Joseph Dobrzanski
October 15, 2014
Study Responses
1) The point in the story in which I feel that something is not quite right is in the beginning. The
extensive description of all the nice, amazing things, is what first generated some suspicion,
though such suspicions were confirmed when the gathering men avoided the piles of rocks.
Furthermore, the men seemed nervous, as “their jokes were quiet and they smiled rather than
laughed.”
2) All throughout this short story, there are many examples of the outcome of the Lottery. The
overly pleasant exposition and avoidance of the gathered rocks, for example, warns us that the
stones are not something to be taken lightly. The black box, Mr. Graves, and the coal marked
paper (death related symbols,) hints at the upcoming carnage. Furthermore, the mandatory
attendance, Mr. Warner’s complaints of the towns that abandoned the lottery, and Tessie’s
complaints of unfairness in the selection process is enough to set off anyone’s alarm bells. All
doubt is removed when most of the villagers are relieved that they got unmarked paper, and
after they “still remembered to use stones.”
3) By mentioning the rocks at the beginning of the story, but not again until the end, Shirley
Jackson creates suspense and tries to provoke some thought in the reader. The brief mention of
stones makes the reader wonder what they are for, why they are avoided by the men, and why
they are not spoken of again until the finale. This worked to a certain degree, as only gave the
rocks about two minutes of thought before moving on.
4) Symbolism is common in any literature, and The Lottery is no exception.
a) The children, representing innocence and cleanness/purity, seem to symbolize people in
society who make talk of change, but fall to peer pressure and join in with the others. Moreover,
it is ironic that “innocent” children are capable of participating in an unclean, savage, and messy
activity.
b) The symbolism behind Summers’ and Graves’ names are obvious and ironic. Mr. Graves
(death) as a postmaster delivers death. Mr. Summers sounds and looks like a cheerful person,
but he not only is the organizer of the Lottery, but he also marks someone for death with his
coal.
c) The shabbiness of the box represents how much people value the status quo (resulting in the
villagers not wanting to tamper with the box even though it, just like the tradition/ritual it is a
part of, needs fixing.)
d) The box is unimportant until it is used. This shows the lack of concern over the practices the
villagers practice because it only affects them one day of the year. It shows how reform does not
usually happen when things are not in-your-face urgent.
e) The wood chips being changed to paper slips shows how while civilization progresses
(unrefined wood chips swapped for more refined paper,) humans are still crude. This enforces
the story’s message that humans will fight each other when left for their own devices.
Furthermore, it represents the many traditions/rituals that have not changed with the rapidly
changing world, even if it is no longer relevant.
f) The changing of the Lottery’s ritual chant and salute shows again that the Lottery lost its
purpose, and despite that, the villagers still perform it with vigor. Moreover, the loss of the
chant and salute represents how time degrades and warps things to the point where it no longer
has a point.
g) The entire process of choosing a “winner” in the Lottery is yet another innocent looking
process gone wrong. It is a way of scapegoating the selected person, as it could be “fate” that
has chosen them for such a gruesome fate, and justifies the villager’s actions.
h) The stoning at the end of the story represents human’s inner savageness, and ability to
commit such atrocities. Additionally, it symbolizes how archaic this tradition/ritual is in
comparison to the supposed ‘civil’ization it is practiced in. Sacrificial stoning (or just stoning in
general) is, for obvious reasons, is not commonly seen in the world today.
5) Reading this story in an objection narrative POV makes it nearly impossible to know the thought
process of the villagers. This makes the reader more horrified as an outside observer, as
opposed to someone who can read and possibly understand the thoughts of the villagers. By
writing from an observer’s POV, Shirley Jackson makes the story even colder, which helps add to
her underlying theme of human corruption and hypocrisy. Furthermore, by writing in this
perspective, the writer gains more versatility in presenting desired information. This makes the
story’s suspense easier to create, and allows a trickle of clues for the novel’s finale.
6) The Lottery is based on scapegoating, as the selected person can be seen as chosen by fate. This
in turn makes the villagers task of brutally murdering someone easier to do from a moral POV,
as it gives them a tangible reason for beating someone to death. Moreover, for the villagers to
continue their tradition/ritual of the Lottery, someone must die, and the selected person is
sacrificed to appease the status quo of the village. The person killed, Tessie Hutchinson, seems
to represent the many people killed as witches. She, like many others burned at the stake, was a
scapegoat, stood out from society, and ended up dead. The end desired of this story is to show
the reader the dark side of humanity; that people are not as they seem, and are capable of
blindly murdering their family and friends. One example of modern day scapegoating is that the
government is blamed for failures or events that they have little control over. Additionally,
coaches are often targeted for the actions of the players he/she is in charge of.
Joseph Dobrzanski
October 15, 2014
Personal Response
After I finished reading The Lottery, I had a very emotion-filled reaction. While the ending was
not incredibly surprising (as there was a plethora of clues hinting to what will happen,) the severity of
the atrocity performed was not fully anticipated. The shock I felt was definitely felt by many others who
read this, as I can understand why people reacted to this short story the way they did. While the content
itself (someone dying brutally for no reason,) is not uncommon in modern literature, or probably even
when it was published, I found it surprising that it was published amidst all the war celebrations of the
late 1940s. Furthermore, more than anything, I was quite disappointed with how the story was wrapped
up. It was not a letdown because it concluded on a tragic note, but that it left so many loose ends and
questions unanswered. What was the true purpose of the Lottery, how was the first Lottery really
conducted, and why did nobody write this down if it was so important to the villagers that one day?
Such questions will not be answered, and leaves me with the desire to move on.