Eudora Welty's The Lottery

Winning the lottery takes on a brand new meaning in,“The Lottery,” which is a short story that was written by Sheryl in 1948 (Jackson and Hyman, 1974). It exposes the dark secrets of a society whose otherwise regular façade hides a barbaric ritual that has been kept alive for many generations, and that is only because its villagers would refuse to question their traditions and beliefs. The Lottery was heavily criticized initially for the kind of horror of culture and customs it evokes (Jackson and Hyman, 1974). The era in which the story was written was one of not long after the end of World War II and The Great Depression (Sparknotes.com, 2018). These two events changed the mindset of the society at that time to an “every man for himself”

train of thought (Jackson and Hyman, 1974). This is shown in Sheryl’s story when the villagers are indifferent or even supportive of the lottery until it affects them directly. Jackson’s story also portrayed the prevalent division and sexism between men and women associated with that decade (Sparknotes.com, 2018). The author, Sheryl Jackson, was born in San Francisco to a middle-class family. “The Lottery” was her best seller, but it was also her most criticized piece of work. She is most remembered as a gothic horror writer (Jackson and Hyman, 1974).
On a warm sunny day, on June the 27th, villagers gather in the town’s square in order to participate in a lottery run by Mr.

Summers. There is a vibe of festivity among them. Celebrations, as well as music chanting, is a ritual that those villagers carry out throughout that day. The people that are in charge of running the lottery – Mr. Summers and Mr. Gaves – work hard on ensuring that those rituals are preserved and passed down from year to year. The children and adults gather at 10 AM for the lottery to be commenced. Mr. Summers carries out the preliminaries, and he ensures that each family is represented, or have someone on hand to participate in the draw for them. The ritual consisted of three rounds. First, heads of the families draw small slips of paper from a black box that is kept by Mr. Summers for the occasion. Then, heads of the households and individual members proceed to do the same. As this happens, a change in the atmosphere can be sensed. A pervasive aura of nervousness can be felt by the villagers. When all the slips are drawn, Bill Hutchinson comes forward with one that is marked with a black spot. Immediately, Tessie Hutchinson complains that the draw was not conducted properly. Protesting a victory might appear uncanny. However, that becomes more sensible when each member of the Hutchinson family comes up to draw a paper. When they open their slips, Tessie finds that she has drawn the paper with the black dot. Her protests fall on deaf ears, and the

villagers, including Tessie’s own family, proceed to pelt her with stones until her very last breath. The villagers have done this before. For Old Man Warner, this was his 77th time participating in the lottery. He explains that the lottery has been an ancient rite to ensure a good harvest for the year. The people of the village seem to have forgotten why they choose to stone an individual to death every June. Like an automaton, they still follow that ritual, and they continue to do what has always been done. Throughout the lottery, the author tends to shed light on two important themes. First, she reflects how dangerous it can be to follow tradition blindly. Before knowing what kind of lottery the villagers were conducting, their preparations seemed harmless. However, their blind acceptance of this rite has allowed ritual murder to continue to be a part of their traditions. To illustrate, even Mrs. Hutchinson’s youngest son little Davy is given a stone to pelt his own mother. Through the selection of tone, dramatic structure, characters, and meaning, “The Lottery” examines the dangers of blindly conforming to a set of traditions or beliefs.
In The Lottery, the tone has a distinct shift from a peaceful, normal, and everyday kind of tone to a detached and eerie tone by the end of the tale.

The author begins by giving the readers a very calm and positive introduction about a summer day that revolves around festivities. However, this changes as Sherley Jackson paves the way to the reality of the lottery, as she reveals that it is not a victory or a cause for celebration at all. The lottery reaches its climax when Mrs. Hutchinson protests the unfairness of the draw. She tries to avoid every provision of the ritual, because she was aware of the fact that she was at risk of getting stoned. Also, the aura of the villagers changes from preppy to nervous when the lottery process is commenced, and that can be seen as the build-up to the climax. The rising action can be seen in the incidents that did not seem consequential until the end of the story. For example, it was Tessie or Mrs. Hutchinson, that was late to the lottery, and the villagers were not happy about it. Again, this foreshadows what is yet to

come.
There weren’t numerous characters in The Lottery, but the ones that stood out were Tessie Hutchinson, Old Man Warner, and Mr. Summers. The main character, Tessie Hutchinson, arrives late to the lottery. Although she settles and joins the crowd eventually, the author has set her apart as a free-spirited woman who was able to forget about an event that the village valued, the lottery, as she performed her chores. She is also the only villager to protest against the lottery. “It wasn’t fair!” She screams when her family draws the marked paper. She continues to protest but to no avail. However, one can also suggest that she is a hypocrite for speaking up against the lottery only because her own family was selected. The next character, Old Man Warner, was the oldest man in town that attended seventy-seven lotteries. He is a conservative that is determined that the traditions and values that exist in his village should not be altered. He was an advocate for the ritual that took place every year, and he called the towns that have stopped having lotteries “crazy fools.” This character helps the body embody the main theme of the piece which is how dangerous it is to follow tradition blindly. Mr. Summer, on the other hand, has a light-hearted name. However, he has a lot of power in the village. He is seen as happy, but he is pitied by the villagers for having a nagging wife. His character serves as a contradiction to his hideous actions, as he is the one who conducts and controls the lotteries in the village. None of the villagers seems to question his leadership of the lottery. When Tessie arrives late to the lottery, she tells Mr. Summers that it would not be right for her to leave dishes in the sink. While this not has been a big deal, it shows that she is indifferent about the lottery even in front of its conductor. When her family was chosen, she insisted that it wasn’t fair. Old Man Warner was saying, “Come on, come on, everyone.” It shows that Old Man Warner is so attached to his belief system that watching someone getting murder is just another casual event for him.
“The Lottery” is considered to be a parable about the detached inhumanity of man to man. Indeed, this detachment in cruelty can still is relevant. When Bill Hutchinson obeys Mr. Summers and opens his wife’s paper to reveal the black dot, Mr. Summers orders: “Let’s finish quick.” Mrs. Delacroix selected a stone so large, and she turned to Mrs. Dungar. “Come on,” she said. “Hurry up.” The horror of the murderous act does not touch the people of the village. Instead, their main concern was a waste of time. Shirley Jackson’s controversial piece can be a reflection of the state of mind that was reinforced by the horrors of World War 2, and the perceived desensitization that came along with it.
“The Lottery” was very controversial. However, it was one of Sheryl Jackson’s best works. While it started off with a positive tone, the horrific ritual performed by the villagers gives it it’s thrilling reputation. The tone, dramatic structure, characters, and meaning of the “The Lottery” examine the dangers of blindly conforming to a set of traditions or beliefs. The era in which Sheryl wrote the piece was plagued with the horrors of war, and that social context of the time, in my opinion, was reflected in the piece.