Social Influence In The Lottery, By Charlotte Harrison

In “The Lottery,” Tessie Hutchinson states that the lottery is not justifiable and “it isn’t fair, it isn’t right,’ (Jackson, 6). At the end of the story, Mrs. Hutchinson engages herself in rebellious actions by claiming that the lottery is unjust. In consequence, her objection towards the lottery ultimately results in her death. Though Tessie

In Shirley Jackson’s The Lottery, Tessie Hutchinson is victimized by various parties, including Mr. Summers, the entire crowd and even her husband. In the story, the people of a community perform a ritual on every 27th of June, in which they stone one of them after casting lots. In this particular village, the people gather at the lottery spot and Mr. Summers, the leader of the ceremony begins by declaring the lottery open. Bill Hutchison, her three children and Tessie Hutchison are standing in the front rows when Bill’s wife, Tessie Hutchison arrives late and finds them already settled. She says that she had totally forgotten about the ritual but upon realizing that her children and children were not around, she rushes towards the point of

While many corruptions in the world are fought against, people, such as Tessie Hutchinson, decide to make the issue unimportant unless it openly involves them. In “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson, citizens of the town pay no mind to the issue at hand, rather than noticing the actual problem. Tessie Hutchinson’s extreme shift in emotion and behavior ties straight from the theme when her family is the so-called lucky family in the lottery.

The lottery does not resort in a giant winning, unless you call giving your life something to take pride in. Your life depends on sheer luck when you draw a card out of the black box, because the next sacrifice might just be you. Unfortunately for Tessie Hutchinson, she just so happened to be the lottery’s latest victim.

Mrs. Hutchinson was self-centered. After it was revealed that Bill, Tessie’s husband, had chosen the marked paper, she started protesting. "You didn't give him time enough to take any paper he wanted. I saw you. It wasn't fair!" (p.5, lines 10-11) She knew that everybody had to take the same chances as her husband. After she realized that one of her family members would die, then she states that the lottery is unfair. If somebody else had gotten picked, she would not have protested. This instance showed that she was a self-centered person who only cared about herself. Additionally, Mrs.

When Tessie selected the slip of paper that marked her as the lottery winner, she 'looked around defiantly'(p.300) and held the slip 'behind her'(p.300) The lottery itself symbolises tradition, by holding the slip that contains her fate behind her, she mirrors her desire to put tradition behind them and to progress with their lives. These small mutinous acts become an even more solid basis to persecute her on. The allocation of power in The Lottery is as unmerited as the lottery winner. Mr Summers is the individual 'who had the time and energy to devote'(p.292) to being the lottery official. Mr Summers’ description of 'jovial'(p.292)matches his light-hearted name and also his attitude towards the lottery. He symbolises the alacrity and the willingness of an individual to follow in tradition. Identity is based largely around choices; the decision to continue in the ways of tradition can only be made after consequences have been considered. If Leonard Mead were an average citizen of his city, he would have succumbed to the power of the viewing screens and to the wishes of authority. His tradition of meandering throughout the city withstood the changes in society. The desire to continue in his ways, though harmless, endangered him. The urge to live within a familiar world hindered his transition into the

Considering in the story, Tessie accepts the lottery that is taking place within her village. For instance in the story, Mrs. Hutchinson says, "[clean] forgot what day it was […] and they both laughed softly."(Jackson 28-29). In other words, Mrs. Hutchinson acted as though there was no lottery taking place as well as nobody dying momentarily, mainly because she accepted the fact somebody had to die to keep the village business going. Mrs. Hutchinson later on in the story says, "[Mr. Summers did not] give [Bill Hutchinson] time enough to take any paper he wanted." (Jackson 31). The viewer finds Mrs. Hutchinson's reaction very ironic because her attitude shifted because she felt like it is tolerable to let other people die, but when it comes to her being, she feels like she

“Tessie Hutchinson probably regards the ceremony as routine and has got used to it, and it is no longer of much importance to her.” (Chen)Chen brings up an excellent point that Tessie is very unconcerned about The Lottery as she has forgotten that it was even the date of The Lottery. Tessie must have seen many Lotteries but never protested until it was her husband who pulled the marked slip of paper, which she had been screaming that it wasn’t a fair drawing. Tessie never had a problem with The Lottery until she became the scapegoat and she needed to bear the tradition. The human condition represented in The Lottery is that tradition blurs the ethics and makes things that are malicious acceptable because people are afraid of change.

In the short story 'The Lottery' a small village has a cruel tradition. The tradition is to pick someone's name from the black lottery box and then stone them to death. Tessie Hutchinson, a character who was chosen by the lottery, was sacrificed in her village. The relevance of the theme “Following the crowd is not always right” is shown when two villagers were talking about the next village that had stopped doing the lottery, but all the villagers showed conformity by continuing the lottery. “..over in the north village they're talking of giving up the lottery.”

In this story, Tessie Hutchinson symbolizes as a passive and free spirit woman. Tessie stood out from the start. On the day of the lottery, everyone seems to have been on time but, Tessie Hutchinson was a bit late. Her excuse for being late was that she did not what to leave her dishes, which she was washing, in the sink. Other than her being late, there are other ways that she stood out. Other than most people; Tessie was excited about the lottery and was ready to attend it every year. When her husband pulled the paper that had the black spot on it, she began to argue and protest that Mr. summers did not give him enough time. At this point, she is feeling different about the lottery, because everything is turning on her and her family.

The Hutchinsons then conducted a second raffle in which every person in the family chose a slip and one person in the family got the spotted slip. It was Tessie that ended up with the slip. Every member of the village then preceded to stone the woman, while she cried out how unfair this tradition was. The theme of "The Lottery" is not every tradition

Tess’s tone in her last words before being stoned is desperate and hysterical, because she knows that her protests will not result in anything but death. The black box used in the lottery each year isn’t something that the reader would usually associate with a happy lottery. The box is described as, “shabby…splintered…faded and stained,” yet no one in the community wants to replace it because, “no one liked to upset even as much tradition as was represented by the black box.” The color black symbolizes the savage and evil nature of the lottery as well as the townspeople’s participation in it and the shabbiness of the box indicates how outdated the tradition truly is. Like the lottery, the box is well worn with its real purpose lost, and the townspeople are extremely reluctant in letting it go, even getting defensive when the idea of it is brought up. After the stoning of the “winner” occurs, the townspeople go on with their lives as if nothing out of the ordinary has happened. The lottery takes less than two hours so that the townspeople could, “…get home for noon dinner,” immediately following the execution. The normalcy of the lottery to the townspeople is horrifying and all throughout the story everyone seems ok with this evil tradition, children are shown laughing and their parents, gossiping and talking about work. When Tess Hutchinson chooses the paper slip with a black dot making her the “winner”, Bill Hutchinson, her husband, as

Once the process begins and Tessie’s name is chosen to be stoned, she begins to protest the validity of the lottery. She states; “Tessie Hutchinson was in the center of a cleared space by now, and she held her hands out desperately as the villagers moved in on her. “It isn’t fair,” she said. A stone hit her on the side of the head.” (Jackson).

    Often, we paint a fairytale view of life for ourselves and our children. Sometimes, an author paints a frightfully realistic picture of life and forces us to reconsider the fairytale. In Shirley Jackson’s story, "The Lottery," a town each year conducts a lottery in which the winner or looser, in this case, is stoned to death by his or her own neighbors. The tradition is supposed to uphold social structure within the town, but in order to comprehend the true meaning of the story you must be able to read between the lines. "The Lottery" is a story about a town that has let its traditions go too far. Also, it is clear that the story contains eye-opening facts that lead me to

Shirley Jackson’s short story “The Lottery” is about a bizarre ritual performed in a town in which the townspeople proceed to follow every year. In a black, worn box they place all the names of the community. Once all the names are placed inside, Mr. Summers draws a name. After the name is chosen, this member will be stoned to death by the others in the community. Tessie Hutchinson in the story tries to reject the repetitive tradition of the lottery.