The Lottery Shirley Jackson

The Lottery is one of the most notable works of Shirley Jackson’s oeuvre. The story begins in such a tranquil village where the people live and work harmoniously. Traditionally, once a year, there will be a lottery held to find one particular person. The innocent person chosen will be stoned to death. The inconsistency between the peaceful scene of the beginning and the unexpected ending proves how talented Shirley Jackson is at building a suspense story.

Shirley Jackson underscores the history of the lottery by pointing out the fact that Old Man Warner has participated in the lottery for “seventy-seven time” (Jackson). Old Man Warner is the symbol of the obstinacy of people in believing in superstitious ritual, especially when it has been

Mrs. Hutchinson first arrives at the lottery bringing with her the air of calmness and humor. She discloses that she almost forgot about the lottery when trying to finish her dish-washing. The inauthentic mask of Mrs. Hutchinson is soon taken off when her husband is the one who fishes out a slip of paper containing a big black dot inside. A panic, like an electric current, shoots through her and she gradually divulges her level of hypocrisy. Initially, she whispers that “it wasn’t fair” as they don’t give her husband “time enough to choose” (Jackson). Then, in order to increase her chance of survival, she hideously reminds that her daughter and son-in-law also need to “take their chance” (Jackson). But not until she is chosen as the sacrifice that manifesting all of her hypocrisy, she shrieks helplessly “it isn’t fair” (Jackson). There is an inconsistency in the character that the author tries to show, which is Mrs. Hutchinson doesn’t feel that the lottery is fair until the point that she is falling into the trap. She is selected not only as the victim, but also as the face of the lottery’s village. They are willingly complicit in the vicious lottery as long as they are not chosen as

The innocuous act of children picking up and piling stones, the ominous herald of Mr. Summer to Mrs. Hutchinson “Thought we were going to have to get on without you”. The mysterious reason why Watson boy substitute for his father might allude to something atrocious happened last year to his father. Every single details accumulated to the shocking ending lead to the gapes of the