report+for+english

September 21, 2007 Ruby Group

//Cold, Hard Stone//

“The Lottery” is an unusual story. When you first read it you assume that it is an innocent story

about a New England town long ago. Except, the author will not tell the reader what the point of the

lottery is straight out, this causes the reader some suspicion. As well, throughout the story, up until the

end, the author makes hints that the story is not at all what it seems. The reader does not always pick up

on these hints until they find out the resolution of the story. The author, Shirley Jackson, achieved this

style of writing by using symbolism and foreshadowing throughout the story.

The people in charge of the lottery were Mr. Summers, Mr. Graves, and Mr. Martin. All three of

the people in charge of the lottery hapenned to be men. These weren't any ordinary men, but they were

the men that the town depended on. Mr Summers ran the coal business and was very much in the

town's activities. Mr. Graves was the postmaster. This might not seem like a big role in a community

today but quite a while ago peoples main form of communication was through the mail so therefore Mr.

Graves was very important to the town. The name Mr. Graves also sparks some curiousity among

readers. Why would somebody have such a morbid last name in a small New England town among

people with normal last names? Last, Mr. Martin helped with the lottery and he was the owner of the

local grocery store in town. Why were the major men in the town running the lottery? Would you not

think that the head of the lottery would be a trivial job for a less important person of the town. You, as

the reader, start wondering if maybe there is some advantage to running the lottery.

The lottery had started many years ago. At first, the lottery was quite a big deal in the town

consisting of a special ceremony and chant. Over time the ceremony became less of a big deal. The

people of the town did not seem at all eager for the lottery. The woman and men were trying to make

simple conversation but it was very nervous chatter. The only person really not nervous for the lottery

was the oldest man in town, Old Man Warner. “Pack of crazy fools,”said Old Man Warner,”Listening Jacobson-2

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.” Old Man Warner stated this after hearing about other town's closing their

lottery. It is odd that something nice like a lottery would seem to be would be so easily given up by a

town. Old Man Warner hadn't one the lottery in the last 77 years and he was also the most willing to

keep the lottery.Was this a coincidence?

One by one, the men of the town go up to pick a small piece of paper out of a black box. The

person who has a black dot on their paper had won the lottery. What did this black dot represent? What

was to come if you had picked this dot? Mrs. Tessie Hutchinson was late for the lottery. “Clean forget,

what day it was,” she said to Mrs. Delacroix, who stood next to her. Mrs Hutchinson was a housewife.

Was it a coincidence, that Mrs. Hutchinson also ended up winning the lottery? “It isn't fair”, she states

as the villagers surround her with stones in hand. It was so ironic that this was the “prize” for winning

the lottery. It was defenitley interesting that out of everybody in the village a simple housewife was

chosen as the victim of this horrible lottery.