The Lottery By Shirley Jackson Analysis

The “Prize”

This treacherous and morbid story begins on a beautiful and peaceful morning. A small

town, consisting of nearly 300 citizens, gathers in between the post office and the bank to attend

their traditional event called the “lottery”. I think that it is an event that serves as a distinguisher

for prevention of overpopulation with no objection by the members of society, such as slavery.

The name of the event is something that obviously shouldn’t be confused with a random drawing

of financial loss or gain, but something that ends in utter gore, violence and ultimately death.

That being said, the citizens of this twisted settlement don’t seem to feel the urgency towards the

beginning of the excerpt like you would rightfully expect. The

story is introduced and depicted
as a peaceful and average day. The children seem to have had an average day at school and the
parents seem to have done their daily duties with a carefree persona. This vibe that is set by the
author is unique, because it interprets to the reader that an event like the “lottery” could be the
complete norm for a society within the fictional realm.

In this story slavery will be shown how to

be similar to the “lottery”. In a sense that the society sees it as a role that has to play in order to

make it work, with the unpowerful citizens subject to death and the powerful subject to glory.

While the town begins to slowly assemble, the parents aggressively attempt to gather all

their young folks in order to start the event and get it over with. Since the town only contains a

small amount of citizens to participate in the “lottery”, the event only takes around two hours.

This reasonable time constraint makes it more convenient to manage and provides less stress for

the families of the lucky qualifier to draw the “black dot”. The reason it is more convenient is

that it is random drawings. Once all the town citizens get to their place, Mr. Summers makes his

grand entrance. Mr. Summers, who seems to be highly respected amongst the town for loyalty,

age, wisdom and previous experience, is the moderator for the “lottery”. The amount of respect

that Mr. Summers receives for his position, suggests that the “lottery” is a vital aspect of

this
unique society. His stance is that the citizens would all be out of their right mind to to even
consider banning the traditional “lottery”. He suggests that they might as well be “living in
caves”.

While arriving on the scene, Mr. Summers reveals the “black box”. (2) This box is a

huge part of the tradition, and contains all the recipients of the lottery. (Serves as a mystery box

of some sort). The box is recognized and known by the citizens as a respectable object, due to its

historical role in determining the outcome of the drawing. It seems to be feared by many and

recognized as an object that determines a dramatic destiny.

After Mr. Summers dramatically reveals the box to the citizens, he is assisted by Mr.

Martin and his oldest son Baxter in placing it on a stool for proper display. The rules are

reviewed for the lottery and the tradition begins. All the eldest males of the families begin to

slowly come forward and draw papers from the “black box”, which previously contained wood

chips before the paper slips were introduced. Apparently, the wood chips were used before the

town had reached a high population. Once the eldest drew from the box, they would walk back

to their families without viewing the results of the drawing. This would cause a lot of commotion

and drama in the air, due to the fact that the anticipation was almost too painful to bear. Mr.

Summers then calls out the name that has been selected for the lottery. Mr. Hutchinson’s name

is
read aloud and everyone in the crowd gasps with shock. Tammie, a child of an elder protests the
drawing because of unfair numbers and Mr. Summers grudgingly agrees to redraw. The names
are drawn again and Tessie’s name is called aloud! This shocks everyone, due to the fact that she
originally bailed another contestant! The citizens, trying their best to avoid civil confrontation
and even the chance of losing their own life, begin to surround her from every angle and finish
the final process of the demented “lottery”. All 300 of the town citizens begin to hurl stones at
Tessie and she is quickly deceased.
This is how the story ends and it leaves the reader wondering how a town could live
with such an evil tradition engraved in their lifestyle. That being said, it brings to mind certain
traditions of real life society that are immoral and unjust. Slavery is something that has been
traditionally engraved in the ideals of many civilizations, and is something that can easily be
compared to a wicked and twisted tradition such as the “lottery”. This also leaves the reader with
the idea that maybe this could be reality for those in a fictional life.