The Lottery - Notes

"The Lottery"

Setting--June 27th, summer, clear and sunny, surrounded by rich green grass and blossoming flowers: symbolizes life

Children--gathering stones, boisterous play

Men--surveying children, speaking of tractors taxes weather etc.., smiled rather than laughed at the jokes

Women--gossiping, standing by their husbands

Old Man Warner--cranky old man, ensures tradition of the lottery is carried on, embodies the mindless violence of this society, symbolizes tradition and no change

Mr. Summers--conducted lottery and all other activities that went on in town [irony in name, life happiness but conducts the death]

Mr. Graves--postmaster (mailman), assists Mr Summers with lottery, helps the Hutchinson children pick out their slips of paper from the box [irony in name, graves=death]

Tessie--lighthearted and unconcerned in the beginning, frightened and distraught at the end [dynamic character]

Foreshadowing--children gathering stones at the beginning, the men not lauhging and being more serious, Mrs. Delacroix holds her breath, Mr Graves [name], black box [death]

Irony--Mrs Hutchinson is ironic because she entered happy and careless (expecting nothing will happen) while others are seroius and worrisome, but in reality she is the one who gets stone. Mr Summers has a joyful name but hes in charge of picking the death, the title of the story "The Lottery" which is usually depicted as winning something while in actuality youre losing your life not gaining anything if youre choosen

Conflicts--Person vx. Society (Tessie Hutchinson)

Exposition--children gathering stones/playing, woman gossiping, men talking, families getting together, Mr Summers entering with black box,community is gathering at town square for the lottery

Rising Action--men go up one by one, all families unfold paper, Bill Hutchinson receieves the black dot, Tess objects to firt round that its not fair, each family member picks a slip of paper

Climax--Tess wins the lottery, black dot on her slip of paper

Falling Action--community prepares to stone Tess by gathering stones and encircling her

Denouement--Tess states "It's not fair, It's not right" Then they were upon her

Point of View--Third Person Objective, you cant see into the mind of any characters, you learn about their actions from their dialogue

Themes--Traditions should be questioned and changed as people change
Family Loyalty: Self preservation can be put above family loyalty.
Human Nature: As human beings, we are capable of both good and evil.
Sometimes, we ignor injustices until they happen to us.