NABILAH MOHR NOR

156343

THE LOTTERY
THEME

The theme which could be seen throughout this story is violence. Although the title and
early plot of this story does not seem tosuggest any of it, but ‘The Lottery’ carries violence as its
main idea; as the plot grows to terrible revealings of what the lottery was actually about and the
people who participated in it. The village participates in a traditional annual lottery on the 27 th of
June, where the ‘winner’ will be stoned to death as a form of sacrifice. Not only must the chosen one
be killed by a slow horrific way; the murder will be done by one’s own family and friends. Tessie
Hutchinson was thrown pebbles by Mrs. Delacroix and Mrs Dunbar, whom she had friendly
conversations with before the lottery began; together with the rest of the villagers she had known
well. Even children participated in this fiasco, including the ‘jackpot’ winners own child; where Little
Davy Hutchinson was handed pebbles to be thrown at his own mother. The sacrifice was also
executed without haste or respect of humanity. This was proven when Mr. Summers said to the
villagers, “Let’s finish quickly,” denying Tessie respectable final moments before her decided death.
This can also be seen when Mrs. Dunbar asked Mrs. Delacroix to not to wait for her if she was left
behind and that she should proceed throwing stones to Tessie; as if it was something of great
importance or pleasure that it should not be delayed.

SIGNIFICANT CHARACTER

One significant character in this story is Mr. Summers. He seems to be the leader of the
ritual, although it wasn’t really clear if he was officially appointed by the villagers. They listened and
obeyed his orders, providing him authority. He was seen as a jovial person and was pitied by the
village folks for having a nagging wife. Mr. Summers was in charge of most parts of the lottery;
where he makes up the slips of papers to be placed in the black box, including the one marked black,
kept the box, organized lottery by calling out families by turns, and announces who had the black
spot. Despite his somehow pleasant way of talking to people, Mr. Summers is a cold-hearted person.
He sees the lottery as a community task, if not a punishment. He refused to listen to what Tessie had
to say, even if they make sense. He had abandoned the fact that she was a person he knew as soon
as she got the marked ticket and delivered her fate together with the other villagers.

WHAT DO I LIKE ABOUT THE LOTTERY

What I like about ‘The Lottery’ is its unique element of surprise. Normally, people would
assume lotteries as a usual community even designed for fun and casual purposes. The writer’s
description and development of the events paints this picture almost perfectly, allowing her to
expose such an unexpected conflict, climax and ending chronologically. Who would guess that a
village’s annual lottery on the 27th of June was to pick out somebody to be stoned to death as a
sacrifice, supposingly to increase crop yield? It might be disturbing to find that the villagers were
somehow dedicated to participate in a event with such a shocking outcome for an irrelevant reason;
and that they even bring along children to join in, but it was a brilliant surprise nontheless.