The Lottery’s Primary Conflict by Shirley Jackson

The suspense and lightheartedness of the narrative “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson keeps the reader turning the pages until the very end. The beginning of the narrative takes place as one would expect a community to assemble for this occasion. The lottery is kept a secret until the very end, the little boys are collecting pebbles, and the adults are going about their usual everyday lives, but the reader is kept turning the pages to find out what’s going on. Mrs. Hutchinson is a well-known figure who the author claims nearly forgot the lottery, but there is no indication of what she may win. Before the conclusions, the reader is given just a few pointers, such as the fact that some towns no longer have lotteries and the fact that their village, which has only around 300 residents, often completes its business much faster than others. While many have conflicting feelings about the finale, which involves a lady being stoned to death, the reader must hazard a guess and believe that the custom they were commemorating would be one with a reward. Tessie and her family, Old Man Warner, and the simple character known as Mr. Summer who executes the event all play prominent roles in maintaining the sense of suspension that the author creates through the story. This story introduces the reader to the workings of Shirley Jackson’s creative mind. This woman took a risk in creating this story, which many in this era found disturbing. To explain and keep the reader engaged until this story’s unexpected ending of stones being flung, the author employs foreshadowing, tone, and conflict.

Shirley Jackson was born in San Francisco, California, on December 16, 1916. When it comes to her writing, this lady might be characterized as a risk-taker since “The Lottery” was one of the renowned short tales of its day. She attended Syracuse University after completing her studies at the University of Rochester, where she began her writing career as the comedy magazine’s fiction editor. She used her writing as a form of escape and a release from the tragedy she faced in her marriage; many call her creative mind one that was haunted based on her stories. She focused on horror and thrillers which explains the nature of the story “The Lottery”, written in 1948, and those that came after it such as “The Haunting of Hill House” and “We Have Always Lived in the Castle.” She did suffer from alcoholism, which had a negative impact on her, but, to put it mildly, the author channeled her suffering into the exciting tales that we now know. With her husband Stanley Edgar Hyman, whom she met when she was a student at her university, she had four children. She left behind several fantastic writings that had readers on the edge of their seats before her away on August 8, 1965, in North Bennington, Vermont, from a cardiac attack.

The novel begins as it would with the introduction establishing the scenario in a tiny village where they are carrying out a ritual that is presented to the reader as a lottery with little detail other than the young boys collecting stones on this particular day, June 27th. At this point, it seems that this fact alone was nothing more than them getting ready for innocent fun rather than having any particular significance till the finish. Little can be inferred from the information provided about the events that would occur, however it is indicated that they would only need two hours to go through this. The reader is led to assume how uncomplicated Mr. Summer is and that these town meetings and customs offer him a sense of purpose by the character’s statement that he “had time and energy to dedicate to civic activities.” Since it results in death, this could also be viewed as a depressing motivation, but the character Mr. Summer demonstrates how his limited influence blinds him to the need to alter a terrible town holiday. He uses this sense of belonging to stand in front of his peers and carry out an action that they all seem to have lost the significance for. The black box is the object that has been used as a symbol of mourning and even death the most in the narrative. However, this box is old and in need of replacement, much like this custom. Except for Mrs. Hutchinson’s concerns when she arrives late for the event, none of the characters in this narrative have any insight into what will happen in the future. Although her worries are not indicative of difficulty, it is clear at the conclusion why she felt this way given that she had forgotten the occasion. Her character enters the scene in the middle of the narrative as one who is ordinary like the others, and she establishes her position in the narrative by arriving late for this “lottery,” which many would find odd if anything positive resulted from it; how could one forget such? The reader should pay attention to this to better understand the conclusion. Her uneasy reaction to nearly missing the drawing might be seen as highlighting the potential repercussions of such behavior.

The author demonstrates by his attitude against the other towns getting rid of it that because he had to put up with this for all these years, he believed the others should too by setting the tone for this story’s finale with Old Man Warner, who demonstrates how long-standing this custom has been. He represents the difficult transition many people go through and how becoming older makes it easier to get set in one’s ways. As the plot develops, the lottery starts, everyone pulls their cards, and Bill Hutchinson is said to have “got it.” At this point, the reader’s interest has started to spike since the author has been creating suspense for the reward to be awarded to any of these local residents. This is when things start to change; instead of a relaxing, easygoing day, Mrs. Hutchinson is now raising anxiety and suspense by ranting about the injustice of the lottery. The players expose the size of Mr. and Mrs. Hutchinson’s family and act as if they are worried, forcing them to choose their cards. Many people are hoping that Nancy, the 12-year-old winner, did not take home the prize for this drawing, but as Shirley Jackson noted, Tessie, Mrs. Hutchinson’s daughter, was the one whose future had been sealed by the black dot. After making that discovery, she once again showed a great deal of anxiety that the reader could only interpret as her acting irrationally, but the stones that had been described earlier in the tale now made sense. Her screaming and begging made it clear that whatever the lottery may have been, there was no winner. The reader can only presume that a mother was stoned to death by the custom of her little community when the narrative came to an end. As a result of reading the shocking conclusion to “The Lottery,” which many people did not anticipate, many people now wonder about Shirley Jackson’s health.

Mrs. Hutchinson’s anxiety and even the manner each family ultimately found their own family—because for one person in the throng, it would be their last meeting—show the tension in this narrative early on. Ms. Jackson’s ability to rise and build the climax and conclusion all at the end can be notably one of her standout points as a writer overall. This exciting story is one that deserves praise because Ms. Jackson was able to bring the reader to the conclusion with little understanding of the direction the story would take. This short tale just needed five pages to produce what many would consider to be a really unsettling piece of writing, but Jackson really excels in that terror. With the woman pleading for her life at the end, it illustrates how the town’s traditions had shaped their society to turn a blind eye to their moral standards all for a tradition that was not even fully followed any longer. For many, the stones were considered to be gathered for child’s play, not the stoning of a person to death.

The lottery was written from a very unsettling place, whether it was a work to express how Shirley Jackson was experiencing inside or a creative fictional piece that arose from her pain. This was a horrifying classic of its day because of one genius writer’s ability to compose it with some foreshadowing, tone, and conflict. She molded the minds of the populace by showing them in a very original manner how tradition may affect a group of people who refuse to change for no other reason than that it is tradition. Despite the fact that it was written early in her career, this brief but memorable and exciting masterwork served as the starting point for her future, much more eerie tales and books.