An Influential American Author Who Has Influenced Such Writers As Stephen King

“The Lottery”

By Shirley Jackson

Shirley Jackson (1916-1965)

an influential American author who has influenced such writers as Stephen King

Born Shirley Hardie Jackson in San Francisco to Leslie and Geraldine Jackson, Shirley and her family lived in the community of Burlingame, California, an affluent middle-class suburb

died of heart failure in her sleep at the age of 48.

In 1940, after their graduation Hyman and Jackson, who had a relationship, were married. While living in Vermont, Jackson continued to write.

It was in 1948 that her greatest success was achieved. The publication of the short story, "The Lottery", brought fame, as well as letters from readers all over the country.

“The Lottery”

a short story by Shirley Jackson, first published in the June 28, 1948 issue of The New Yorker.

based the short story on true events that had happened or were still happening in a real American town.

Receiving highly negative reader response

Creating an emotional effect of horror at the idea that perhaps in human civilization

The foreshadow of the story

Gathering stones

Analyzing the story

Setting

A small village in the summer

Narrative

Third Person (Objective)

The narrator of "The Lottery" is extremely detached from the story. Rather than telling us the characters' thoughts or feelings, the narrator simply shows the process of the lottery unfurling.

Tone

Creating an emotional effect of horror

Symbol

The Black Box

The black box is a physical manifestation of the villagers' connection to tradition

The Stones

The sequence of the story

The story took place on 27th June.

Children took stones and piled stones on the corner of the square.

All families gathered on the square.

There was a black wooden box.

Mrs. Hutchison arrived late

Mr. Summer began to announce who was absent

Two rounds in the lottery

Why is lottery held every year?

“Lottery in June, corn be heavy soon”

The use of a lottery to select the victim

The lottery was regarded as a ritual for fertility. During the ritual, a person has to be sacrificed.

Why did Mrs. Hutchinson have to die?

a reluctant scapegoat in a town's annual expiation ritual

Woman as a victim?

Hutchinson’s overlook of the ritual

Deeper meanings behind

Scapegoating and ritual murder in the service of some dark and unspecified force

The real horror lies in the formerly helpful villagers' active revenge on the unwelcome outsiders.

The corruption of the ritual and myth

themes

Showing the time’s degradation of the original myth and ritual

Revealing a mythical resolution to real problems

“selfishness and cruelness”

What the town people remembered and what they conserved is to be selfish and cruel.

ending

a wicked ending

A ending of divine “justice”?

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