Short Description about The Lottery

The writer of the short story The Lottery, Shirley Jackson, was a native of San Francisco and was a graduate of the Syracuse University despite starting her college education in the University of Rochester.

She also experienced recurring depression which was the main reason for dropping out of the University of Rochester and which could also be a factor in the darkness of her stories which have been published in magazines and periodical like Good Housekeeping and The New Yorker.She was married to the literary critic Stanley Edgar Hyman and when asked about The Lottery, which received numerous negative responses, she said that the purpose of her writing this story was to “shock the story's readers with a graphic dramatization of the pointless violence and general inhumanity in their own lives. ” (Friedman, 1975, p. 64) The story is set in an unidentified small town consisting only 300 residents making it possible for everyone in town to know each other and easily delineating the people with authority from the common folk.

The story begins with the people gathering in the town square, starting with the children who begin collecting smooth rocks, followed by the adult men who start talking about work, taxes and government, and finally their wives to attend a lottery that traditionally happens once a year on the 27th of June. After Mrs. Hutchinson’s late arrival, the lottery begins with the heads of family getting pieces of paper from a small black box from which one will receive a marked piece indicating that the “chosen” one will come from the family of the bearer of the marked paper.After Bill Hutchinson got the marked piece, a smaller scale lottery took place involving only the Hutchinson family which resulted in Mrs.

Hutchinson getting the marked piece, making her the “chosen” one to be stoned to death. When the story was first published, the readers had such a reaction towards the story that negative comments came in droves. Most comments were defending small town people saying that they are not similar to the people portrayed in the story.It was so much that writer Shirley Jackson, who normally didn’t entertain interviews, broke down and explained that it was difficult for her to explain exactly what the story meant. (Friedman, 1975, p.

64) I was totally unprepared for the ending of this story. As a matter of fact, I can say that by the end of the story I was totally shocked, even confused feeling a missed something in the story. Due to the sublime beginning of the story, I thought that the lottery had something to do with winning money or a prize because of the importance the town was giving to the event and the manner in which everyone seemed to be anticipating the winner.When Mrs. Hutchinson reacted negatively to her husband getting the marked piece of paper, I thought the lottery entailed a undesirable duty that had to be done for the town.

When finally, I saw that Mrs. Hutchinson was stoned to death there literally was a 10 second pause, before I started re reading the story. Admittedly, it took me sometime to figure out why the story ended in such a manner and what the meaning of it was. This story is filled with symbolism that touches both the microcosm and the macrocosm of a person and ultimately a society’s life. The symbolisms are socio-economic in nature.

At the beginning of the story Jackson enumerates how the town gathers in the square, starting with the children then the fathers then the wives. The manner in which that the town gathered shows the importance of an individual’s status in town, wherein, the children who are still being educated are the most important followed by the bread winners who are the fathers and lastly by the mothers who just gossip. This is reinforced by Bobby Jones’ behavior upon being called to stand by his mother and father; “Bobby Martin ducked under his mother's grasping hand and ran, laughing….His father spoke up sharply, and Bobby came quickly…” (Jackson, 1948) Another incident that shows the patriarchal society in this town was when the young boy Watson having grown to adulthood chooses for his family bypassing the authority of his mother.

The 3 people who officiated the lottery – Mr. Summers, the coal factory owner, Mr. Graves, the postmaster and Mr. Martin, the grocer – are the three most important people in town because of their wealth or governmental authority and this is recognized by role that they took in guarding and handling the set up of the lottery.

Mr. Summers, the poor rich man, handled the most important paraphernalia – the box – and is the official of the lottery indicating him as the most important man in town. Mr. Graves is the one that inducts Summers in office, thus showing his governmental authority. At the same time, since he brought the 3 legged stand for the box, this symbolizes him, as government, supporting the actions of Summers, who represents the rich. Mr.

Martin, who represents the middle class, keeps the box steady the same way that the middle class keeps the national economy stable.Mr. Summers, because he is the richest and the most powerful, has tried to modify the tradition of the lottery numerous times and has succeeded in most except the actual changing of the box. This is very representative of how the world works where the wealthy who are positioned in big companies try to change the way of life of people by bringing in new ideas and new technologies affecting the customs and traditions of the people making it far more modern.This is placed in contrast with Old Man Warner, the oldest resident in town who tries to resist any form of change.

He also represents superstitious beliefs that have haunted everyone in society despite the advancements of technology. Old Warner, in hindsight, gives a very discreet hint that the lottery involves a sacrifice when he said, “Lottery in June, corn be heavy soon. ”(Jackson, 1948) At first, the meaning of this statement cannot be seen. It is only upon reading the whole story that the meaning of this statement comes to light.This statement is said in reaction to the information that some towns have totally abandoned the practice of the Lottery and it is Old Warner’s strong belief that without the lottery they will not have a good harvest. This is representative of the old archaic belief in sacrifice to some unknown god to provide a good harvest.

The irony of the statement comes when Old Warner calls the younger people who have abandoned the practice wanting to live in caves indicating their barbarism and calling them fools, “Pack of crazy fools…Next thing you know, they'll be wanting to go back to living in caves…” (Jackson, 1948)Nevertheless, the tradition is passed down to the younger generation as evidenced by the presence of the children collecting stones and participating in the stoning. It is evident, however, that the barbarism and the cruelty of the lottery are slowly being felt by the populace when statements like “I hope it's not Nancy” or reactions like “there was a general sigh through the crowd as he held it up and everyone could see that it was blank” are stated.Even Old Warner identifies the growing unrest about the lottery when he stated that people are no the way they used to be. (Jackson, 1948) Finally, Mrs.

Hutchinson represents the moving away from tradition because of a weakening of belief on the significance of these rituals. Although, there is very little belief in the ritual, she still goes to the lottery because everybody else has done so. This is representative of most people nowadays who go through the ritual just because everybody else is doing it without really committing to the significance of the ritual.This is presented by the author when Mrs.

Hutchinson is late for the lottery because she is doing her household chores and only realizes and remembers the lottery because everybody else has gone. It is because of this mentality that poetic justice comes in and Mrs. Hutchinson wins the lottery and is stoned to death. Essentially, in society it can be observed that anybody who strays away from tradition or who is in any way anachronistic is condemned and this is what has been presented in the story.Moreover, the fact that she is a sacrifice for the betterment of her town shows that a person is nothing more than a function of society who has no individual rights.

The mob rule reigns. It is in Mrs. Hutchinson’s protests that the fight for individualism and democracy can be seen – the ability to choose one’s fate and the rightness of the ritual especially since no one really cares much nor believes the ritual anymore as see in the statement of Summers “Let's finish quickly” (Jackson, 1948) so that they could all go back to their daily lives.Although the reactions to this story were violent and felt to be accusatory by most of its initial readers, the story shows the mechanism of society and how everyone is trapped in the its habits, traditions and standards no matter how senseless it may be. It also portrays the violence and the cruelty for those who assert any individuality and difference of opinion suppressing and oppressing the human rights of an individual. Shirley Jackson was able to portray this succinctly, using symbolisms in a seemingly simple story of The Lottery.