Plot
This annual event takes place on June 27th in a small village of about 300 people.
The Lottery
She arrives late to the lottery, claiming she forgot what day it was because she was doing dishes.
Tessie Hutchinson
This object, stored in the post office safe and brought out once a year, represents the decaying, unexamined tradition of the town.
The black box.
The townspeople's willingness to murder a neighbor simply because "it’s the rule" suggests rules can be used to mask this human trait.
Hint: There are 3 possible answers.
Cruelty OR
inner darkness OR
darker instincts
The opening description of a peaceful, small-town American village creates this "single story" in the reader's mind.
Hint: There are 3 synonyms for this answer.
Wholesome OR
idyllic OR
civilized community.
Before the wooden black box had paper slips, the town used these objects to draw names.
Wood chips.
These community members are the first to gather in the square, making a pile of smooth stones in a corner.
Hint: There are 3.
Bobby Martin, Dickie Delacroix, and Harry Jones
The clear, sunny morning, green grass, and blooming flowers at the story's start create this literary device to hide the ending's horror
Juxtaposition
Tessie's shout of "It isn't fair, it isn't right!" shows she is protesting this, rather than the existence of the lottery itself.
Bad luck.
Adichie warns that a single story makes people see others as one thing only; the villagers reduce Tessie from a friend and neighbor to this singular role.
Victim.
This character serves as the official director of the lottery because he has the time and energy to devote to civic activities.
Mr. Summers
Tessie's attitude changes from lighthearted banter to panicked protests only after this specific event occurs.
Her husband (Bill Hutchinson) drawing the slip with the black dot.
The black dot on the slip of paper, drawn with charcoal by Mr. Summers, serves as a symbol for this ultimate end.
Death.
The fact that children participate in stoning their own mother shows that moral boundaries are easily broken down by this social force.
Peer pressure!
The "single story" that rules always exist to protect society is shattered in the story when rules are used to justify this.
MURDA!
Despite the village forgetting the original ritual and losing the original box, they strictly remember to use these objects at the very end.
Stones.
This character stands up for the oldest tradition in the village and complains that younger people in other villages are "fools" for wanting to give it up.
Old Man Warner.
The post office, bank, and square represent this surface-level state of being before the ritual begins.
Hint: It's a vocab word!
Normalcy
When the villagers drop their conversation and form a circle around Tessie, Jackson implies civilization's rules act merely as this temporary barrier.
Hmmm new question?
Old Man Warner’s belief that stopping the lottery will turn people into "barbarians living in caves" is a "single story" that confuses long-standing tradition with this concept.
Morality.
Old Man Warner rejects the idea of giving up the lottery by repeating this old village saying about agriculture.
Lottery in June, corn be heavy soon.
Mrs. Delacroix's transition from friendly gossip with Tessie to selecting a stone "so large she had to pick it up with both hands" illustrates this psychological shift.
Hint: There are 2 possible answers.
Mob Mentality and/or
Civilized to Savage
The deliberate replacement of wood chips with slips of paper represents society adjusting a tradition for efficiency without questioning its morality. What is this concept called?
Modernizing.
The villagers' complete lack of remorse or guilt after the stoning best supports this side of our unit's essential question.
Hint: There are 2 possible PHRASINGS of this answer.
Rules merely mask our darker instincts OR
Human nature is inherently violent.
Connecting Adichie to Jackson, the "danger" revealed in The Lottery is accepting a societal custom without questioning this underlying assumption.
A tradition is good/necessary just because it has always existed.