Shirley Jackson

Most of Shirley Jackson’s writing career is filled with tales of the grotesque and supernatural (“Shirley Jackson” Wikipedia.com). Her stories deal with the morbid subject of murder, which would cause her to fall under the category of a Romanticist. However, she was born much later than the great gothic authors such as Poe and Hawthorne (Hitchcock 8-10). Despite the gap in time Jackson continues the romantic tradition with pride. Perhaps one of Jackson’s most critically acclaimed stories is “The Lottery”. “The Lottery” takes place in a small New England town, which hints at regionalism with its typical eastern seaboard atmosphere. Blending the two movements Jackson creates a feeling of realistic horror that had The New Yorker’s office filled with letters demanding to know if the story was true or not (“Shirley Jackson” Wikipedia.com).

The theme Jackson weaves throughout her story is that despite the length of time a tradition or ritual has been taking place time does not mean that it is morally just. Jackson uses organization, point-of-view, characterization, setting, and imagery to effectively support her theme. For example, her organization takes the reader from one extreme to the next. The story begins, “The morning of June 27th was clear and sunny, with the fresh warmth of a full-summer day; the flowers were blossoming profusely and the grass was richly green (American Literature.com).” Jackson’s description of the day falsely raises the hopes of the reader that they are about to take a leisurely journey through New England. However, the author quickly takes the progression down a much deeper and darker path. Accordingly, Jackson keeps her readers in the dark about what the prize for winning the lottery is, but it is clear through the reaction of the winner and the crowd that something terrible happens to the chosen one.

Subtle hints throughout the story keep the reader in suspense that the lottery is something to dread each year such as when Mrs. Dunbar said with regret that her sixteen year old son will be filling in for his father (American Literature.com). Also after a boy signified that he would be drawing for both he and his mother he blinked nervously. Why all the tension? Jackson does not let on until the very end, when it is already too late to do anything. She does an excellent job of keeping the reader in suspense and engaged in the story.

The use of point-of-view is important to the theme and the story because Jackson uses a third person point-of-view, which allows the reader to understand the individual characters’ feelings towards the lottery. There are people in the story who are oblivious to the absurdity of their tradition and there are those that feel like there should be a change. It is interesting to see the demographic of the village that see no problem with the brutal ritual. Accordingly, the very old and the very young either do not understand the magnitude of the situation or they have simply accepted the lottery for what it is; a yearly tradition that brings a plentiful harvest.

No one can blame the young children for not understanding the lottery because they do not understand the concept of death or science at such a young age. After all at the beginning of the story the children are gathering his or her very own pile of shiny round rocks, with no understanding that when those rocks hit someone they hurt and kill that person. The ones to blame for the perpetuation of the brutality are the ignorant elders. When the progressive North Village is mentioned about giving up the lottery one elderly man says, “Pack of crazy fools! (American Literature.com).”

The people who are going to change the lottery are going to be the forward thinking young adults and the wives and mothers of these young people. Thanks to the third person point-of-view the reader can understand the anxiety that these men and women are going through simply because they have to keep a tradition alive. The most innocent and outspoken about the lottery is Tessie Hutchinson. Consequently, her opinion is known because it is she that has won the lottery; however her innocence is shown when she pays no special attention to that day of the lottery and almost forgets the event is happening. Is it coincidental that Tessie was chosen to be stoned? Obviously not because Jackson took special care wanted every event to have meaning and significance.

Jackson makes it difficult to identify a protagonist and an antagonist, however the reader can view the tradition and the villagers as the antagonist and Tessie Hutchinson as the protagonist. The villagers congregate in the center square, accepting the way things are and Tessie preoccupied with a concrete task of taking care of her home shows up to the lottery late. Again the end of the story reveals the blind obedience of the very young and very old generations with Tessie’s son being handed stones to throw and Old Man Warner inciting the stoning. Again the person being stoned is the voice of reason and the voice of innocence. Her final words, “it isn’t fair” raise the question what isn’t fair? Is it the ritual, the procedure by which the village picks the winner, or is it something symbolic?

Speaking of symbolism one point of interest is the wooden box that is used during the lottery. The box is the embodiment of out-dated thinking. Even though the box used in the story is not the original box it is rumored that wood from the original box was used in its construction. Mr. Summer’s, the lottery chairperson, made mention of making a new box, but he was quieted when met with opposition born from fear of change. Perhaps if a new box was made the lottery would lose its effectiveness or would a lottery even continue if the old box was destroyed?

Shirley Jackson wrote her story in 1948 a time when the United States was coming out of World War II and into the Cold War. Could “The Lottery” be a commentary on the actions of the United States government? Consequently, Jackson’s story, which is over fifty years old, still intrigues the human psyche. The theme and the context of the story still apply today, but instead of anti-Semitism and anti-communism people have hard fast ideas of what a traditional family should be. Could Jackson’s “The Lottery” be related to the issues of gay marriage that the United States is struggling with today? How will anyone know unless he or she is given a chance and a voice?

Works Cited

Hitchcock, Bert, and Virginia M. Kouidis. American Short Stories. New York: Pearson Longman, 2008.

“The Lottery.” American Literature. 2009. 15 June 2009 http://www.americanliterature.com/Jackson/SS/TheLottery.html.

“Shirley Jacksin.” Wikipedia. 2009. 15 June 2009 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shirley_Jackson.