Figuring Out What I Think about "The Lottery"

1.  The name of the author of the work:  Shirley Jackson

2.  The title of the work:  "The Lottery."

3.  Write three to five questions about choices the author made in writing this story that caught your attention or made you pause:

• Why does she have Tessie, the woman who "wins" the lottery, hurry to arrive at the lottery?
• Why doesn't Jackson make the time period or place of the lottery clearer?
• Why doesn't Jackson have the villagers discuss the reason for the lottery or at least state it?
• What does Jackson expect us to think of family members who appear to participate in the stoning without any resistance?
• Why doesn't she have the villagers express more emotion about participating in the lottery or the stoning?

4.  Write 2 to 3 paragraph answers for at least two of the questions.  Include in those answers ideas about how the work would have been different if the author had made a different choice and then what she was trying to communicate through her choice. 

       a.  Why does Jackson have Tessie, the woman who "wins" the lottery, hurry to get there?

        Tessie says she "clean forgot what day it was" and that she remember when she "looked out the window and the kids was gone."  I have several thoughts about Jackson's choice.
        First, by having Tessie forget, it makes it seem that the lottery is not very important, not a big deal.  If it were something she was dreading or looking forward to, she probably wouldn't have forgotten.  The fact that the lottery isn't important enough to remember suggests that Tessie isn't fearful about being chosen or doesn't think she will be chosen.  Once I realized what the lottery meant, it made me think that Tessie was either foolish, callous, or both.  I'd think that any normal person would fear the lottery even if she weren't picked because she'd have to murder someone she must have known quite well from her small village.
       Second, I think the fact that the kids left without her foreshadowed their lack of concern about going on without her in life as they participated in stoning her.
       Third, I think having Tessie hurrying to her death was one example of the irony that ran throughout the story.  

     b.  Why doesn't she have the villagers express more emotion about participating in the lottery or the stoning?

     I think Jackson tries to make the villagers seem like they're just carrying out a routine task.  She doesn't make it seem that they take great pleasure from stoning Tessie nor does she make it seem that they resist stoning Tessie.  One woman tells another to "Hurry up," but that's as close to an emotion as any of the villagers express.  
     By making the task seem so routine and matter of fact, Jackson makes the entire situation seem more grotesque.  How could seemingly normal people who laugh and talk with each other before the drawing then kill one of their number?   
     Jackson also shows that people will go along with tradition -- or with peer pressure - without questioning it or resisting it, no matter how horrible it is.

5.  Is there a word or phrase that appears repeatedly in the work?  If so, copy at least three sentences or phrases it appears in and explain its significance in those sentences or phrases.  

     I didn't notice one.

6. Identify one or two topics that appears in the work:   Tradition

7.  Explain what the author shows about that topic.

     People go along with tradition without questioning it.

8.  Describe what you think the author wants the reader to feel or do.    

     She wants the readers to go along happily as they read, assuming they understand what the story is about and know that the outcome will be happy, or at least fine, until they get to the very end of the story.  Then they realize that everything they assumed or believed about the lottery was wrong and are horrified.
     That's the reverse of what the characters do:  they don't realize that what they believe about the lottery is wrong, and they aren't horrified.