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The Lottery: Difference between revisions
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[[The Lottery|"The Lottery"]] is a 1948 short story written by Shirley Jackson. ▼
| title = The Lottery
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| author = Shirley Jackson
| central theme = [[Peer Pressure Makes You Evil|Mob psychology, scapegoating]]
| elevator pitch =
| genre =
| publication date = June 26, 1948
| source page exists =
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}}
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It's June 27th in a small American village. A village of three hundred people has prepared for this day as if it were another celebration, like a square dance or a Halloween program. This event, [[The Lottery]], consists of pulling a townsperson's name, one by one, out of a splintery black box.
It would be any other quaint story if it weren't for the heavy symbolism. The story is Shirley Jackson's views on the pointlessness of violence and the inhumanity in the world, in each and every person and their own neighbors. Shirley Jackson received much hate mail for it, readers unsubscribed from ''The New Yorker'', and the story was banned in the Union of South Africa (the precursor to modern-day South Africa). Today it is an often used [[School Study Media|School Study Medium]].
It is probably best known as a staple of American Junior high/Middle School literature classes. It has been adapted into many kinds of media, such as radio, one-act plays, short films, a 1969 ballet, and a successful 1996 [[Made for TV Movie]]. [[Shout-Out]]s in other media are not uncommon, such as ''[[The Simpsons]]'' and ''[[South Park]]''.
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{{tropelist}}
* [[An Aesop]]: Everyone is fine with established rituals, until they are affected by them. And so the cycle continues. {{spoiler|Tessie arrives late to the lottery smiling and joking, until her family is chosen.}}
* [[Ain't Too Proud to Beg]]: {{spoiler|Tessie's last moments}} feature her begging for her life {{spoiler|as her neighbors and family stone her}}.
* [[Asshole Victim]]: {{spoiler|Tessie Hutchinson seems nice and good-humored, and you may pity her as she tries to beg for her life when the story ends. Then when her family is chosen, she screams that it wasn't done right, and wants her in-laws to be selected as well for the lottery}}.
* [[Foreshadowing]]: The boys stacking stones in the beginning.▼
* [[Banned in China]]: [[The Other Wiki]] tells us that the story was banned in South Africa.
* [[Downer Ending]]: Without blinking an eye, {{spoiler|Tessie's family and neighbors stone her to death, even her good friends. She dies begging for her life. We also learn this ritual has been going on for years, and will continue since no one sees anything wrong with it}}.
* [[Even Evil Has Standards]]: While the villagers are fine with {{spoiler|stoning the designated lottery "winner" to death, they hope during the selection process that the Hutchinson children won't be chosen.}}
* [[A Fete Worse Than Death]]: Woo-hoo, it's lottery season again. Draw your paper, {{spoiler|but try not to select black. That means you won, and you'll be stoned to death}}.
* [[Foreshadowing]]:
** Tessie arrives late to the lottery, saying that she forgot what day it was while washing dishes. When her family is chosen, she starts complaining that it wasn't fair while her husband tells her to shut up. {{spoiler|Maybe she sensed her time was up}}.
** More than just them. On second reading, it's remarkable how many times stones are mentioned.
* [[Grumpy Old Man]]: Old Man Warner is the oldest person in the town, very ornery and traditional. {{spoiler|Turns out there's a reason for that: one person a year being stoned to death in a small village isn't good for life expectancy rates}}.
* [[Human Sacrifice]]: {{spoiler|Tessie is sacrificed to make the corn harvest plentiful.}}
** There is hope, though. Mention is made of towns stopping the custom.
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[[Category:Literature of the 1940s]]
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[[Category:Literature]]
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