"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. "It isn't fair," she said. A stone hit her on the side of the head (Jackson 221).
I was absolutely shocked that this was the eventual end of the town's lottery. In the beginning of the story, when it described the boys gathering stones into a pile, I didn't even come close to making the correlation that those stones would be used to kill one of the people in the town.
When I think of a lottery, I think of a lucky individual winning something of great value. Perhaps a large sum of money, maybe a car or even a new home. This lottery is, in every single way, exactly the opposite. No one wants to be the chosen one, and the chosen one is dealt a horrible, painful death by stoning.
The words that stand out to me is that the character "held her hands out desperately" to describe how terrifying the experience must be. "It isn't fair" also stands out because, well, it isn't. What an appalling tradition to continue to uphold for the characters of this story. I think Jackson puts it quite well in the short introduction about her at the beginning of the story. She says that the purpose of the story is "to shock the story's readers with a graphic demonstration of the pointless violence and general inhumanity in their own lives."
Not long ago, I remember seeing on the news a small bit about a documentary film about women in the middle east who are sentenced to death by stoning. The small clips of the film that were shown were gruesome and terrible.
The story certainly achieves its purpose and, after the initial shock, does prompt one to examine their own lives and the crazy, violent things that go on in the world that we live in.
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I chose this same quote!--I included the line above it also when it says someone gave Davy Hutchinson a few pebbles as well. This story truly does make one think about sense-less violence once you get past the intial shock of what the lottery actually is!
ReplyDeleteI'm with both of you. I was thoroughly shocked as well. When I think of a lottery, I think of a pleasant surprise, not the opposite. At the point that Mrs. Delacroix mentioned how little time there seems to be between lotteries, I expected something like a difficult job that might fall upon the winner of the lottery. I wasn't thinking of death by stoning! Also, the story could symbolize so many acts of senseless violence within our society, often with a community of blind followers just like in this story.
ReplyDeleteI actually read this story in high school-along with "Lord of the Flies" I think. Very interesting, a bit morbid and shocking in many ways. The thought that boys would participate in such a thing is almost sickening (probably because I have 3 boys). The story brings a whole new meaning to "lottery" for certain.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing this story!
Tonya
I used the same quote and felt the same way you did! Shocking here you think the lottery is something positive and then holy cow out of no where it turns into a stoning! Shocking! I think it is a great story that gets your mind thinking about humanity nad how we treat one another.
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