Lottery tickets, jackpots and millions of dollars are everyone’s dream. Receiving a huge sum of money for free could change anyone’s life. The short story “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson tackles this idea in a different way. Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery” is a story that keeps you on the edge of your seat by creating a tense mood without directly saying anything of killing or death. It is only revealed in the end that the ‘winner’ of the lottery is killed by their peers. We meet multiple characters throughout the story as well as learn about many changes that have happened to the lottery. Jackson’s work does a great job reflecting society and showing how separated we can be in terms of tradition, morals and what we value. Reading the story helps develop ideas of poor morals in society and brings light to the idea that killing is rooted inside of people and not caused by sporadic action.

The characters we are introduced to in “The Lottery” all represent different aspects of society. From good to bad we can see different morals through all these different people. The first characters we are introduced to are the children of the town. They were running around playing and gathering stones which were later used for the stoning of the lottery winner.(coursepack 148)  During the first read of the text this scene seemed very innocent and lighthearted. Young boys playing during vacation from school with no worries in the world. But when we find out that they were preparing to kill a fellow member in their society we see how killing is seen as normal or even fun in this society. Children are used to it and gather materials for it together. This can easily be seen as a depiction of how children can pick up the actions of their elders and view them as normal or even as enjoyable. Children are most influenced by their parents and people they look up to. This could be a simple reason why traditions or practices such as “the lottery” continue for so long. Some people argue that past generations are the reason why hateful things such as racism and homophobia continue. I can see this view point and Shirley Jackson shows a great example of this. If a child learns everything from a higher figure and practices it for their whole life it is going to continue. Not only that it will be passed on to their children. No matter how many changes are made, the original practices will always take place. This is also shown in the text because many changes have happened to “the lottery” but the end product still happens every year and it will continue to happen because it is rooted inside the mind of children who grow to become adults that promote these activities.

The next character we meet is Mr Summers. He hosts the lottery. We learn that the lottery is so old a lot of old traditions have been lost and Mr Summers even makes suggestions to change the box they use. His suggestions were met by no changes but he continued to make the same suggestion every year. Other old traditions that were lost over the years were a recital or a chant performed by the host. Also a salute but those things seemed to become less important as the lottery is done quickly. Mr Summers can be seen in this story as the authority figure even though he still is just another member of society who has to participate in the lottery as well. Mr Summers can represent how accepting our society is today. No matter how many suggestions he makes, nothing really changes besides old rituals that have become unimportant. The big deal, which is the lottery, remains the same so that is all that seems to matter. We can also see Mr Summers has a very nonchalant attitude to him throughout the entire lottery process. When he first arrives he walks up and all he says is “little late today folks.” This makes it seem like this is just a normal thing to not only Summers but the rest of the village since he doesn’t make it sound so severe that he is late. He also says “guess we better get started, get this over with, so we can go back to work” This makes it seem like the lottery is just a part of their day or even as important as a chore. The people in the village just accept it also.

Another person we meet is Old Man Warner. He is the oldest person in the village and has participated in 77 lotteries. Old Man Warner is a very old school, hard headed character who complains about the current day people. In the story we find out that this village is one of the last that practices the lottery while a few have already stopped doing it. We can see Warner’s attitude almost right away as he says “Listening to young folks, nothings good enough for them”. “Pack of young fools” (coursepack 150)  We see how he feels about the current generation and feels like all they do is complain which is ironic since he is complaining about them. He is complaining about how other towns have stopped the lottery and he also complains how Summers interacts with others. He continues to go on and say “it is not how it used to be”. (coursepack 151)  Old Man Warner can be seen as a representation of older people in today’s society. We often hear the same complaints from older people saying that times have changed too much as well as saying things aren’t the same. This shows how killing is rooted inside of us because Old Man Warner maintains his same ideas for his whole life and this has caused these feelings to almost become a part of him. Old Man Warner knows nothing more so when he sees slight changes it upsets him showing how he just wants to keep the same tradition and feed his life long need of killing.

Lastly, we meet the eventual winner of the lottery, Mrs. Hutchinson. Mrs. Hutchinson represents people in society who are skeptical of rituals and the way society works. In the very beginning of the lottery drawing she was complaining and saying how it was not fair. This was met by anger from her husband who told her to shut up. During the family drawing she continues to complain and say they should start over or that it is not fair. She states that her husband was not given enough time to begin with and that is why her family is in this situation. When she is revealed as the ‘winner’ of the lottery her worries only grow as she repeats that it is unfair while she is killed by her peers. The final two and half pages of the story that focus on Mrs. Hutchinson is very representative of how society attempts to silence those who speak out against things they don’t agree with. Not only was Ms. Hutchinson killed while crying out how she felt, which is very visibly connected to people in society cries for help not being met or being drowned out with latest news in pop culture. But even Mrs.Hutchinson’s own husband told her to shut up when she was complaining, showing how hard it is for someone to make a change in society and their values.

Values of a society is what makes a culture. Some cultures value religion, others value money and so on and so forth. We can see that in Shirley Jackson’s ‘The Lottery’ the values of the community are relatively the same or people are so used to the normalized actions that they are sort of numb to it. We see a broad range of ages showing how the lottery affects different people with different mindsets and lives. This shows how these killing traditions live inside of the society from a young age and people grow up with this feeling inside and it has to be fulfilled much like Old Man Warner who can be seen as the effect from the lottery. Killing is rooted inside of people and is not caused by sporadic action. This can be seen in ‘The Lottery’ as well as ‘The Golden Bough’ by James Frazer. In the text we learn that sacrifices were made to increase harvest. “Indians of Guayaquil, in Ecuador, used to sacrifice human blood and the hearts of men when they sowed their fields.” (coursepack 158). “The people of Canar used to sacrifice a hundred children annually at harvest” (coursepack 158) These two examples of sacrifice and killing help further show that killing is rooted within. These groups of people believed these sacrifices needed to be done in order to achieve what they wanted. This shows that they ‘needed’ these killings and it helped fulfill something inside of them whether that be a belief or a want. Nevertheless, what the killings fulfilled doesn’t matter since we can clearly see that killing comes from within and is usually for the killer’s benefit which is a basic human emotion of desire or want.

Shirley Jackson’s ‘The lottery’ shows different groups, ideas and values of a society through many characters. The children show how innocence creates an easy way for people to learn and accept traditions and values no matter how cruel or wrong they may be. Old Man Warner represents the older generation in the world. Showing how he is only used to one thing, does not like change and needs to have his internal desires fulfilled. Mrs. Hutchinson represents the voice of the unheard. Her complaints and cries for help are there but easily shut down by the lottery leader, Mr Summers, and even her own husband showing how difficult or even impossible it is to make changes to an entire society. Lastly, ‘The Golden Bough’ by James Frazer takes a look into another form of killing that further proves it comes from within. Yet another ‘tradition’ which is considered a sacrifice satisfies an entire group of people and shows how they feel that they need to do it since it happens every year. Killing comes from within, at the end of the day humans are just very advanced animals so we all have it inside of us. But traditions, values and ideas within society are the reasons that those ‘killer’ instincts come out.

Work Cited

Shirley Jackson “The lottery”

James Frazer “The Golden Bough”

GD Peters Coursepack Killer Stories 2022

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