What Is The Lottery Essay

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The Lottery
By: Danielle Hopkins
English Composition I
Mrs. Knight
September 21, 2014

In the short story “The Lottery”, it talks about a small town that gathers together around the town square every summer for the lottery. In some towns the lottery can take up to two days and then some towns do not even do the lottery. This one particular town that does the lottery is so small with approximately three hundred people, takes only a couple of hours to complete the lottery. Like most things, “The Lottery”, does have a downside to it, which would be bitterness and criticism, which caused a woman to be stoned to death. It all starts out with the children of the village gathering together first, then the adults, men then women. The children pick up the smoothest and roundest stones they could find and putting them in a pile. They had so many stones that they had pocket fulls, and they would dump them in the pile and go back for more. When the lottery began so did the square dances, the teenage clubs, the Halloween program, along with the other fun and games. Mr. Summers, conductor of the lottery and owner of a coal company, suggests every year the thought of getting a new box to put the slips in. The townspeople do not like for any changes to be made involving the tradition. The lottery is a very good example, the black box that has been used for generations for the withdrawal of the names of the townspeople during the lottery is now falling apart and the townspeople do not want to replace it. Mr. Summers put the names of heads of the households in the black box and called them all up there and one by one, they each withdrew a name from the box. The Hutchinson family is the family that was chosen for the chance to win the lottery. After they have put their slips back in the box for round two, each member of the family no matter what the age is they must draw a slip from the box. Little Dave, the youngest was the first to draw a slip from the black box. Next to go

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In Shirley Jackson’s short story “The Lottery,” one of the main characters is Mr. Summers. “The lottery was conducted--as were the square dances, the teen club, the Halloween program--by Mr. Summers.” Summers might be the busy body of the village, but he is not the protagonist of the story. Because he represents the status quo situation in the village, his presence in the story is one of the most significant symbols of “The Lottery.” Summers represents blind adherence to ritual, as he is in charge…

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Words 1079 - Pages 5