John Menanno
September 17, 2015
The Lottery summary
The short story "The Lottery" by Shirley Jackson takes place in a rural town some time in the past. The story is about a town that annually kills a member by randomly choosing them. The person is then stoned to death. The story starts out normally with everything seeming normal. Then a man named Mr. Summers who has no wife or children come out with a black box. This Black Box is used for the Lottery and it is not the first because the Lottery is so old. Everyone in the town puts a slip of paper into the box. Mr. Summers and the mailman Mr. Graves then bring the box to the Mr. Summers at the coal company that he owns. Tessie Hutchinson then joins the crowd with the rest of her family. People laugh at her because she is late for the Lottery. Mr. Summers then gives the rules of the Lottery.
We also discover that the oldest man in town "Old Man Warner" likes the lottery because he thinks that it will make the crops grow better. This is an example of superstition. Old man warner says to give up the Lottery is like to back to live in caves. Then every head of each family comes and collects a slip of paper from the box. Then Tessie Hutchinson gets the paper with the dot on it. She says it is not fair and that her husband was not given enough time to get the paper. Then all the towns people start stoning her to death. The interesting thing about this story is how the towns people just do lottery even if it results in death. The people are superstitious and obedient. I would say the theme of the book is sometimes you need to let go of outdated traditions. That is my summary of the Lottery.