Many of the seemingly innocuous details throughout “The Lottery” foreshadow the violent conclusion. Tessie’s late arrival at the lottery instantly sets her apart from the crowd, and the observation Mr. Summers makes—“Thought we were going to have to get on without you”—is eerily prescient about Tessie’s fate.

Tessie is symbolic of the scapegoat in “The Lottery,” which is sacrificed in ritual atonement for the sins of the tribe. However, she is also an average member of the tribe who sees nothing wrong with the system until she is selected.

7. What is the procedure for someone who cannot attend? A male member of the family (son) over the age of 16 draws; when there is not a grown male to do the drawing, the wife draws for the husband. 8.

The original purpose of the lottery seems to have been some twisted sort of rain dance ritual. As Old Man Warner explains, the old saying used to exclaim, “Lottery in June, corn be heavy soon” (line 122).

A metaphor is a comparison that does not use the words “like” or “as.” The shabby and splintered box that holds the lottery tickets is a metaphor for the increasingly worn and outdated lottery ritual. The refusal to repair the box can be likened to the denial the village residents seem to be in about the lottery.

The character of Mr. Summers is one of a very proper man who gets right down to business and finishes whatever needs to get done. He represents the fate of the villagers’ lives. He is in charge of running the lottery and the name he draws from box will die.

The main conflict of this short story is character versus society because it is society that insists upon the continuation of the lottery as a tradition, and it is this tradition—upheld by society—which is responsible for the brutal end of Tessie Hutchinson’s life.

Tessie Hutchinson who has drawn the paper marked with the dreaded black dot. Falling Action: There is no real resolution to this story. The story ends when Tessie is surrounded by villagers who stone her to death.

As the lottery gets underway, the mood of the story also becomes anxious and unsettling. When Tessie Hutchinson’s name is called, the mood shifts to dreadful and violent as the community members prepare to stone her to death.

The setting of “The Lottery” is, according to Shirley Jackson, her village of Bennington, Vermont: In her story, Jackson’s village is a rural area, surrounded by other such villages with people who have lived narrow lives and, perhaps as a result of such lives, appear to have narrow minds, as well.

A short story set in Vermont during the 1940s; published in 1948. Members of a small town gather for the annual lottery, which seems like a festive event but is not. Its true purpose is revealed when Tessie Hurchinson draws the “winning” slip, and is stoned to death by her townspeople.