The Lottery Summary & Analysis

This seemingly idyllic beginning establishes a setting at odds with the violent resolution of the story. Early details, such as sun and flowers, all have positive connotations, and establish the theme of the juxtaposition of peace and violence. The lottery is mentioned in the first paragraph, but not explained until the last lines.

The children’s activities—gathering stones—have a false innocence about them. Because this resembles the regular play of children, the reader may not assume gathering stones is intended for anything violent. The word “raids,” however, introduces a telling element of violence and warfare into the children’s innocent games. Similarly, the reader is lulled into a false sense of security by the calm and innocuous activities and topics of conversation among the adult villagers. We see the villagers strictly divided along gendered lines, even as children.

Because of the innocuous nature of Mr. Summers’ other community activities, the lottery is assumed to be something in a similar vein. He is a successful businessman, but pitied because he can have no children—clearly this is a very family-oriented society.

The details of the lottery’s proceedings seem mundane, but the crowd’s hesitation to get involved is a first hint that the lottery is not necessarily a positive experience for the villagers. It is also clear that the lottery is a tradition, and that the villagers believe very strongly in conforming to tradition—they are unwilling to change even something as small as the black box used in the proceedings.

Even though the villagers value tradition, many of the specific parts of their traditions have been lost with time. This suggests that the original purpose of the lottery has also been forgotten, and the lottery is now an empty ritual, one enacted simply because it always has been. When we later learn the significance of the slips of paper, it seems horribly arbitrary that they are simply made by a person the night before.

The lottery involves organizing the village by household, which reinforces the importance of family structures here. This structure relies heavily on gender roles for men and women, where men are the heads of households, and women are delegated to a secondary role and considered incapable of assuming responsibility or leadership roles. Even though the setting of this story is a single town, it is generic enough that it might be almost anywhere. In doing this, Jackson essentially makes the story a fable—the ideas explored here are universal.

Tessie Hutchinson’s late arrival establishes her character in a few sentences: she cares little about the lottery and the pomp and circumstance of the ritual. She is different from the other villagers, and thus a potential rebel against the structure of the village and the lottery.

Tessie joins her family in the crowd, as all the villagers stand with their households, but her sense of humor sets her apart from the rest. She is clearly well-liked and appreciated by the villagers, which makes her eventual fate all the more surprising and disturbing.

Mrs. Dunbar is the only woman to draw in the lottery, and the discussion of her role in the ritual proceedings emphasizes the theme of family structure and gender roles. Women are considered so inferior that even a teenaged son would replace a mother as the “head of household.” The formality surrounding these proceedings shows Mrs. Dunbar’s involvement to be an anomaly for the village.

Jack Watson’s role continues the examination of family structures and gender roles. Jack earns respect and identity as a man among the villagers by drawing in the lottery. He is referred to as a “good fellow” and “a man” who is looking after his “helpless” mother.

The description of the lottery’s formalities builds the reader’s anticipation, as the many seemingly mundane rituals all lead up to a mysterious, ominous outcome. The arc of the story depends on the question of just what will happen to the “winner” of the lottery.

Snap shots of village life, like the conversation between Mrs. Delacroix and Mrs. Graves, develop the humanity of the characters and makes this seem just like any other small town where everyone knows each other. The small talk juxtaposed against murder is what makes the story so powerful. Janey is taking on a “man’s role,” so she is assumed to need encouragement and support.

The men’s nervousness foreshadows the lottery’s grim outcome. Tessie acts at odds with the pervasive mood, drawing laughs from the crowd. Tessie does not question the lottery at this point, and treats the proceedings lightheartedly—from a position of safety.

The conversation between Mr. Adams and Old Man Warner establishes why the lottery is continued in this village, while it has been ended in others: the power of tradition. As the oldest man in the village, Old Man Warner links the lottery to traditional civilization, equating its removal to a breakdown of society and a return to a primitive state. For the villagers, the lottery demonstrates the organization and power of society—that is, a group of people submitting to shared rules in exchange for protection and support. But we see that the lottery also shows the arbitrariness and corruption of many of these social rules.

Mrs. Dunbar’s impatience, Old Man Warner’s pride, and Jack Watson’s coming-of-age moment show how integrated the lottery is into this society. No one questions the practice, and they all arrange their lives around it. Jackson shows how difficult it is to give up a tradition when everyone else conforms to it.

Mr. Summer’s casual language and camaraderie with the villagers contrast with what is at stake. Tessie’s reaction is the first explicit sign of something horrifying at the heart of the lottery. She is as outspoken in her anger as she was in her humor—although rather too late, and it’s assumed she wouldn’t argue if someone else had been chosen. Bill resignedly accepts the power of the tradition.

This passage shows the self-serving survival instinct of humans very clearly. Each person who speaks up is protecting his or her own skin, a survival instinct that Jackson shows to be natural to all the villagers, and by extension all humans. Tessie is willing to throw her daughter and son-in-law into harm’s way to have a better chance of saving herself. The other women are relieved to have not been chosen—no one speaks up against the lottery until they themselves are in danger.

Mr. Summers and Mr. Graves’s calm continuation of the lottery’s ritual shows that they are numb to the cruelty of the proceedings. Tessie’s protests imply that she doesn’t see the choice of the marked slip of paper as fate or some kind of divine decree, but rather as a human failing. Perhaps she sees, too late, that the lottery is only an arbitrary ritual that continues simply because a group of people have unthinkingly decided to maintain it.

Tessie’s protests have shown the reader that the outcome of the lottery will not be good. Little Davy’s inclusion reinforces the cruelty of the proceedings and the coldness of its participants. Little Davy is put at risk even when he is unable to understand the rituals or to physically follow the instructions.

Even a dystopian society like this one doesn’t exclude other aspects of human nature like youth, popularity, friendship, and selfishness. Nancy’s behavior resembles that of many popular teen girls—again emphasizing the universal nature of Jackson’s story. We get the sense that Old Man Warner is perpetually displeased with any kind of change to tradition—even though the omniscient narrator tells us that the “tradition” Warner is used to is very different from the original lottery.

The inhumanity of the villagers, which has been developed by repeated exposure to the lottery and the power of adhering to tradition, still has some arbitrary limits—they are at least relieved that a young child isn’t the one chosen. They show no remorse for Tessie, however, no matter how well-liked she might be. Even Tessie’s own children are happy to have been spared, and relieved despite their mother’s fate. Jackson builds the sense of looming horror as the story approaches its close.

Mrs. Dunbar already sent her son away, perhaps to spare him having to participate in murder this year, and now she herself seems to try and avoid taking part in the lottery as well. The line about the stones makes an important point—most of the external trappings of the lottery have been lost or forgotten, but the terrible act at its heart remains. There is no real religious or practical justification for the lottery anymore—it’s just a primitive murder for the sake of tradition. The use of stones also connects the ritual to Biblical punishments of “stoning” people for various sins, which then brings up the idea of the lottery’s victim as a sacrifice. The idea behind most primitive human sacrifices was that something (or someone) must die in order for the crops to grow that year. This village has been established as a farming community, so it seems likely that this was the origin of the lottery. The horrifying part of the story is that the murderous tradition continues even in a seemingly modern, “normal” society.

By having children (even Tessie’s own son) involved in stoning Tessie, Jackson aims to show that cruelty and violence are primitive and inherent aspects of human nature—not something taught by society. Tessie’s attempts to protest until the end show the futility of a single voice standing up against the power of tradition and a majority afraid of nonconformists. Jackson ends her story with the revelation of what actually happens as a result of the lottery, and so closes on a note of both surprise and horror. The seemingly innocuous, ordinary villagers suddenly turn violent and bestial, forming a mob that kills one of their own with the most primitive weapons possible—and then seemingly going home to supper.