The Lottery - wikipedia The Lottery This article is about the short story. For other uses, see Lottery ( disambiguation ). This article 's lead section does not adequately summarize key points of its contents. Please consider expanding the lead to provide an accessible overview of all important aspects of the article. Please discuss this issue on the article 's talk page. ( March 2018 ) `` The Lottery '' Author Shirley Jackson Country United States Language English Genre ( s ) Short story Publisher The New Yorker Publication date June 26, 1948 `` The Lottery '' is a short story written by Shirley Jackson first published in the June 26, 1948 issue of The New Yorker. The story describes a fictional small town which observes an annual ritual known as `` the lottery ''. `` The Lottery '' has been described as `` one of the most famous short stories in the history of American literature ''. It initially received a negative response, which surprised both Jackson and The New Yorker. Readers cancelled subscriptions and sent hate mail throughout the summer. The Union of South Africa banned the story. Contents 1 Plot 2 Themes 3 Reception 3.1 Readers 3.2 Critical interpretations 4 Dramatizations 4.1 1951 radio version 4.2 Television adaptation 4.3 1969 film 4.4 1996 TV film 5 References 6 Further reading 7 External links Plot Details of contemporary small - town American life are embroidered upon a description of an annual ritual known as `` the lottery ''. In a small village in New England of about 300 residents, the locals are in an excited yet nervous mood on June 27. Children gather stones as the adult townsfolk assemble for their annual event, which in the local tradition is practiced to ensure a good harvest ( Old Man Warner quotes an old proverb : `` Lottery in June, corn be heavy soon '' ), though there are some rumors that nearby communities in the north are talking about giving up the lottery, and some have done so. The lottery preparations start the night before with Mr. Summers and Mr. Graves making the paper slips and the list of all the families. Once the slips are finished, they are put into a black box, which is stored overnight in a safe place at the coal company. The story briefly mentions how the ballot box has been stored over the years in various places in the town, including a grocery store shelf, a barn, and in the post office basement. On the morning of the lottery, the townspeople gather close to 10 a.m. in order to have everything done in time for lunch. First, the heads of the extended families draw slips until every family has a slip. Bill Hutchinson gets the one slip with a black spot, meaning that his family has been chosen. The second round would ordinarily be to select one household within the family, but since there is only one Hutchinson household ( Bill 's adult sister and daughter are counted with their husbands ' families ), the second round is skipped. The final round is for the individual family members within the winning household to draw, no matter their age. Bill 's wife Tessie gets the marked slip. After the drawing is over and Tessie is picked, the slips are allowed to fly off into the wind. In keeping with tradition, each villager obtains a stone and begins to surround Tessie. The story ends as Tessie is stoned to death while she bemoans the unfairness of the situation. Themes One of the major ideas of `` The Lottery '' is that of a scapegoat. The act of stoning someone to death yearly purges the town of the bad and allows for the good. This is hinted in the references to agriculture. The story also speaks of mob psychology and the idea that people can abandon reason and act cruelly if they are part of a large group of people behaving in the same manner. The idyllic setting of the story also demonstrates that violence and evil can take place anywhere and in any context. This also shows how people can turn on each other so easily. Alongside the mob mentality, the story speaks about people who blindly follow traditions without thinking of the consequences of those traditions. Reception Readers The New Yorker received a `` torrent of letters '' inquiring about the story -- `` the most mail the magazine had ever received in response to a work of fiction ''. Many readers demanded an explanation of the situation in the story, and a month after the initial publication, Jackson responded in the San Francisco Chronicle ( July 22, 1948 ) : Explaining just what I had hoped the story to say is very difficult. I suppose, I hoped, by setting a particularly brutal ancient rite in the present and in my own village to shock the story 's readers with a graphic dramatization of the pointless violence and general inhumanity in their own lives. North Bennington. Jackson lived in North Bennington, Vermont, and her comment reveals that she had Bennington in mind when she wrote `` The Lottery ''. In a 1960 lecture ( printed in her 1968 collection, Come Along with Me ), Jackson recalled the hate mail she received in 1948 : One of the most terrifying aspects of publishing stories and books is the realization that they are going to be read, and read by strangers. I had never fully realized this before, although I had of course in my imagination dwelt lovingly upon the thought of the millions and millions of people who were going to be uplifted and enriched and delighted by the stories I wrote. It had simply never occurred to me that these millions and millions of people might be so far from being uplifted that they would sit down and write me letters I was downright scared to open ; of the three - hundred - odd letters that I received that summer I can count only thirteen that spoke kindly to me, and they were mostly from friends. Even my mother scolded me : `` Dad and I did not care at all for your story in The New Yorker, '' she wrote sternly ; `` it does seem, dear, that this gloomy kind of story is what all you young people think about these days. Why do n't you write something to cheer people up ? '' The New Yorker kept no records of the phone calls, but letters addressed to Jackson were forwarded to her. That summer she regularly took home 10 to 12 forwarded letters each day. She also received weekly packages from The New Yorker containing letters and questions addressed to the magazine or editor Harold Ross, plus carbon copies of the magazine 's responses mailed to letter writers. Curiously, there are three main themes which dominate the letters of that first summer -- three themes which might be identified as bewilderment, speculation and plain old - fashioned abuse. In the years since then, during which the story has been anthologized, dramatized, televised, and even -- in one completely mystifying transformation -- made into a ballet, the tenor of letters I receive has changed. I am addressed more politely, as a rule, and the letters largely confine themselves to questions like what does this story mean ? The general tone of the early letters, however, was a kind of wide - eyed, shocked innocence. People at first were not so much concerned with what the story meant ; what they wanted to know was where these lotteries were held, and whether they could go there and watch. Critical interpretations Helen E. Nebeker 's essay, `` ' The Lottery ' : Symbolic Tour de Force '', in American Literature ( March 1974 ), claims that every major name in the story has a special significance. By the end of the first two paragraphs, Jackson has carefully indicated the season, time of ancient excess and sacrifice, and the stones, most ancient of sacrificial weapons. She has also hinted at larger meanings through name symbolism. `` Martin '', Bobby 's surname, derives from a Middle English word signifying ape or monkey. This, juxtaposed with `` Harry Jones '' ( in all its commonness ) and `` Dickie Delacroix '' ( of - the - Cross ) urges us to an awareness of the Hairy Ape within us all, veneered by a Christianity as perverted as `` Delacroix, '' vulgarized to `` Dellacroy '' by the villagers. Horribly, at the end of the story, it will be Mrs. Delacroix, warm and friendly in her natural state, who will select a stone `` so large she had to pick it up with both hands '' and will encourage her friends to follow suit... `` Mr. Adams, '' at once progenitor and martyr in the Judeo - Christian myth of man, stands with `` Mrs. Graves '' -- the ultimate refuge or escape of all mankind -- in the forefront of the crowd. Fritz Oehlshlaeger, in `` The Stoning of Mistress Hutchinson Meaning of Context in ' The Lottery ' '' ( Essays in Literature, 1988 ), wrote : The name of Jackson 's victim links her to Anne Hutchinson, whose Antinomian beliefs, found to be heretical by the Puritan hierarchy, resulted in her banishment from Massachusetts in 1638. While Tessie Hutchinson is no spiritual rebel, to be sure, Jackson 's allusion to Anne Hutchinson reinforces her suggestions of a rebellion lurking within the women of her imaginary village. Since Tessie Hutchinson is the protagonist of `` The Lottery, '' there is every indication that her name is indeed an allusion to Anne Hutchinson, the American religious dissenter. She was excommunicated despite an unfair trial, while Tessie questions the tradition and correctness of the lottery as well as her humble status as a wife. It might as well be this insubordination that leads to her selection by the lottery and stoning by the angry mob of villagers. The 1992 episode of The Simpsons, `` Dog of Death '', features a scene referencing `` The Lottery ''. During the peak of the lottery fever in Springfield, news anchor Kent Brockman announces on television that people hoping to get tips on how to win the jackpot have borrowed every available copy of Shirley Jackson 's book The Lottery at the local library. One of them is Homer, who throws the book into the fireplace after Brockman reveals that, `` Of course, the book does not contain any hints on how to win the lottery. It is, rather, a chilling tale of conformity gone mad. '' In her book Shirley Jackson : Essays on the Literary Legacy, Bernice Murphy comments that this scene displays some of the most contradictory things about Jackson : `` It says a lot about the visibility of Jackson 's most notorious tale that more than 50 years after its initial creation it is still famous enough to warrant a mention in the world 's most famous sitcom. The fact that Springfield 's citizenry also miss the point of Jackson 's story completely... can perhaps be seen as an indication of a more general misrepresentation of Jackson and her work. '' Dramatizations This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. ( August 2017 ) In addition to numerous reprints in magazines, anthologies and textbooks, `` The Lottery '' has been adapted for radio, live television, a 1953 ballet, films in 1969 and 1997, a TV movie, an opera, and a one - act play by Thomas Martin. 1951 radio version A radio adaptation by NBC was broadcast March 14, 1951, as an episode of the anthology series NBC Presents : Short Story. Writer Ernest Kinoy expanded the plot to include scenes at various characters ' homes before the lottery and a conversation between Bill and Tessie Hutchinson ( Bill suggests leaving town before the lottery happens, but Tessie refuses because she wants to go shopping at Floyd Summers 's store after the lottery is over ). Kinoy deleted certain characters, including two of the Hutchinsons ' three children, and added at least one character, John Gunderson, a schoolteacher who publicly objects to the lottery being held, and at first refuses to draw. Finally, Kinoy included an ending scene describing the townspeople 's post-lottery activities, and an afterword in which the narrator suggested, `` Next year, maybe there wo n't be a Lottery. It 's up to all of us. Chances are, there will be, though. '' The production was directed by Andrew C. Love. Television adaptation Ellen M. Violett wrote the first television adaptation, seen on Albert McCleery 's Cameo Theatre ( 1950 -- 55 ). 1969 film Larry Yust 's short film, The Lottery ( 1969 ), produced as part of Encyclopædia Britannica 's ' Short Story Showcase ' series, was ranked by the Academic Film Archive `` as one of the two bestselling educational films ever ''. It has an accompanying ten - minute commentary film, Discussion of `` The Lottery '' by University of Southern California English professor James Durbin. Featuring the film debut of Ed Begley Jr., Yust 's adaptation has an atmosphere of naturalism and small town authenticity with its shots of pickup trucks and townspeople in Fellows, California. 1996 TV film Anthony Spinner 's feature - length TV film, The Lottery, which premiered September 29, 1996, on NBC, is a sequel loosely based on the original Shirley Jackson story. It was nominated for a 1997 Saturn Award for Best Single Genre Television Presentation. References Jump up ^ Shirley Jackson ( 26 June 1948 ). `` The Lottery ''. The New Yorker. Retrieved 2008 - 05 - 22. Jump up ^ Harris, Laurie Lanzen ; Abbey, Cherie D. ( 2000 ). Biography Today : Profiles of People of Interest to Young Readers. Detroit, Michigan : Omnigraphics. p. 71. ISBN 9780780804029. Retrieved 2012 - 06 - 26. ^ Jump up to : Jackson, Shirley ; Hyman, Stanley Edgar ( 1968 ). Come Along with Me ; Part of a Novel, Sixteen Stories, and Three Lectures ( 2nd ed. ). New York : Viking Press. ISBN 9780670231584. Jump up ^ Jackson, Shirley ( 1998 ). Just an ordinary day. Hyman, Laurence J. ; DeWitt, Sarah Hyman. New York : Bantam Books. ISBN 9780553378337. OCLC 38059007. Jump up ^ `` The Lottery Themes - eNotes.com ''. eNotes. Retrieved 2016 - 11 - 07. Jump up ^ Franklin, Ruth ( 2013 - 06 - 25 ). `` '' The Lottery '' Letters ``. The New Yorker. Retrieved 2018 - 03 - 14. ^ Jump up to : Murphy, Bernice M. ( 2005 ). `` Introduction : ' Do You Know Who I Am ? ', Reconsidering Shirley Jackson ''. Shirley Jackson : Essays on the Literary Legacy. Jefferson : McFarland & Company. p. 1. ISBN 9780786423125. Retrieved 23 August 2017. ^ Jump up to : Goldin, J. David. `` Radio Goldindex ''. NBC Short Story. Retrieved 9 July 2012. ^ Jump up to : `` NBC Short Story ''. The Lottery. The Generic Radio Workshop Vintage Radio Script Library. Retrieved July 9, 2012. Jump up ^ `` NBC Short Story ''. `` The Lottery ''. Matinee Classics. Archived from the original ( audio ) on December 3, 2013. Retrieved July 9, 2012. Further reading Oppenheimer, Judy ( 1988 ). Private Demons : The Life of Shirley Jackson. New York : Putnam. ISBN 0399133569. External links Read `` The Lottery '' in the New Yorker archive ( subscription required ) Read in full via Middlebury College Salon : Jonathan Lethem : `` Monstrous Acts and Little Murders '' `` The Lottery '' study guide and teaching guide -- analysis, themes, quotes, multimedia for students and teachers The New Yorker podcast : A.M. Homes discusses and reads `` The Lottery '' NBC Short Story : `` The Lottery '' ( March 14, 1951 ) `` The Lottery '' read by Maureen Stapleton 1988 interview with Judy Oppenheimer Audio dramatization from WOUB Public Media ( Athens, Ohio ) Shirley Jackson Novels The Road Through the Wall ( 1948 ) Hangsaman ( 1951 ) The Bird 's Nest ( 1954 ) The Sundial ( 1958 ) The Haunting of Hill House ( 1959 ) We Have Always Lived in the Castle ( 1962 ) Short fiction `` The Lottery '' ( 1948 ) `` Charles '' ( 1948 ) `` The Lovely House '' ( 1950 ) `` The Possibility of Evil '' ( 1965 ) Collections The Lottery and Other Stories ( 1949 ) Come Along With Me ( 1968 ) Memoirs Life Among the Savages ( 1952 ) Raising Demons ( 1957 ) Adaptations Lizzie ( 1957 film ) The Haunting ( 1963 film ) The Haunting ( 1999 film ) We Have Always Lived in the Castle ( film ) The Haunting of Hill House ( 2018 TV series ) Related Shirley Jackson Award Stanley Edgar Hyman Mary Katherine `` Merricat '' Blackwood ( Character ) Retrieved from `` https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=The_Lottery&oldid=865706900 '' Categories : 1948 short stories 1969 films 1996 television films Dystopian literature Films based on short fiction Horror short stories Human sacrifice in fiction Obscenity controversies in literature Short stories adapted into films Short stories by Shirley Jackson Works originally published in The New Yorker Works about violence Censored books Hidden categories : Wikipedia introduction cleanup from March 2018 All pages needing cleanup Articles covered by WikiProject Wikify from March 2018 All articles covered by WikiProject Wikify Wikipedia articles needing page number citations from August 2017 Articles needing additional references from August 2017 All articles needing additional references Talk Contents About Wikipedia Deutsch Español فارسی Français Bahasa Indonesia Italiano עברית ਪੰਜਾਬੀ Português Svenska Українська 5 more Edit links This page was last edited on 25 October 2018, at 16 : 52 ( UTC ). 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Question: where did the story happen in the lottery
Answer: a small village in New England