Symbolism In The Lottery, By Shirley Jackson

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“The Lottery,” written by Shirley Jackson in 1948, takes place in a rural village on June 27th where the town folks participate in an annual lottery. As seen in the story, the head of each family draws a slip of paper. The family that chooses the slip with a black dot must sacrifice one family member to a stoning at the end of the particular drawing. Unfortunately for Tessie Hutchinson, she drew the black dot. Drawing the black dot forced almost all the townspeople, including her own friends and children, to stone her to death. From a reader’s standpoint, this short story might illustrate the consequences of blindly following tradition. However, looking at the narrative through the lenses of feminism, “The Lottery” takes place in a patriarchal …show more content…
The elderly are typically perceived to be wise-minded and respected among individuals. However, during “The Lottery,” we see Old Man Warner to be vulgar towards the townspeople in order to keep the lottery. For example: When the Hutchinson’s family had to draw slips, a young girl said “I hope it’s not Nancy” to which he responded “People ain’t the way they used to be” (Jackson, 424). According to the words of Fritz Oehlschlaeger in “The Stoning of Mistress Hutchinson: Meaning and Context in 'The Lottery'.” he expressed: “This girl's expression of a purely personal feeling is perceived by Old Man Warner as a threat to the social order, as is indicated by his bitterly exclaiming, “It's not the way it used to be,” when presumably everyone subordinated personal feelings to the social demands of the ritual” (Oehlschlaeger). We clearly tell that Warner feels strongly about the annual lottery. However, we barely see the townspeople respond to his angry nature and inconsideration. This is truly because due to his age and social status, he holds dominance over the whole town, thus not allowing the halting of the …show more content…
For example: When the Hutchinson’s unfortunately got the selected to be stoned at the end of the story. In order to save her and her family’s life, Tessie Hutchinson pleaded and called the lottery “unfair.” In response, Tessie’s female friend Mrs. Delacroix called out “Be a good sport Tessie” (Jackson, 423). An opposing argument would be that Mrs. Delacroix’s response and quick nature to participate in the stoning of Tessie equals the playing field with the men and women in regards towards their submission to the lottery. According to Oehlschlaeger, “Jackson emphasizes women's turning against one another, too, through her pointed depiction of the brutality of Mrs. Delacroix and Mrs. Graves in setting upon Tessie” (Oehlschlaeger). However, it was not until Mr. Hutchinson yelled “Shut up, Tessie” that we learn more about the prejudice that even Tessie’s husband has towards the women of this story. After the Hutchinson’s individual drawing and the townspeople realize Tessie has the black dot, the story reads: “‘Show us her paper, Bill.’ Bill Hutchinson went over to his wife and forced the slip of paper out of her hand” (Jackson, 425). Unfortunately, we see the true control men have over women through this whole story. When Bill was told to take the responsibility to take his wife’s slip of paper and
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