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The Lottery

The Lottery is a short story by Shirley Jackson set in a small American town where residents gather for an annual lottery that culminates in a shocking and violent conclusion. The story critiques blind adherence to tradition, as exemplified by the villagers' willingness to sacrifice one of their own for the sake of a ritual believed to ensure good crops. Jackson employs foreshadowing and symbolism, such as the black box and the pile of rocks, to enhance the story's themes and suspense.

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30 views8 pages

The Lottery

The Lottery is a short story by Shirley Jackson set in a small American town where residents gather for an annual lottery that culminates in a shocking and violent conclusion. The story critiques blind adherence to tradition, as exemplified by the villagers' willingness to sacrifice one of their own for the sake of a ritual believed to ensure good crops. Jackson employs foreshadowing and symbolism, such as the black box and the pile of rocks, to enhance the story's themes and suspense.

Uploaded by

cheesegrinch
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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The

Lottery
A PRESENTATION BY MILIANNI M.
Overvi
ew
“The Lottery” is a short story written
by Shirley Jackson that was first
published in ‘the New Yorker’.

The story is realistic fiction and


suspense.
The
Author
Shirley Jackson was a writer known for
her works of psychological horror, or
what is described as “Gothic fiction”.

Her most known works are “The


Lottery”, “The Haunting of Hill House,”
and “We Have Always Lived in the
Castle”.
Setting
The setting takes place in the morning of
June 26, where people are gathered
between the post office and the bank of a
small town. It is mentioned the town is in
America and there are about only 300
people.

The grass and flowers are mentioned along


with the pile of rocks that makes good
foreshadowing.
Summ
ary
On the morning of June 26, everyone in a
small town is gathering for their annual
lottery. The lottery is tradition and is
supposed to bring good crops and rid of
bad omens. As they wait, the children of
the village collect rocks and make a pile.

Soon enough, the lottery starts and each


man draws a paper from the box for their
family. One, by one, they reveal their paper
after everyone has drawn. Everyone’s
paper is blank. Everyone but Bill
Hutchingson, who has a big black dot on his
paper.
Summ
aryBill’s wife, Tessie, complains that the
drawing wasn’t fair, but Bill complies with
the tradition and walks up to the middle of
the huge circle of people with the rest of his
family. Each gamily member draws a paper
again. As each family member shows their
paper, Tessie refuses. Everyone else’s is
blank, which means Tessie’s is the one with
the dot in the middle,

Soon, people start picking up rocks and


everyone throws rocks at Tessie, stoning
her to death in the middle of town.
Author’s
Purpose
I think the author’s purpose of this story is
to show how sometimes, people will blindly
follow traditions, and the effects can be
horrible.

The lottery is the tradition. It’s done


because the villagers believe it will improve
their harvests. Old Man Warner said near
the beginning “Lottery in June, corn ‘be
heavy soon”.

The black box is a metaphor for the


tradition of the lottery. It is worn and
shabby after years of use, but the villagers
refuse to replace it in name of tradition.
Conclusion
The target audience for ‘The Lottery’ is
people who want a clever twist at the end
of their stories after some suspense.

In my opinion, the story makes its theme


known, but not obvious. The foreshadowing
with the pile of rocks and the symbolism
with the black, worn out box is very well
implemented.

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