analysis of 'the lottery

8/15/2019 Analysis of 'The Lottery'

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An Analysis of "The Lottery" by Shirley Jackson's

When Shirley Jackson's story "The Lottery" was published in the June 28, 198 issue o! theNew Yorker, i t receied a response that "no New Yorker story had eer receied" be!ore#hundreds o! letters poured in, !ull o! "bewilder$ent, speculation, and abuse%" The reason#Jackson's story portrays an "aera&e" ew (n&land illa&e with "aera&e" citi)ens en&a&ed ina deadly rite, the annual selection o! a sacri!icial icti$ by $eans o! a public lottery% *nlytowards the end o! the story do we suspect that the "winner" will be stoned to death by therest o! the illa&ers% This response was not what Jackson had hoped !or% +n the July 22, 198issue o! the San Francisco Chronicle she responded to her readers sayin& " what + hadhoped the story to say is ery di!!icult% + suppose, + hoped, by settin& a particularly brutalancient rite in the present and in $y own illa&e to shock the story's readers with a &raphicdra$ati)ation o! the pointless iolence and &eneral inhu$anity in their own lies%"

There are $any social details that link the lottery to the ordinary social practices o! the illa&e%The tradition o! the lottery rein!orces the illa&e's hierarchical social order by instillin& theilla&es with an unconscious !ear that i! they resist this order they the$seles $i&ht beselected in the net lottery% While creatin& this !ear, it also produces the ideolo&y necessary

!or the s$ooth !unctionin& o! that social order, despite its inherent ine-ualities%

The story takes place on a hot su$$er's day% This will !oreshadow the "hot" eents that willtake place on the day o! the lottery% The place is the s$all illa&e which has a bank, a posto!!ice, a &rocery store, a coal business, a school syste$% The wo$en are housewies ratherthan !ield workers or writers and the $en talk o! "tractors and taes%" .ore i$portantly, theilla&e has the sa$e socio/econo$ic strati!ication !ound n a $odern, capitalist society%

0t the top o! the social ladder is the illa&e's $ost power!ul $an, .r% Su$$ers, who owns theilla&e's lar&est business a coal concern and is also its leader, since he has $ore "ti$e andener&y 3read $oney and leisure4 to deote to ciic actiities" than others% Su$$ers' eryna$e su&&ests that he has beco$e a $an o! leisure throu&h his wealth% et in line is .r%5raes, the illa&e's second $ost power!ul &oern$ent o!!icial# ts post$aster% 6is na$e

$ay su&&est the &raity o! o!!icialis$% 7eneath .r% 5raes is .r% .artin, who has theecono$ically adanta&eous position o! bein& the &rocer in a illa&e o! three hundred%

These three $ost power!ul $en who control the town, econo$ically as well as politically, alsohappen to ad$inister the lottery% .r% Su$$ers is its o!!icial, sworn in yearly by .r% 5raes%.r% 5raes helps .r% Su$$ers $ake up the lottery slips% .r% .artin steadies the lottery boas the slips are stirred% +n the o!! season, the lottery bo is stored either at their places o!business or their residences# "+t had spent on year in .r% 5raes' barn and another yearunder!oot in the post/o!!ice, and so$eti$es it was set on a shel! in the .artin &rocery and le!tthere"% Those who control the town also control the lottery% The lottery takes place in theilla&e s-uare "between the post/o!!ice and the bank", two buildin&s which represent&oern$ent and !inance, the institutions !ro$ which Su$$ers, 5raes, and .artin derie

their power%

6oweer .r% Su$$ers is still the $ost power!ul $an in town% 6e is not only the wealthiestbusiness$an and o!!iciates the lottery, but a sy$bol o! eil% When 7ill 6utchinson !orces hiswi!e Tessie to open her lottery slip to the crowd, "+t had a black spot on it, the black spot .r%Su$$ers had $ade the ni&ht be!ore with 3a4 heay pencil in 3his4 coal/co$pany o!!ice"% 0tthe ery $o$ent when the lottery's icti$ is reealed, we see the blackness eil o! .r%Su$$ers' coal business bein& trans!erred to the black dot on the lottery slip% ot only is thelottery eil, but it is carried out by the $ost power!ul bus)iness$an in the illa&e, a&ainst ahelpless wo$an%

The lottery's rules o! participation re!lect a ri&id social hierarchy based on an une-ual socialdiision o! labor% The participants in the lottery understand consciously that its outco$e is

pure chance# a "de$ocratic" aura that hides its !irst codi!yin& !unction% The illa&ers belieeunconsciously that their co$$it$ent to a work ethic will so$ehow $ake the$ i$$une to


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selection% 7ut, this work ethic preents the$ !ro$ understandin& that the lottery's actual!unction is not to encoura&e work, but to rein!orce the une-ual social division o! labor%There!ore, when Jackson chooses Tessie 6utchinson as the lottery's icti$scape&oat itshows that the lottery is an ideolo&ical tradition used to de!use the aera&e illa&er's deep,unepressed dissatis!action with the social order in which he lies% Their unspoken an&er canbe directed at the victims o! that social order as they stone the$ to death% This happens year

a!ter year, not because it is ust "tradition," but because it seres the !unction o! pur&in& thesocial body o! all resistance ,so that business capitalis$ can &o on as usual and theSu$$ers, the 5raes and the .artins can re$ain in power%

Those who control the illa&e econo$ically and politically also ad$inister the lottery% Therules also tell us $uch about who has and who doesn't hae power in the illa&e's socialhierarchy% The rules deter$ine who &ets to choose slips in the lottery's !irst, second and thirdrounds% 7e!ore the lottery, lists are "3$ade4 up o! heads o! !a$ilies 3who choose in the !irstround4, heads o! households 3who choose in the second round4, 3and4 $e$bers o! eachhousehold in each !a$ily 3who choose in the last round4"% The second round is $issin& !ro$the story because the !a$ily patriarch who selects the dot in the !irst round, 7ill 6utchinson,has no $arried $ale o!!sprin&% When her !a$ily is chosen in the !irst round, Tessie6utchinson obects that her dau&hter and son/in/law didn't "take their chance%" .r% Su$$ers

has to re$ind her, ":au&hters draw with their husbands' !a$ilies"% ;ower in the illa&e, then,is in the hands o! $ale heads o! !a$ilies and households% The $ale heads o! households, as$en in the work !orce, proide the link between the broader econo$y o! the illa&e and theecono$y o! the household% So$e consideration o! other sin&le household !a$ilies in the !irstround o! the lottery//the :unbars and the Watsons//will help $ake this relationship betweenecono$ics and !a$ily power clearer% .r% :unbar, unable to attend the lottery because he hasa broken le&, has to choose by proy% 0ccordin& to the rules o! the lottery "&rown boy3s4" takeprecedence as proies oer wies% .rs% :unbar's son, 6orace, who is only siteen, is still inschool and not workin&< there!ore .rs% :unbar chooses !or .r% :unbar% Jack Watson, on theother hand, whose !ather is dead, is clearly older than 6orace and presu$ably already in thework !orce% The "heads o! households" are not si$ply the oldest $ales in their i$$ediate!a$ilies< they are the oldest working $ales and &et their power !ro$ their insertion into alar&er econo$y% Wo$en, who hae no direct link to the econo$y, as de!ined by capitalis$,

choose in the lottery only in the absence o! a "&rown," workin& $ale%

Wo$en hae an in!erior position in the socio/econo$ic hierarchy o! the illa&e% They wear"!aded house dresses % % % 3and walk4 shortly a!ter their $en!olk"% Their dresses indicate thatthey do work, but because they work at ho$e and not within the lar&er econo$y without anypay, they are treated by the $en as in!eriors% When Tessie 6utchinson appears late to thelottery, other $en address her husband 7ill, "here co$es your .issus, 6utchinson"% one o!the $en think o! addressin& Tessie !irst, since she "belon&s" to 7ill% .ost wo$en in theilla&e take this patriarchal de!inition o! their role !or &ranted, as .rs% :unbar's and .rs%:elacroi's re!erences to their husbands as their "old 3$en4" su&&ests% Tessie is the only onewho rebels a&ainst $ale do$ination, althou&h only unconsciously%

*n its sur!ace, the idea o! a lottery in which eeryone, as .rs% 5raes says, "3takes4 the sa$echance" see$s de$ocratic, een i! its e!!ect, the sin&lin& out o! one person !or priile&e or

attack, is not% The lottery su&&ests 'election' rather than selection," since "the 3illa&ers4

&ather in the center o! the place, in the illa&e s-uare% +n the lottery, the illa&e rulin& classparticipates in order to conince others and perhaps een the$seles that they are not in!act above eeryone else durin& the re$ainder o! the year, een thou&h their eclusie controlo! the lottery su&&ests that they are% =et ust as the lottery's black ballot> bo has &rownshabby and old and reeals its "ori&inal wood color," $o$ents in their o!!icial "de$ocratic"conduct o! the lottery//especially .r% Su$$ers' conduct as their representatie//reeal theclass interest that lies behind it% .r Su$$ers wears eans, as i! he was ust another one o!the co$$on people, but he also wears a "clean white shirt," which is $ore appropriate to his class% 6e leans casually on the black bo be!ore the lottery selection be&ins and talk3s4inter$inably to .r% 5raes and .artins," the other $e$bers o! his class, and "see$3s4 ery

proper and i$portant"% 6e asks !or help in conductin& the lottery "so$e o! you !ellows want to&ie $e a hand>", which see$s to be a de$ocratic re-uest but in Su$$ers' -uestion is


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has any other households, Tessie yells, "There's :on and (a % % % .ake the$ take theirchance"% Tessie's dau&hter (a, howeer, belongs to :on and is conse-uently barred !ro$

participatin& with her parents' !a$ily% These mistakes foreshadow Tessie's bein& the

lottery's likeliest icti$% Tessie's rebellion is entirely unconscious as reealed by her cry whilebein& stoned, "+t isn't !air"% Tessie does not obect to the lottery per se, only to her ownselection as its scape&oat% +t would hae been !ine with her i! so$eone else had been

selected% +n stonin& Tessie, the illa&ers treat her as a scape&oat onto which they can proecttheir own ur&e to rebel% The only other places we can see these rebellious i$pulses are inTessie, in .r% and .rs% 0da$s' su&&estion, s-uelched by Warner, that the lottery $i&ht be&ien up, and in the lau&hter o! the crowd% The crowd's nerous lau&hter epressesuncertainty about the alidity o! the taboos that Tessie breaks% 7ut ulti$ately these rebelliousi$pulses are channeled by the lottery and its ideolo&y, capitalis$, into an&er at the rebelliousicti$s o! capitalist social or&ani)ation% Like Tessie, the illa&ers cannot epress theirrebellion because the $assie !orce o! ideolo&y stands in the way%

The lottery !unctions to terrori)e the illa&e into acceptin&, in the name o! work andde$ocracy, the une-ual social diision o! labor and power on its social order% When Tessie isselected, and be!ore she is stoned, .r% Su$$ers asks her husband to "show 3the people4 herpaper"% 7y holdin& up the slip, 7ill 6utchinson reasserts his do$inance oer his wi!e andtrans!or$s her into a sy$bol o! the dan&ers o! disobedience% Tessie is a stran&e kind o!scape&oat, since the illa&e does not literally choose her, sin&le her out% 0n act o!scape&oatin& that is unmotivated is di!!icult to conceie% 6oweer, the lottery is a $etaphor!or the unconscious ideolo&ical $echanis$s o! scape&oatin&% +n choosin& Tessie throu&h thelottery, Jackson has atte$pted to show us who$ the illa&e $i&ht hae chosen i! the lotteryhad been an election% 7y presentin& this election as an arbitrary lottery, she &ies us ani$a&e o! the illa&e's blindness to its own $oties%

(en the illa&e children hae been sociali)ed into the ideolo&y that icti$i)es Tessie% Whenthey are introduced in the second para&raph o! the story, they are anious that su$$er haslet the$ out o! school# "The !eelin& o! liberty sat uneasily on $ost o! the$" p% 291% Like their parents, they hae learned that leisure and play are suspect% 0s i! to stop this aniety, the

illa&e boys start to collect stones !or the lottery% +s this play or labor> .oreoer, they !ollowthe lead o! 7obby .artin, the one boy in the story whose !ather is a $e$ber o! the illa&erulin& class .r% Su$$ers and .r% 5raes hae no boys, in hoardin& and !i&htin& oer thesestones as i! they were $oney% While the boys do this, the illa&e &irls stand o!! to the sideand watch, ust as they will be epected to re$ain outside o! the work !orce and dependent ontheir workin& husbands when they &row up% "The children asse$bled !irst, o! course" is not$eant to i$ply that children take a "natural" and pri$itie oy in stonin& people to death% Thecloser we look at their behaior, the $ore we reali)e that they learned it !ro$ their parents,who$ they copy in their play% 7ut there is one &enuinely innocent child in the story, :ay6utchinson% When he has to choose his lottery ticket, the adults help hi$ while he looks atthe$ "wonderin&ly"% 0nd when Tessie is !inally to be stoned, "so$eone" has to "3&ie4 :ay6utchinson a !ew pebbles" to stone his $other% The illa&e $akes sure that :ay learns what

he is supposed to do be!ore he understands why he does it or the conse-uences .

(en the illa&e adults are not hopeless% 7e!ore *ld .an Warner cuts the$ o!!, .r% and .rs% 0da$s, whose last na$e su&&ests a hu$anity that has not been entirely lost, brie!ly $entionother illa&es that are either talkin& o! &iin& up the lottery or hae already done so% ;robablyout o! !ear, they do not su&&est that their illa&e &ie it up< but hintin& at the possibility $ayindicate a reseration, a a&ue sense o! &uilt, about what they are about to do%The 0da$s'srepresent the illa&e's best hu$ane i$pulses, which are repressed by the lottery%

The story is a criticis$ o! social order and capitalis$% The lottery is ironic since the "winner"will be killed% +t points out the !ailure o! the capitalist ideolo&y !reedo$, prosperity and!ul!ill$ent and hi&hli&hts the ine-uality between the &enders% Jackson's story tends to be apessi$istic look at $an's innate depraity%

analysis of 'the lottery

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