The Lottery

The Lottery

A hot day in late June (the 27th, specifically) the villagers gather in the square to participate in a lottery conducted by Mr. Summers, who officiates all major civic events. Children come first and begin to gather stones until their parents call. Mrs. Hutchinson arrives late and talks briefly with her friend, Mrs. Delacroix. (Jackson, 1-32)

Mr. Summers called the head of each family (always an adult male) to a black box which you should choose a piece of paper. Once the men have finished, Mr. Summers let everyone look at the papers to see who has been selected is Bill Hutchinson. His wife began to complain immediately, since there seems to be winning a million dollars.

There are five people in the Hutchinson family. Mr. Summers put five pieces of paper in the box and each person gets one. Tess (Miss Hutchinson) is a piece with a large black dot in the center. Villagers move against it and it becomes clear that the "prize" of the lottery is that they are going to stone. Tess protest in vain as the villagers attack.

Mr. Summer:

Mr. Summer is married and had no children, thus the people in the village feel sorry for him. He is seen to be quite of an innovator as he wanted to make a new black box instead of using the old one. He is found to be very convincing as he has been successful in using the strips of paper rather than using the wooden strips while drawing the lottery. He gave this idea considering the progress factor in mind, saying that the wooden ships might go fine if the village would have been small but as the village has now grown in population and that they need to use something that would more easily fit into the box. He is supposed to be an efficiency wizard as he seems to be quite important and proper when he talks to the Martins and Mr. Graves. (Jackson, 1-32)

Mr. Summer is like a road of success for villagers. He is totally filled with energetic views but is unable to transfer this energy and enthusiasm to the roots of the lottery and the stones. He has worked whole heartedly in order to bring new changes and give a new face to the lottery drawing in the new century. He does not care about content rather he cares about the surface.

Mr. Summer portrays a frightening sum of power and authority in the village. His power was assigned to him by chance and he used to take advantage of this authority and power. No one had the courage to question his leadership and never was challenged by anyone.

Mr. Graves

Although, it seems as if he is the big man of the village, but still he has to give an oath to the Mr. Graves. It is very hard to describe Mr. Grave as he never had a dialogue as such. He is the postmaster in the village. This position has given me enormous ...