The lottery - Research Paper Example

They are to pick a paper from the black box and whoever picks the black marked paper is doomed to die. The story narrates that Mr. Hutchinson picked the marked paper so that out of all the villagers, each member of his family was to pick from the box to determine who will finally suffer the consequences of the tradition. Tessie Hutchinson, the wife, picked the marked paper and therefore was stoned to death. This may be very barbaric but “The Lottery” speaks more genuine concerns about tradition and how people treat it, than it looks to be in this retelling of the story.

It also portrays literary elements such as point of view, setting, characters, plot and role of tradition in the story which will be discussed in detail in this paper. “The Lottery” is told by a third person narrator (Cencage) whose view of the characters is limited. The storyteller is not able to tell the thoughts of the characters but efficiently narrates the story by simply identifying the characters and describing them, their actions or their words and facial expressions. Cencage describes the manner of narration as “detached and objective” in recounting the events of the story. . here the story was set, this day could be seen as a day when children would go out and play gleefully outside or it would be a wonderful day for families to go walking together or have a picnic in the park.

According to Cencage, the 27th could a day when the solstice, the longest day of the year, occurs. It is said that traditionally, people sacrificed humans during the solstice and so the significance of this in the story cannot be easily dismissed as it soon eventually unfolds in the story that the winner of the lottery is going to be stoned to death. In an interview with the author, she was asked about how she came up with the story and she comments, “Perhaps the effort of that last 50 yards up the hill put an edge on the story.

It was a warm morning and the hill was steep” (nothbennington.org). However, behind the setting are also characters which made the story come alive. The narrative presents most of the villagers as a group and they are not identified. There are many minor characters which have been mentioned and there are also major players. However, this paper will focus on one major character, Tessie Hutchinson, who unfortunately picked the doomed marked paper that led to her death. Mrs. Hutchinson is first seen in the story running from her home, still on her house clothes.

Evidently, she has been doing her household chores and has hurried to the meeting to participate in the lottery that was about to take place. She is also presented as a happy and talkative person who easily speaks her mind and feelings. However, when she “wins the lottery and is stoned to death by her fellow villagers” (Cencage), Tessie finds the courage to rally herself against the fairness of the system and the tradition. Tessie is the symbol of the rise of feminism. In a