The lottery
1) Look up the history of lotteries. Why did they originate and why?
Lotteries are a popular type of gambling most often run by governments and local states. The lottery includes multiple participants who compete and the winning person receives money as a prize most of the time. The chances of winning are very small and the winnings can be very high, about few millions.

Throughout much of the recorded history, the purpose of lotteries was to raise money for funding public works. The lottery games started about 205 to 187 B.C. during the Han Dynasty, which is China today. The reason why the lottery started was to finance government projects, including one of the most famous - the Great Wall of China. Today, in the 21st century, hundreds of years latter the lottery has not changed much. It is still a gambling game, which people choose to play, hoping to win a prize, and the money is still use for government projects.

2) What good questions can you ask as you read the story that will help you understand the story on a deeper level? • Why does the writer mention the pile of stones and how are they connected to the rest of the story? • What is the reason the writer mentions that Mr. Summers had no children and that wife is scold? And why does she mention it with his job? • What was the reason of the hesitation among the villagers when Mr. Summers asked for some help? • Why do the villagers not want to replace the old lottery box with a new one? Why is the old box so important to them if it is just an old box for the lottery? • Why does Watson the boy draw for himself and his mother? Where is the father? • Why when the distribution of papers is over, when everybody ask “who got it”, did they ask especially about Dunbars and Watsons? Is there a connection to the fact that in both of these cases the father was not there and someone else had to do that instead?

3) What are our expectations of the story that glean from the title and the first paragraph? Justify your answer.
My expectations about the story are that the story is going to be about the lottery. I infer that because the name of the story and the information the writer gives us about how much time the lotteries use to take. I think that the story is going to be about a person who wins the lottery and it changes his life. Someone is going to get a big amount of money and be very happy about that.

My expectations are that the story will be happening in a very small, nice village. I infer that because the writer tells us that about three hundred people lived in this village. The story happens on a nice warm summer day – June 27th. The first paragraph is very positive and creates a feeling that the story is happening in a wonderful pastoral place - “The flowers were blossoming profusely and the grass was richly green.” These descriptions describe a place, which is “too good to be true (or real in this case)”.

From the first paragraph, the lottery seems like a very popular thing, which many villages us to have. I think that for the villagers - the characters in the story, lottery is a routine, non-special matter. They are so use to it that the raffle takes them less than two hours and they could then hurry up to their homes to eat “noon dinner.” Usually when people are excited about something, they have no appetite, and they do not think about food for a while - this mention of the meal reduces the sense of excitement.

4) Basic understanding of the story. Write a summary of the plot.
At a nice summery day, June 27th the people of a little village start gathering together around the square to participate in a lottery run by Mr. Summers. The children are the first to come and they start collecting stones until their parents call them to come and stand by them.

The lottery is an old tradition in this small village, which has about 300 residents and all of them know the lottery rules; each head of the family is call to take a white piece of folded paper from a black old box. When all of the patriarchs are being call, they open the papers. On one piece of paper, there is a little black spot. This year Bill Hutchinson got it. His wife immediately starts protesting, but there is nothing that can be done to change it.

There are five people total in the Hutchinson family. Mr. Summers places five piece of paper into the box. Each member of the family draws. Tessie (Mrs. Hutchinson) draws a slip of paper with a big black dot in the center. Very soon it is clear that the prize for the lottery really is a stoning, and Mrs. Hutchinson protests in vain as the villagers attack her.

5) What are the different perspectives about the lottery that we gain from the story? Do these perspectives agree with the expectations you had at the beginning of the story or disagree with them? In what ways?
When I was reading the story, I noticed that the perspective of the villagers in the story about the lottery tradition is different from one to another. Even though the lottery seems to be controlling the village, some people start very “quietly” to show some objection about this tradition.

The person from the story whose perspective about the lottery is positive is Warner, the oldest man in the village. Warner is participating in the lottery his all life and he is so use to the tradition of the lottery, that he cannot understand how the world would continue to exist without it. He believes that the lottery tradition is the reason why he has food to eat. “Lottery in June, corn be heavy soon.” He thinks that giving up the lottery is another madness of the young people who want to change the world he knows.

Unlike Mr. Warner, Mr. Adams has a different perspective about the lottery. Mr. Adams thinks the lottery tradition should end. He has heard that over the north villages they are talking of given up the lottery, and even some places have gave it up already. Mr. Adams does not say his opinion out lowed, maybe because it is still not safe enough to have a different opinion from the others, when is comes to the lottery business.

In the last paragraph, we can see that Mrs. Hutchinson has the same perspective as Mr. Adams. We can see that at the end of the story, when Mrs. Hutchinson gets stoned, she screams that this lottery “isn't fair, it isn't right," - and it very easy to understand what she thinks about the lottery. The fact that she has come late to the lottery also tell us this.

The first time I read the story, I did not understand why the characters make such a big issue of the lottery. I ask myself: why would they care so much if there is a lottery or not? If you want to go - you go, if you do not - you do not go!

However, as I read the story a second time, I understood everything. I must say that the first time I read the story I did not really have a perspective. At the second time, I did have! I think that the tradition of the lottery must end.

I do not understand how all of these people, who are a good and dedicate people can just kill a person like that. Their behavior reminds me somehow the behavior of the Nazis. Most of the villagers in this village were following blindly an old, weird, and terrible tradition, just the like Germans, Polish, Hungarians, and Lithuanians who followed Hitler blindly.

6) What helps the reader infer what will happen in the story? Look closely at the literary techniques used in the story. How do these techniques help us to infer what will happen at the end?
There are many literary techniques in the story, which can help a reader, who pays attention and reads very careful, to infer what will happen in the end. The first thing that helps a reader to predict what is going to happen is the happening in the second paragraph. “Bobby Martin had already stuffed his pockets full of stones, and the other boys soon followed his example, selecting the smoothest and roundest stones.” This part is not very clear for someone who reads the story first time, but when the end comes it creates an understanding, because the reader makes a connection and sees the whole picture.

There are also many signs of the tension that can point that something bad is about to happen. The first sign of tension is “the men smile rather than laugh” – already in this sentence, a careful reader would feel that there is a black cloud flying over the small village. Even though the men try to behave regularly and without showing their fear, their body language shows everything. As the story goes on, there are a lot more signs of tension, which can be seen in every little thing, and again, especially in the characters’ body language.

“Most of the people were quiet, wetting their lips, not looking around… they grinned at one another humourlessly and nervously… want hastily to his place in the crowd…not looking down at his hand… she held her breath while her husband went forward”. All of these are only some examples of the nerves in the village. All of this creates a stronger feeling that something bad is going to happened.

We can also feel the tension in the way that character’s talk. There is a feeling throughout the story that the villagers want to finish with the lottery as fast as they can. “Guess we better get started, get this over with, so we can go back home”, said Mr. Summers – the person who was in charge of the lottery. We can see this desire to be over the lottery again in other characters as well -“I wish they’d hurry”, Mrs. Dunbar said to her older son. “I wish they’d hurry”.

In addition, I also think that the writer’s choice, that Mr. Summers is the one who conduct the lottery, is very smart. His character suits his job perfectly, and not only because he had a lot of time and energy to devote to civic activities such as the lottery. While reading the story, I asked myself why the writer of the story mentions that Mr. Summers had no children and a scold of a wife, why is mentioned together with his job in the lottery?

When I finished reading the story twice, I understood why. The fact that Mr. Summers does not have children or a nice wife, are another literary technique the writer use to give us a clue about the surprisingly bad ending of the story. Mr. Summers’ family information shows that his job in the lottery is not just a regular lottery job; it is much more than this – there is something bad behind it. It is a job that only a parson who does not have any children or a loved wife can do. Only a sad person, who is not afraid to lose his life or any other close person’s life, can take on such a job on himself.

Another thing that points to the end of the story is the way the characters prefer to forget about the lottery. Even though the lottery box is very old and needs to be changed, the subject faded off without anything being done. Also, some of the characters have a feeling that the yearly lottery came too fast, like the last one was one week ago. A reader, who pays attention, can predict that the reason for it is a bad incident, which had happened in the last lottery.

A really nice literary technique that the writher uses is the characters’ names. From some of the character names we can learn and predict what is going to happen in the story. Mr. Summers name is connected to his regular job in the lottery, which he do every June 27th - at the summers’ time. The name of the postmaster, Mr. Grave, who helps Mr. Summers to run the lottery, is giving the reader an association of coming death. The oldest man in the village name, Mr. Warner, connects to his character. Mr. Warner, who lived all of his life - 77 years, with the lottery, can not see a life with out it and he warns the other people not to stop it.

Out of all the characters the name which I found the most interesting is Mrs. Hutchinson – Tessie. Her name really shows us the events in the story. The name Hutchinson comes from the word hutch. I think that her name representing her destiny which is predetermined. Her future destiny, to get the paper with the black spot in the lottery is already settled. Her future destiny is locked in a hutch and can not be changed.

7) Choose two quotes, which help you understand\infer the message of the story. Analyse the quotes and say how they helped you understand the story and its message.
The first quote which I am going to talk about is talking about the minute before the villagers stoned Mrs. Hutchinson.

“Although the villagers had forgotten the ritual and lost the original black box, they still remembered how to use stones. The pile of stones the boys had made earlier was ready; there were stones on the ground with the blowing scraps of paper that had come out of the box Delacroix selected a stone so large she had to pick it up with both hands and turned to Mrs. Dunbar. “Come on”, she said. “Hurry up.”

The quote helped me understand the message of the story. I think that the message I got from the story, relating to this quote is that evil is inseparable part of humanity and it is expressed in all of us. We need to learn how to pay attention to it and learn how to control it. We should never forget to think twice before we do something which can hurt someone physically or mentally.

It is awful to see how a mother, a friend of the women who was stoned, use her first opportunity to join the violence, without a second thought. It feels like her inside evil was just waiting for the importunity to come out. Delacroix selects a stone, as large as she can and pick it up in both hands, than she runs fast, her mind is empty of any logic and compassionate thoughts, the only thing she is thinking of is to hurt, and to do it fast. Again, as I mentioned in another part of the assignment, this kind of behaviour reminds me of the Nazis. I believe that at least some of the Nazis were family men. They had children, has a wife and friends, who they loved more than anything else and would have done anything for them. But when it came to Jews, it seems like any source of humanity in them were gone. They followed Hitler’s orders, blindly and coldly, just like the villagers, who followed the old lottery tradition.

The second quote which I am going to talk about is from the conversation between Mrs. Delacroix and Mrs. Graves.

“Seems like there’s no time between lotteries any more.” Mrs. Delacroix said to Mrs. Graves in the back row. “Seems like we got trough with the last one last wee.”

This quote helped me to understand the story because it shows another perspective of different villagers about the lottery. This quote is the first time that something negative is said about it. I learned from this story is that the lottery is a permanent tradition in the village. The time between each lottery is long, one whole year, but for the villagers it seems like a really short time, as short as one week long. Usually when we wait for something good, the time starts to pass really slowly, and it seems like it will never happened. The time between the lotteries passed really fast and it seems like the time between each lottery was too short. This thing shows that lottery was not a good thing to wait for because usually people do not complain about something good. The villagers were waiting for the terrible and scary lottery and it seems like the good time between lottery to lottery passed really fast, precisely because they did not want the lottery to come.

From the way that Mrs. Delacroix and Mr. Grave conduct the conversation we can learn another thing. From the conversation we can learn that some people in the village did not like the lottery and wanted to stop it. From this quote we can learn as well that the lottery was kind of “holy cow”, which has to be done and cannot be change. Mrs. Delacroix and Mar. Grave said their “opinion” about the lottery in a really careful way. They said it in a cautiously way, which can not be interpret negatively by the other villagers. This thing shows that the viewpoint of the lottery is not equal. The villagers who have a negative perspective about it are the minority and they are afraid to say their opinion about it straightforward.

9) Reflection - Choose a message from the poem and say how we can apply it to our own society.
As I was reading the story, I learned a few massages from it but I think that the strongest message I got is the fact that evil is inseparable part of humanity. It is a part of our nature and it is expressed in all of us. We need to learn how to pay attention to it and to never forget to think twice before we do something which can hurt someone physically or mentally. If each person in our own society would try to remember and pay attention, life would be much better for all of us.