Term Paper on "Lottery by Shirley Jackson Is a Story"

Term Paper 4 pages (1114 words) Sources: 1+

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Lottery by Shirley Jackson is a story of a senseless, superstitious, archaic ritual that is still practiced yearly in many villages at ten o'clock on the morning of June 27th (Jackson pp). Jackson begins by describing how the people of the village gather in the square on the clear and sunny morning of June 27th, with the fresh warmth of a full-summer day, the flowers blossoming profusely and the grass richly green (Jackson pp). This first sentence paints such a quaint picture that it leads the reader to believe that this tale will be filled with joy and luck. The author informs the reader that in some towns, there were so many people that the lottery took two days, but this village, had only about three hundred people, so the whole lottery took less than two hours, "so it could begin at ten o'clock in the morning and still be through in time to allow the villagers to get home for noon dinner" (Jackson pp). It sounds as if this is a kind of yearly gathering in which some type of prizes are awarded, for everyone gathers so hurriedly and matter of fact, such as Tessie Hutchinson.

Mrs. Hutchinson, Tessie, with her sweater thrown over her shoulders, hurries along the path to the square and takes a place in the back of the crowd, saying to Mrs. Delacroix, that she had "Clean forgot what day it was...Thought my old man was out back stacking wood and then I looked out the window and the kids was gone, and then I remembered it was the twenty-seventh and came a-running" (Jackson pp). Both women laugh softly as if they are awaiting for the doors to open at a "moonlight madness" sale at some department store, as Mrs. Hutchinson dries her hands on her apron, she is assured by Mrs. Delacroix that she made it in time because, "They're still taking away up there" (Jackson pp).

One imagines that Mrs. Hutchinson is a round plump farm woman who is accustomed to hard labor and hard times, and most likely only removes her apron at bedtime and for church service. And most likely she trots wherever she goes, just as she trotted up the path to the town square, always in a hurry, never enough hours in the day to accomplish what needs to be done. When Tessie spots her husband, Bill, she makes her way through the crowd to stand by him and their children, and as people separate to let her through, they say "Here comes your, Missus, Hutchinson," and Bill, she made it after all" (Jackson pp). When she reaches her husband, Mrs. Summers, who had been waiting says cheerfully, "Though we were going to have to get on without you, Tessie," to which she replies, "Wouldn't have me leave m'dishes in the sink, now, would you, Joe" (Jackson pp).

Peter Kosenko wrote in the Spring 1985 issue of New Orleans Review that "None of the men... thinks of addressing Tessie first, since she 'belongs' to Bill. Most women in the village take this patriarchal definition of their role for granted," however Tessie is the "only one who rebels against male domination, although only unconsciously" (Kosenko pp). Moreover, Kosenko attributes the fact that Tessie finished the washing the dishes in the sink before she came to… READ MORE

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