What do the villagers do after the lottery?
From how the villagers assemble, one would expect it is a normal lottery with prizes for the winning individual. However, as the story progresses, it emerges that the lottery is actually a bizarre ritual of human sacrifice. After the lottery, the singled out individual is stoned to death by the villagers.
Why did the villagers throw stones at Tessie?
Each of the five draws a slip, and Tessie gets the marked one. The townspeople gather stones and begin throwing them at her as she screams about the injustice that comes with the lottery.
Who throws the stones in the lottery?
The ending of Jackson’s story is the realization of the town’s tradition or practice of throwing stones and pelting one “chosen” individual in the village. In the story, the “chosen one” is Tessie Hutchinson. The meaning of the villagers throwing stones is both literal and symbolic.
Why did the kids gather stones in the lottery?
In “The Lottery,” the children initially are gathering the stones in apparent innocence as they enjoy the beautiful weather and the end of their school day.
What happens at the end of the lottery?
The winner of the lottery is stoned to death by the townspeople. Jackson uses foreshadowing to hint at the shocking ending by revealing the characters’ increasing nervousness as the event draws near.
Why do the villagers continue to hold the lottery?
The lottery’s origins are steeped in the superstitious belief that one innocent villager must be sacrificed each year in order to increase the harvest yield. … Simply put, the villagers continue to participate in the lottery because it is a tradition.
What is the purpose of the stoning in the lottery?
Stoning is a very brutal method of killing as the killer must be close to the victim and the death is painful and slow. Stoning as a method of sacrifice significantly applies to the story. It shows how the villagers wish to stick with ancient tradition no matter how brutal.
What do the black box and stones represent in the lottery?
Shirley Jackson uses the black box and the stones as symbols to emphasize that a cold and inhumane loss of respect for human life comes as a result of mechanically carrying out rituals. The black box is an object that represents how the villagers have become entranced in the gruesome tradition of stoning people.
Why is it significant that the villagers have forgotten the ritual but remember to use stones?
They focus on its gruesome rather than its symbolic nature, for they “still remembered to use stones” even after they have “forgotten the ritual and lost the original black box”. … Stones are a universal symbol for punishment, burial, and martyrdom: they indicate a morbid ceremony.
Who conducts the lottery in the lottery?
The Lottery Study Guide
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| Who conducts the lottery and what business does he run? | Mr. Summers and he owns the coal business |
| To what other civic activities is the lottery compared? | square dances, teen-age club, Halloween pageant |
Why do the boys choose the smoothest stones and what does this say about the tradition of the lottery in the story?
Jackson explained that the children were picking up smooth stones, not jagged, spiky rocks, which could kill a person faster. Although picking up smooth rocks may seemed like a trivial detail, Jackson was actually foreshadowing the ending.