, Davy is
first. Mr. Summers and Mr. Graves help the little boy take a
single piece of paper from the box. Nancy draws next, then Bill
Jr. After hesitating
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Plot Analysis 7
Tessie Hutchinson takes a slip. Bill Hutchinson is left with the
last slip. One of Nancy's school friends expresses the hope
that Nancy is not chosen. Old Man Warner murmurs that
people aren't the way they used to be.
The Ending
When the Hutchinson children open their papers, the crowd is
relieved to find that Davy's is blank. Nancy and Bill Jr. discover
their slips are blank and laugh happily. Mr. Summers asks
Tessie Hutchinson to open hers, but she doesn't do so.
Summers then turns to Bill Hutchinson, who reveals that his
slip is also blank. On Mr. Summers's instructions, Bill forces the
slip out of Tessie's hand and reveals the black dot made with a
heavy pencil.
Mr. Summers tells the crowd to finish quickly. The children
grab stones first. Someone gives pebbles to Davy Hutchinson.
The villagers, including Mrs. Delacroix and Mrs. Dunbar, take
stones from the pile the young boys made earlier in the day.
Tessie holds her hands out "desperately" as the crowd moves
in on her. The first stone hits her and Old Man Warner urges
the others on. Tessie screams, "It isn't fair, it isn't right," and
then "they [are] upon her."
c Plot Analysis
The Circular Structure
The bland and quiet opening of "The Lottery" does not prepare
readers for the horrors to come. The setting is simple, a sunny
morning in a rural village. Equally stereotypical are the
characters: children playing on the village green and adults,
with their talk of "planting and rain, tractors and taxes." With
this "ordinary" beginning Shirley Jackson sets up a structure
that is key to the story's power.
The prose of "The Lottery" is deceptively simple, yet buried
within it are odd clues, seemingly gratuitous bits of information,
and troubling images that do not make sense until the story's
final sentences. Readers must reread the story to see that the
ending of the story was inevitable from the first sentence in
which the villagers gather for the lottery. The circular story
structure is a hallmark of modernist fiction, in which readers
The Lottery Study Guide
must construct meaning from the author's choice of language,
details, and literary devices. "The Lottery" does not experiment
with a free-flowing narrative form, like modernist works by
Virginia Woolf and James Joyce. However its demands on the
reader to decipher the meaning of the text from the author's
choices can be found in modernist works such as Conrad's
Heart of Darkness.
Literary Devices and the Force
of Parable
In "The Lottery" situational and dramatic irony, foreshadowing,
symbolism, and repetitions accumulate to transform the
second reading of the story. When the ending reveals the
significance of these devices, the story becomes a chilling
study of the potential for evil and group violence and the
resistance to difference, diversity, and change. For the careful
reader it also provides the opportunity to contemplate
dilemmas of his or her time.
The story's setting begins with an example of situational irony:
"clear and sunny, with the fresh warmth of full-summer day." In
fact this is a dark day for the residents. The conductor of the
lottery is Mr. Summers—his name an example of verbal
irony—who conducts "civic activities" such as square dances
that are as entertaining as the lottery is horrific. "Thought we
were going to have to get on without you, Tessie," he says
cheerfully to Mrs. Hutchinson, acknowledging that everyone
present in the square is expendable. Tessie's final words are
an example of dramatic irony, in which readers know
something the story characters do not. "It isn't fair, it isn't right,"
she screams. The lottery only becomes "unfair" to her when
she is the victim, although, of course, the ritual is not "right" to
a civilized reader.
Foreshadowing promotes a mood of dread and anxiety. School
is out and "the feeling of liberty sat uneasily on most of them."
Stones are stuffed in children's pockets and piled in corners,
the smoothest, roundest ones coldheartedly preselected by
the children. The box, splintered on one side and so
"wounded," foreshadows the first blow on the side of Tessie's
head.
Symbols abound in the story. The names show the insularity of
this village. Adams is the "first man" on the alphabetical list
prepared for the lottery and the first to suggest the end of the
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Plot Analysis 8
ritual. His name, of course, evokes that of Adam, the first man
created in the Hebrew Bible. The postmaster, Mr. Graves,
offers a three-legged stool to support the box, evoking the
Holy Trinity of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in Christian religion
and carrying with it a suggestion of racism. Summers is the
"sunny" man willing to help out with all tasks, good and evil.
Zanini is last, the only name suggesting a resident who isn't
from Anglo-Saxon stock.
Repetition is another key device in "The Lottery." Individual
words occur over and over until they achieve the status of
images. Jackson especially repeats the word hands: they are
grasped or clung to, a heavy stone is picked up with both
hands, Tessie's are held out desperately. Stones, too, occur
over and over, described by size, location, and finally motion as
one hits Tessie's head.
The effect of these literary devices is to transform the
narrative into a parable that functions to attempt to explain the
unexplainable: humanity's darkest forces. "The Lottery" elicits
terror without any hope for a culture that rejects change, a
chilling lesson for a country founded on democratic ideals. The
story attacks the belief in a common humanity and the trust in
governmental safeguards that preserve the common good. If
the rallying cry of Holocaust historians was "lest we forget,"
Jackson's story goes further, asking readers to imagine the evil
that resides within the self. In practical terms "The Lottery"
teaches that survival is the primary matter of self-interest. It
raises the question of who among us is strong enough to resist
tyranny when it threatens firsthand.
The Mindless Preservation of
Tradition
The description of old lottery traditions, which rituals have
survived, and which have fallen by the wayside provides a back
story. The reader still doesn't know the purpose of the lottery,
but details show how meaningful it is to the villagers. The
lottery is clearly a communal rite that connects to the
foundation of the town and to the villagers' sense of
themselves. Late June, when the story takes place, coincides
with the summer solstice, in ancient times a season of
celebration and sacrifice. The story of the black box's
construction also demonstrates a link to the past. That the box
has no permanent place and is often in the way, even in
storage, foreshadows the outworn nature of the practice the
The Lottery Study Guide
box represents.
Although Adams, the contemporary "first man," wishes for
change, the will of the crowd over time has produced only
practical changes to the ritual, changes designed to preserve
it. For example, the inscription of names on wood chips has
been exchanged for slips of paper that memorably end up as
trash. Perhaps this is the greatest irony of the story, as loss of
ritual practice has brought loss of meaning of the ritual. These
observations contain a disturbing observation about the limits
of flexibility when established practice is threatened. Only the
shell is preserved.
Tessie Hutchinson doesn't enter with as much solemnity as Mr.
Summers, the lottery's official, yet the reader knows that she
will be an important character. She's the only one to arrive late
and the one who seems least anxious. She is so accustomed
to the lottery's presence in her life that she forgot about it
when it rolled around. She even jokes with Mr. Summers, the
only villager to do so. In her the reader gets a sense of daily life
routines abandoned: dirty dishes in the sink, wet hands dried
on an apron, sweater hastily thrown over shoulders. Why
doesn't Tessie Hutchinson take the lottery more seriously?
Possibly, like many witnesses to atrocities, she doesn't think
the selection could ever happen to her. Is Tessie Hutchinson's
selection meant to punish her—for her lateness, her jokes, her
protests? Or is her selection simply random? The story leaves
both possibilities open.
The conversations the villagers have during the first lottery
drawing reflect their feelings about the process. Mr. Summers
must formally ask questions about the men who can't
participate in the lottery, a civic duty. The Adamses openly
question the ritual. They mention that other towns are
considering abandoning the tradition, and some have already
done so and survived. Perhaps they are thinking privately that
the town does not really need a lottery.
Old Man Warner is the only one to explicitly link the lottery to
agriculture and the harvest. Druids had similar sacrificial rites
to ensure good crops, and Old Man Warner evokes a possible
world where societies never developed beyond "living in
caves." Following their rituals will ensure order and abundance.
This parallel suggests the relationship between cruelty and
consumer goods: how much bad behavior will a community
forgive in order to keep food on the table?
Once the heads of families open their papers, the story's mood
changes. Tessie Hutchinson's panicked and accusatory
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Plot Analysis 9
reaction is understandable to the reader, but the villagers
instantly react harshly toward her. They know any one of them
could be a victim, since random chance drives the lottery.
Tessie Hutchinson's fear reminds them of a fear they all have,
a dread that most of them are relieved to be able to shed for
another year. The crowd calls on her to be sportsmanlike and
diplomatic; she participated in the lottery, and she must deal
with the consequences.
Tessie Hutchinson does not speak out against a corrupt
system, only the fact that her family has been picked for
scapegoating. Her failed attempt to include her married
daughter and son-in-law in what becomes a fatal drawing
reveals the desire for self-preservation. Faced with the
possibility of death, she perverts the normal instincts of
motherhood.
During the final drawing, children participate. This gives the
event added menace. By the time Nancy's school friend vocally
hopes the "winner" is not Nancy, the reader knows being
chosen in the lottery is a bad fate but is still ignorant about that
fate. Davy Hutchinson doesn't understand what is going on. He
looks "wonderingly" at the adults, trusting them. The relief is
palpable when Davy isn't chosen, though there is little doubt
that the town would have carried out his fate if he had been.
The story's explosive ending highlights Tessie's role as a
surrogate for the reader. She is the only resident shocked and
confused at the lottery's outcome, just as the reader must be.
She alone expresses feelings of disorientation and
bewilderment as her fate becomes inevitable. Her stoning is
not fair or right in the reader's sense of justice, but it happens
anyway. Readers are left to decide what this injustice means to
them.
The Lottery Study Guide Plot Analysis 10

Plot Diagram

Climax

Rising Action 4 Falling Action

6
3

2 7
1
Resolution
Introduction

Falling Action
Introduction
6. The Hutchinson family draws lots in the final lottery.
1. The villagers gather in the town square.

Resolution
Rising Action
7. Tessie Hutchinson is selected and stoned to death.
2. Mr. Summers makes up the lists of families and households.

3. Tessie Hutchinson arrives late.

4. The villagers draw lots in the first lottery.

Climax

5. Bill Hutchinson is selected in the first lottery.

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The Lottery Study Guide Plot Analysis 11

Timeline of Events

Early morning, before 10:00 a.m.

The children gather in the town square and begin to pile

stones.

Around 10:00 a.m.

Mr. Summers, Mr. Martin, and Mr. Graves conduct the

lottery's opening ceremonies.

Shortly after 10:00 a.m.

Tessie Hutchinson arrives late.

Mid-morning

The heads of households draw their slips in the first

lottery drawing.

Mid-morning

Old Man Warner and the Adams family discuss towns

giving up lotteries.

Late morning

Bill Hutchinson is selected in the first lottery, and Tessie

Hutchinson protests.

Late morning

The Hutchinson family members draw their slips in the

final lottery drawing.

Late morning near noon

Tessie Hutchinson is selected in the final lottery.

Late morning near noon

The villagers stone Tessie Hutchinson.

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The Lottery Study Guide Quotes 12

Tessie Hutchinson lightly goads her husband into doing his

g Quotes duty for the town. When she is chosen as the lottery's victim,
readers recall that she was a willing participant in the ritual in
years past.
"The people of the village began to
gather in the square, between the
"Lottery in June, corn be heavy
post office and the bank."
soon."
— Narrator
— Old Man Warner

The story's opening paragraph references some typical

features of a small town to establish that the setting could be The old saying connects a summertime lottery to the
anywhere. harvesting of corn, suggesting an origin for the ritual that is no
longer relevant to the community.

"No one liked to upset even as

"There's always been a lottery."
much tradition as was represented
by the black box." — Old Man Warner

— Narrator Old Man Warner, as the oldest man in town, is the staunchest
supporter of the lottery. At the same time he offers no defense

The town relies on tradition as both a binding element and a for the ritual.

crutch. The villagers resist Mr. Summers's attempts to move

them into the future by getting a new box. The old black box
has come to represent their past and their way of life. "Be a good sport, Tessie."

— Mrs. Delacroix
"So much of the ritual had been
forgotten or discarded." Ignoring the barbarity of the ritual lottery, sportsmanship is
held up as an example of the civility that preserves the
community. Mrs. Delacroix and other villagers think Mrs.
— Narrator
Hutchinson should accept the fact that by participating, she
knew there was a chance she would be selected.
To give a sense of history and longevity to the ritual, Jackson
adds narrative details about lotteries in years past, including
the stories people tell about past lotteries. Passed-down
"People ain't the way they used to
stories have become part of the mythology of the community.
be."

"Get up there, Bill." — Old Man Warner

— Tessie Hutchinson Old Man Warner complains about the fact that Tessie and one

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The Lottery Study Guide
of Nancy's friends have expressed objection and fear about
the selection of the Hutchinson family. He believes each
member of the town should accept the process as it has
always been conducted.
"All right, folks. Let's finish quickly."
— Mr. Summers
Speaking for the townspeople, Mr. Summers shows that the
group wants to escape into the denial of the impact of their
violence by getting back to their work.
"It isn't fair, it isn't right."
— Tessie Hutchinson
Tessie cries out in an impulse toward self-preservation. As a
willing participant of past lotteries, her evocation of fairness
and justice comes only when she herself is chosen as the
victim of the lottery.
l Symbols
Stones
The townspeople's resistance to modernity and change shows
in their longtime use of stones. Both a building block and a
weapon, stones are a part of nature, revealing the town's
loyalty to ancient rites and their deep-knit ties to the land.
By allowing the children to gather stones for the execution, the
villagers include the children in the ritual of the lottery, ensuring
that the rite will be passed down to the next generation.
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Symbols 13
Black Box
The black box represents the many years that the lottery has
taken place in the village, and the villagers' connections to their
ancestors. Black, of course, is a familiar symbol for darkness,
evil, and death. This black box holds the villagers' dark secrets
and also points to the meaninglessness of the ritual of the
lottery. Shabby, splintered, and faded, it is made up from
pieces of the original box. The box also has overtones of racial
purity masquerading as Christianity. It requires the support of a
three-legged stool—the "three-legged stool of Christianity" is
the biblical emphasis on love, trust, and obedience—to keep it
from falling.
Households
The concept of a family whose curse affects each member is
common in literature. The Hutchinsons—whose name, in an
example of verbal irony, evokes that of colonial American
religious leader Anne Hutchinson, a vocal critic of the
Puritans—are under such a curse from the moment their name
is selected in the lottery's first round. Lots are drawn by
household. The traditional, patriarchal family unit, with the
father at the head, symbolizes authority and hierarchy in the
town. The residents' fate is determined by their family name,
rather than any actions they take as individuals.
m Themes
Banality of Evil
The term "the banality of evil" would not have been known to
Shirley Jackson; it was introduced in 1963 by Hannah Arendt in
Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil. In
reporting on the trial of Adolf Eichmann, a high-ranking Nazi
official who organized the systematic execution of millions of
Europe's Jews, Arendt considers his defense: he was only
The Lottery Study Guide Suggested Reading 14

following orders. The banality of evil is not merely a concept of

mundane, everyday practices, but a recognition that the Conformity
perpetrator of evil believes he has acted responsibly according
to the terms that govern his world.
The concept of group identity heightens the horror of "The
While Jackson did not possess this term in 1948, the concept
Lottery." Common rituals turn isolated people into a community
was clear to her. In the small-town setting of "The Lottery,"
with a shared experience. The villagers think and act as a
outworn traditions are dangerous and unquestioned. Because
group, rarely disagreeing or offering dissenting opinions. Only
the townspeople are generally good neighbors and citizens
the Adamses suggest some willingness to move beyond the
and because they're following customs that have been passed
lottery, and neither they nor anyone else states open dissent or
down for years, they don't think of themselves as evil. The
even discomfort with the lottery—until Tessie Hutchinson does,
lottery seems obscene to the reader but normal to the
after her family is selected in the first drawing. When she
participants, whose Northern European names—including
speaks out, many people, including her own husband, quickly
Delacroix, "of the cross"—carry a sense of racial purity that is
silence her. When the villagers stone Tessie Hutchinson, they
surely intentional.
act together and help one another, even ensuring that one of

The residents engage in pleasantries and value politeness. her children takes part. The theme of conformity leads back to

They put on a show of kindness and civility to one another, the central theme of the banality of evil. As Eichmann said at

even while conducting the lottery. For instance, Mr. Summers his trial, "I couldn't help myself; I had orders."

calls every lottery participant by name and encourages the

townspeople to finish the stoning quickly so they can get home
for the noon meal. People chat with their neighbors, although
they know one of these neighbors will soon be executed by the
men, women, and children of the community. Their manners
are another example of a ritual that has outlived its time.
The town's bland, stereotypical nature—it is not named, and
readers aren't told the location—supports the theme of the
banality of evil. Most characters are vaguely defined by only a
few traits, so readers can see them as a group blindly
marching in lockstep with one another.
e Suggested Reading
Hague, Angela. "A Faithful Anatomy of Our Times: Reassessing
Shirley Jackson." Frontiers: A Journal of Women Studies 26.2
(2005): 73-96. Print.
Hall, Joan Wylie. Shirley Jackson: A Study of the Short Fiction.
New York: Twayne, 1993. Print.
Hattenhauer, Darryl. Shirley Jackson's American Gothic.
Albany: State U of New York, 2003. Print.

Tradition and Ritual Hyman, Stanley Edgar. Preface. The Magic of Shirley Jackson.
By Shirley Jackson. New York: Farrar, 1965. Print.

Jackson, Shirley, and Stanley Edgar Hyman. Come along with

Many social units, from small towns like the one in "The
Lottery" to entire countries, have traditions that unite the
members and are passed down from one generation to
another. The lottery is such a tradition, linked to agriculture and
the seasons of the earth. Old Man Warner worries that the
town will move backward into a more primitive existence in
caves without the lottery to unite and civilize its people.
Modern touches, such as the use of paper for wood chips and
the exchange of greetings rather than chants, accommodate
the ritual without substantially changing it.
Me: Part of a Novel, Sixteen Stories, and Three Lectures. New
York: Viking, 1968. Print.
Murphy, Bernice M. Shirley Jackson: Essays on the Literary
Legacy. Jefferson: McFarland, 2005. Print.
Nebeker, Helen E. "'The Lottery': Symbolic Tour de Force."
American Literature 46.3 (1981): 100-08. Print.
Oppenheimer, Judy. Private Demons: The Life of Shirley
Jackson. New York: Putnam, 1988. Print.

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