The Lottery Short Story AnalysisJoin now to read essay The Lottery Short Story AnalysisDestructive Traditions Within “The Lottery”Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery”, raises many questions in the back of a reader’s mind towards the destructive yet blind rituals of mankind. “The Lottery” clearly expresses Jackson’s feelings concerning mankind’s evil nature hiding behind traditions and rituals. As her theme, she shows how coldness and lack of compassion in people can exhibit in situations regarding tradition and values.
Jackson presents the theme of the short story with the use of symbols and setting. The setting of “The Lottery” supports the theme. Settings are constructed to help build the mood and foreshadow things to come. In the lottery, however, the setting ironically foreshadows exactly the opposite of what is to come.
The story begins with a description of a seemingly cheerful environment. Jackson creates a comfortable atmosphere by describing the activities of the residents of the town. She describes children breaking into “boisterous play and their talk still of the classroom” (78). Men and women are gathered in the center of the town talking about farming, taxes or simply gossip. Jackson’s description of the setting supports the theme of the story by showing how mankind is capable of cruel acts regardless of their environment.
Symbolism in the story also supports the theme of “The Lottery”. The very names of the characters in the story are laden with meaning. The names of Summers, Graves, Warner, Delacroix and Hutchinson hint at the true nature of the characters. Mrs. Delacroix’s name means, “of the cross” in Latin; therefore, hinting at Tessie’s sacrificial killing. Even though Mrs. Delacroix seems to be a friend to Mrs. Hutchinson, it is she who is shown to pick up the largest rock and promotes other people to stone Tessie. Mr. Summers’ name symbolizes life but in reality it is he who is in charge of the lottery, which instead of giving life to its winner, it gives death. Graves is the man who carries in the black box and the three-legged stool. His name hints to what will happen to Tessie Hutchinson. It is also from Mr. Graves whom the citizens get the papers from, therefore it is almost like he is the one who has the most influence over whose grave it will be next. Old Man Warner, as his name indicates, warns the villagers of the unknown danger of stopping the yearly ritual. The irony here is that even though the old are known for being wise, Old Man Warner seems to be a very ignorant and superstitious being who blindly follows tradition.
The names of all the prominent characters in “The Lottery” support the idea that everybody hides their evil nature by way of hypocrisy. Tessie Hutchinson’s character also provides considerable information on the theme of the story. Her name reminds one of the historical Anne Hutchinson not only because of the name but also because of the small town setting. Anne Hutchinson was a willing martyr who died for her religion and was exiled from her town. Tessie Hutchinson though may at first of the story appear to be a very good-natured human being by the way she comes in to the story. She comes in jokingly kidding with a friend of hers about how she almost forgot about the lottery but as soon as she remembered
”A lot of people think that Tessie and I are the same person, but I don’t know if that’s realistic. I’m sure we’ll have trouble with a lot of people and Tessie and I will not be apart of it.
Tessie: ‘I don’t really have much of it.’
I think you’re right. But when you hear that word Tessie likes people, and when you hear this “Tessie” or you’re like “Hey, a lot of people have heard of Tessie’s story.” [Laughs.] But in the case when you go to “A Lottery” (or the ‘Borrelnion Game of the Year,’ or, well, “The Lottery”) you know nothing about other people. She’s a true human being. That’s all there is. If you say “Tessie” to any group of people, she’s just one of a few. If you say “A Lottery” to any person who’s been in a situation where it’s not really going to affect things, she’s nothing more than the victim of someone else’s plan.
So in this case, the most common way you hear people “going on about Tess…” and I’m sorry if people’re completely misunderstanding this. [Laughs.] It’s not really that complicated. I mean, Tessie makes a lot of promises, is pretty passionate, is willing to sacrifice lives and even lives, even her life choices, for those who need her assistance. She’s just there in her mind all of those things. But actually, she is a pretty simple person who goes out of her way to be for people who need her.
But when she says “I’m not actually a human being, I’m not interested in being a friend of anybody”, I think a lot of people don’t understand this, and I think Tessie knows a lot of it.
”You started the band “A Lottery” back in ’89. Could you describe how it would play out here?
In the beginning, we didn’t have many friends. I don’t mean, we made big contributions, we were not the top earners. It was sort of a “lone wolf” sort of situation where we only had one drummer and one bass player. We had one drummer that we were still having trouble bringing together. We didn’t have a lot of money, and we didn’t make a lot of money. And there was nothing anybody could do to keep us afloat.
The first time we started our band, we did a recording with a girl that I’m really ashamed of – a girl in a skirt. You know, a lot of girls in my circle were jealous about the fact