Lottery

The Lottery

Characters: Mr. Summers is the conductor of the lottery in this town. He is the owner of a coal business and is married but has no children. Tessie Hutchinson is the ‘winner’ of the lottery and the wife of Bill Hutchinson who is the one who originally picked the black dot out of the box. Mr. Graves the postman who swears in Mr. Summers.

Symbols: the black box represents tradition, and how worn out and old this lottery really is. Even though the box is falling apart, the villagers do not want to get rid of it. They could easily replace the box with a new one, but they choose not to. However, they did not continue the tradition of using would slips but instead replaced it with pieces of paper.

Point of View: This story is written in the first person narrative. It is told by and outsider and not someone part of the village.

Setting: This story takes place on a clear and summer sunny day in the square of a small village. The writer makes you believe it is a happy and peaceful event that is going to take place in the very beginning.

Plot: In this story, the villagers of a small town gather together in the town square to participate in a lottery that is being held. Compared to most towns with lots of people, this lottery only took about two hours considering there were only three hundred people. Mr. Summers is the one in charge of the town’s lottery being that he has a lot of free time on his hands. Mr. Summers brings the black box used to hold the slips of papers for this lottery. Although the box is shabby and worn out, it is considered a tradition and remains in use. Years ago they used wooden chips instead of slips of paper but now that the town is growing, Mr. Summers suggested that slips of paper would fit more easily.

The night before the lottery, Mr. Summers and Mr. Graves made up the slips of paper and put them in the box that was taken to the safe of Mr. Summers coal company. Mr. Summers had to be sworn in as the official of...