American Literature

A.1. I was not surprised by the ending of the story, as I got a hint to regarding the unexpected end of the story owing to the various signs presented in the story. It is while reading the fourth paragraph that I came to know about the tragic end of the story. The calmness of the villagers starts turning into fear and this is evident from the reaction of the villager when the stool is placed before them. The villagers kept their distance, leaving a space between themselves and the stool. (Jackson).  They fear to go near the stool, as the black box which contained the name of the winner is kept on it. Another sign is presented in the same paragraph when Mr. Summers asks the crowd for some help. The hesitation with which two men come forward to help Mr. Summers showed that the villagers were not excited about the Lottery.  The unusual behavior of the villagers points towards their lack of positive reaction or happiness about the so-called Lottery. Using the signs such as villagers unusual behavior, black color of the box and neglected state of the box, the nervousness with which the villagers open the folded papers, Jackson foreshadows the tragic ending of the story. But in beginning of the story, Jackson presents the image of the villagers chatting with each other and the children playing happily to lull us into thinking that this is just an ordinary story with an ordinary town.

A.2. The ritual that was observed by the villagers regarding the scapegoat is the person who won the lottery was stoned until heshe died. Tessie can be considered to be the scapegoat because she was one who had to meet a brutal death.  As Tessie won the paper with the black dot, she was declared as the winner of the lottery. On winning the lottery, the expressions of Tessie show that she thought herself as a victim. It is only at the end of the story that the reader comes to know

that Tessie was selected to be stoned to death by everyone in her village. Tessie ends up as the
scapegoat for a cruel ritual which was being carried on by the villagers for several years. Her desperate pleas are not heeded by the villagers, as they gather around her with stones in their hands. Tessie Hutchinson was in the center of a cleared space by now, and she held her hands out desperately as the villagers moved in on her. (Jackson). In the name of ritual, Tessie is handed out a painful and tortuous death.

A.3. The names of major characters in the story also come across as signs which foretell the turn of events in the end. For example, there was Mr. Summers whose name represents the freshness and warmth of the morning of July 27th.  His name is symbolic of calmness and warmth, which is experienced on a pleasant summer day. In contrast to the name of Mr. Summers, his closest friend Mr. Graves has a name that signifies darkness and death this is the main theme of the story. This is an indication of what might happen at the end, and a hint for the readers to start thinking about the hidden meaning of the lottery. The next sign which foreshadows the tragic end of the story is the color and state of the box that was used in the lottery. The color of the box was black, which represents gloom, darkness and mystery. The state of box showed that it had been neglected from a long time. The black box grew shabbier each year by now it was no longer completely black but splintered badly along one side to show the original wood color, and in some places faded or stained. (Jackson). In fact, the box had been used for more than seventy seven years, and the original color of the box had already grown fainter. Mr. Summer had tried to convince the villagers to renew the box, but the villagers never took this idea seriously. They seemed to hate talking about anything related to the Lottery.