The Lottery A Small Town Analysis Essay

Emily Manahan

ENG 201 02 ON

Craft Analysis -- Fiction Brennan

The Lottery: A Small Town with Big Problems

Shirley Jackson sets her story “The Lottery” in a small, close-knit village in the summertime. In her first sentence, “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,” Jackson uses the phrases “sunny,” “fresh warmth,” “blossoming,” and “richly green” to depict an idyllic, warm (literally, as the word was used, but also figuratively) community for her story. She continues in the first paragraph to build this charming, bucolic image in the reader’s mind by giving the precise number of residents (only 300 -- that makes even rural

central Maine seem populous!), calling them “villagers,” and using the term “noon dinner.” These descriptions make the town seem quaint and desirable.
This folksy, pleasant setting is essential for Jackson’s story’s effectiveness, I think, because it makes the horror of the lottery even more disgusting and creepy than it would otherwise be. The setting lulls the reader into thinking the town is homey, but as it develops, gradually the reader is introduced to the idea that something is amiss. Were the story set in a large, bustling city, or during a cold winter, I think the effectiveness of the gradual revelation of the lottery would have been less provocative. Readers expect negative things to happen in cold places among strangers, not in places like Jackson describes.
After the introductory paragraph, Jackson continues to describe the scene in the next several passages.

She discusses children, contributing to an image of innocence, and men engaged in typical small-town conversation. Because of the established pastoral setting, Jackson’s foreshadowing in discussing stones (“Bobby Martin had already stuffed his pockets full of stones, and the other boys soon followed his example, selecting the smoothest and roundest stones . . .”) is easily written down as kids amusing themselves while waiting for a boring town meeting. Smooth stones are interesting to children and certainly not necessarily nefarious. In the next paragraph, when Bobby is reprimanded for running back to the pile of stones, it still seems that the rocks are just playthings and that Bobby’s father is quieting him in anticipation of a typical, though likely somber, meeting. On a second reading, Bobby’s return to the rock pile implies eagerness for the lottery, which is almost nauseating -- this process isn’t just anticipated with dread, but children grow up with it and look forward to their participation.

Even the introduction of Mr. Summers, who conducts the lottery, adds to the picture of the setting as a perfect little town -- Mr. Summers, after all, emcees “square dances” and “the teen program!” Gradually, though, the tone of the piece begins to seem ominous, as the black box is described and citizens of the village are reluctant to come near the box to aid

Mr.

Summers. It’s abundantly clear that the lottery is not a good thing. When citizens of the village talk about the possibility of getting rid of the lottery, the fact that the lottery is something repugnant is made certain. Jackson writes,
They do say," Mr. Adams said to Old Man Warner, who stood next to him, "that over in the north village they're talking of giving up the lottery." Old Man Warner snorted. "Pack of crazy fools," he said. "Listening to the young folks, nothing's good enough for them. Next thing you know, they'll be wanting to go back to living in caves, nobody work any more, live hat way for a while. Used to be a saying about 'Lottery in June, corn be heavy soon.' First thing you know, we'd all be eating stewed chickweed and acorns. There's always been a lottery," he added petulantly.
In this paragraph, Jackson is making a social commentary about traditions, young people, and society’s unwillingness to change despite the knowledge that something isn’t the right choice. Clearly the lottery should have ended by now, but because it has been established for years, nobody in the community is willing to step up to cause it to end. It would take more than one individual to end the lottery, and perhaps nobody is willing to be the first one to speak against the lottery. In discussing the north village giving up the lottery, Mr. Adams is broaching the subject, but he doesn’t explicitly suggest that this village stop the lottery. While the story doesn’t make clear precisely why the lottery is performed (an effective choice on Jackson’s part), it seems that it is done to keep people in line, and as an expression of modernization. In discussing how young people want to end the lottery, it seems like Jackson is making parallels with issues that we have known are wrong and yet have done nothing to end, like hanging, and the prohibition of interracial marriage. Many social changes are brought on by young people, but the devaluation of youth makes change slow.
Several other lines from the story stood out to me because of their indication of the selfishness and inability of community members to empathize with each other. After Tessie is protesting her family’s pick in the lottery, other women protest and even her husband seems frustrated by her. “‘Be a good sport, Tessie.” Mrs. Delacroix called, and Mrs. Graves said, “All of us took the same chance.” “Shut up, Tessie,” Bill Hutchinson said. Bill Hutchinson, with only a few words, displays his shame at his wife’s speaking out. I was particularly impressed with Jackson’s dialogue here, because she managed to portray Mrs. Hutchinson’s fear as annoying even though, as the reader, you definitely don’t agree with the concept of the lottery. She did take the same chance as everybody else, and her cries that it’s not fair are untrue in the context that were it not her family chosen, it would be another family, and were it not her chosen, it would be her husband or children. My response, initially, to Tessie’s hiding her slip with the dot on it, was that she should have been happier that her children weren’t being targeted. In reality, though, nobody should have been stoned, and stoning one person a year based on the drawing of a piece of paper is fundamentally unjust.
When the older Hutchinson children reveal their slips,“both beamed and laughed. turning around to the crowd and holding their slips of paper above their heads.” This description, of the children being happy at their own luck rather than panicking at the loss of their mother, contributes to the idea that the lottery is so ingrained in the community. The children aren’t even protesting the atrocities that are happening, and when somebody gives little Davy Hutchinson pebbles to throw at his mother, the reader’s attention is drawn to the fact that even if the victim of the lottery is a member of your family, children are introduced to this nightmare from birth, and participate.
Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery” is effective because Jackson depicts a pleasant setting with an odious behavior that is normal to the villagers but unexpected to the reader. She gradually introduces the lottery, and as the story goes on, the reader becomes more and more wary of what is going to happen. “The Lottery” is also social commentary on how young people’s views aren’t respected, how change is hard to make, and how by growing up in a society where something like this happens, community members are so used to the occurrence that they participate even when the person being killed is their friend or mother.