The Lottery Summary

“The Lottery” begins by explaining that the town is preparing for the lottery to happen. It is a small town of about 300 people, and the day is June 27th. The kids in the town begin to gather rocks, and the boys stuff their pockets and form small stashes to protect from the others. Soon, the fathers and mothers of the children begin to show up and everyone prepares for the lottery to begin. The legendary black box is placed before all of the townsmen and is set up on a stool. The leaders of the lottery set everything up and are sworn in, while the rest of the town gathers around anxiously. The leader of the lottery, Mr. Summers, makes sure that everyone knows who will be drawing for each family. Then, finally, each family’s designated selector

walks up to the box one by one, and selects a strip of paper. Then, once everyone has their piece of paper, everyone opens them up at the same time. Instantly, everyone tries to find out which family has drawn the piece of paper with the black dot. After a few seconds of deliberation between the crowd, everyone finds out that that Bill Hutchinson has drawn it. Immediately, Tessie (Bill’s wife) begins to complain that it was not done correctly and that Bill was not given enough time to draw. Mr. Summers will have none of that, and he begins to set up the drawing for the Hutchinson family members. Next, each member of the Hutchinson family is forced to draw their own slip, including the young kids. Everyone draws and one by each reveals their empty sheet of paper. All the kids have shown an empty paper, and Mr. Hutchinson goes next. When he reveals an empty sheet, everyone knows that Tessie has the dark circle on hers. It is forced out of her hands and shown to the crowd. Everyone begins to gather stones, one in each hand. Tessie begins to scream, and the first stone hits her in the side of the head. Soon, the stones begin to pelt her from everywhere and everyone. And the story ends.