The Lottery
Poster by Alex, Drake, and Ryan
Mr. Summers
Mr. Summers is the organizer of the lottery. He was a round faced man who owned a coal business who seemed very friendly. He never had a wife, possibly for the fear she would be murdered in the lottery.
Mr. Hutchinson
Mr. Hutchinson seemed like a normal guy who was just forced into a bad situation. It seems like he had to be the rock during his family due to his wife becoming hysterical with fear.
Mrs. Hutchinson
Mrs. Hutchinson seems like a stereotypical small town wife. She becomes ruthlessly murdered by several members of her own community, including her very own family.
Point of Vision
The point of vision is third person objective. The reason is it never says what someone is thinking or feeling. Also, the narrator always refers to people with the pronouns he, she, him, or her.
Story Summary
The story begins with kids playing and stacking stones. After a while they are told to calm down while the lottery occurs. People individually go up and take slips of paper until Mr. Hutchinson draws the paper with a black dot on it. His family is then forced to draw. Mrs. Hutchinson is discovered to have the dot on her piece of paper. She becomes hysterical and tries to run away. The story ends, leaving us to believe that she was stoned to death by this small town's population.
The Lottery by Shirley Jackson (Summary) - Minute Book Report
Three Literary Devices
Symbolism
In the story there are multiple examples of symbolism. One example is the black box. Black usually symbolizes death or bad luck. Another example of symbolism is the black dot on the card, which also symbolizes death.
Irony
Usually we would see a lottery as a good thing. In this story we see an instance where it is actually a horribly frightening thing. Instead of winning money the person who wins gets stones thrown at them.
Foreshadowing
In the beginning we hear about a pile of stones and are left to wonder what they are until the end. We then realize that the pile of stones was really a foreshadowing of the stoning that would occur at the end.
The Lottery Trailer
RAD Critique
Ryan:I thought the story was very actionable and detailed. It had a little too much dialog, but other than that it was a good story.
Alex:The story was very elusive by disguising the lottery as a thing that is used often and harmless, but a twist in events show that whoever wins dies by stoning.
Drake: I thought it was a good story since we have to figure a few things out by ourselves. They don't spell out what the lottery is for or why everyone seems to be afraid, so we are left to figure out what is happening.