'The Lottery' af Shirley Jackson, analyse

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The Lottery

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Find some words which you find significant for the very opening of “The Lottery”. How are we “lured in” as readers?

When I first

Why would you say that the title of the story could be considered ironic?

What can we say about Tess? She says it is not fair; is it?

How about Mr. Summers; who is he and what is his function?

Explain mob-mentality and what a scapegoat is – give examples.

Second to last question is a question that concerns freedom. If you saw something wrong appearing before your very eyes, do you as a human being have a duty to step in and stop that wrong, for instance murder, brutality, reckless violence?

In other words can you tell people how to behave correctly?

Can we learn anything from the story “The Lottery”?

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The lottery

Shirley Jackson (1919-1965) var en amerikansk forfatter, som især blev kendt for sine værker indenfor horrorgenren. Mange betragter hendes roman The Haunting of Hill House (1959) som en af de største horrorklassikere i moderne tid. Jacksons novelle "The Lottery" udkom første gang i tidsskriftet The New Yorker. Novellens kontroversielle indhold mødte voldsomme reaktioner hos samtidens læsere, og både redaktionen på The New Yorker og Shirley Jackson selv modtog et stort antal hadebreve i den forbindelse. I dag er "The Lottery" dog en meget berømt novelle, rost for sin brutale skildring af den menneskelige naturs mørke sider. “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson tells the story of a village which organises an annual lottery, a tradition which is apparently upheld in other places as well. It is summer, and all the villagers gather to draw tickets in the village square. While waiting for the lottery to begin, the children gather stones. Meanwhile, the men joke and the women of the village gossip. The lottery is organised and conducted by Mr. Summers, who runs the coal business. Mr Summers arrives in the square carrying a black wooden box. He is helped by Mr Graves, the postmaster. Mr Graves puts a stool in the centre of the square, and Mrs Summers places the box on top of it. When Mr. Summers asks for some help, there is some hesitation before Mr Martin and his son, Baxter come forward to hold the box while Mrs Summers stirs the papers inside it. The box is old and has been stored in various places in the town over the years. Although Mr Summers insists every year that a new box should be made, nobody seems to listen to him. On the night before the lottery, Mr Summers takes the paper slips and makes a list of the families in town, and places the slips in the black box. The families gather and Mr Summers checks if everybody is present. Mrs Hutchinson almost forgot about the lottery, so she arrives last. The lottery begins and everybody draws tickets from the old black box, starting with the heads of family. Meanwhile, Mr Adams and Old Man Warner discuss how other communities are talking about giving up the lottery, and how others have already given up on it. Bill Hutchinson receives the lottery ticket which marks him out, but his wife feels that Mr Summers did not give him enough time to draw properly. She protests the results, but the Hutchinsons’ tickets are placed in the black box and each member of the Hutchinson family draws a paper, including their young