Writing Journal in pairs (With Stéphanie Trottier)

« The Lottery », by Shirley Jackson   

This short story, written by Shirley Jackson, takes place in a small American town. On a warm summer day of June, villagers are called to gather for their annual activity: the lottery. Children gather stones while the men chat together, soon to be greeted by their wives. Every year, the lottery takes place as an important tradition. To the villagers, the idea of not having an annual lottery is barely conceivable since it has been going on for many, many years. Once all assembled and ready, Mr. Summers – the conductor of the lottery – calls upon the head of each family, listed alphabetically from the small village. Each of the men walk up towards Mr. Summers and draw out a piece of paper from the wooden black box, the same one used each and every year. After the men return to their respective families, they all open up their folded piece of paper. It is the Hutchinson family, to everybody else’s relief, who are the ones to discover a black dot on their piece of paper. Panicked, Tessie Hutchinson then shouts out to Mr. Summers, saying the draw is unfair. But one ticket for each Hutchinson family member (Bill, Tessie, Dave, Nancy and Bill, Jr.) is put back in the black box, ready for the next draw. Each Hutchinson then draws out their own piece of paper from the box. One by one, they all unfold their ticket; each one is blank except for Tessie’s, displaying a big black dot. The other villagers then get ready and gather pebbles and rocks. Tessie, exposed in the center of the crowd, then gets stoned to death, sacrificed to ensure next year’s harvest.  

In 2008, this practice sure sounds barbaric. This is why projecting ourselves in the skin of a character or trying to figure out what we would do if it was us that would have been picked is hard. I found this story particularly shocking. I was not expecting the end at all, and had to read it twice to fully understand it. The fact that Tessie gets stoned to death by her neighbors and family --even by her kids!-- is disturbing. One would think: "For sure someone will oppose to this ritual, surely her husband will protect her!" Sadly, this is not what happens at all. The fact that this village does a lottery every year, because it is said to bring good harvests, is the example the author gave to show her disdain of pointless traditions. When the story was first published, a lot of people had strong reactions to it: horror, disbelief, hate and uneasiness were expressed to the author. Those feelings are shared by new readers like us today.

(In answer to "Tell about what happened in the story" and "Describe your feelings about the events")