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A short summary of Shirley Jackson's The Lottery. This free synopsis covers all the crucial plot points of The Lottery.
- Shirley Jackson and “The Lottery” Background
Shirley Jackson was born in 1916 in San Francisco,...
- Flashcards
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- Setting
A summary of Section 1 in Shirley Jackson's The Lottery....
- Symbols
The Lottery. The lottery represents any action, behavior, or...
- Important Quotes Explained
This quotation, from the fifth paragraph of the story,...
- Foreshadowing
A summary of Section 2 in Shirley Jackson's The Lottery....
- Motifs
The lottery is rife with rules that are arbitrarily followed...
- Tessie Hutchinson
When Tessie Hutchinson arrives late to the lottery,...
- Shirley Jackson and “The Lottery” Background
Jackson sets up this notion of a group mentality right from the beginning of the story, using the opening paragraph to describe both the size of the village and the way that the community gathers for the lottery.
‘The Lottery’: plot summary. The story takes place one morning between ten o’clock and noon on 27 June, in a village somewhere in (presumably) the USA. The year is not stated. The three hundred villagers are gathering to undertake the annual ritual of the lottery, which is always drawn on this date every year.
Shirley Jackson's The Lottery Plot Summary. Learn more about The Lottery with a detailed plot summary and plot diagram.
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It is June 27th, and a beautiful summer morning, and villagers begin to gather in their town square (the town is unnamed) for the annual “lottery.” This village has only three hundred people, and so the lottery can be completed easily in a single day, and leave time for noon dinner.
First published in The New Yorker in 1948, “The Lottery” is a chilling short story by Shirley Jackson that has become a classic in American literature. Set in a small, seemingly idyllic town on a summer day, the narrative unfolds as the townspeople gather for an annual event known as “the lottery.”
