Literary Criticism
In this part of the literate, the paper will analyze Marxist criticism. Marxism focuses on social institutions, class, and the social orders in society. The story of the lottery attacks ideology and social order in the town. Based on the Marxism concept, the story reinforces fear in the villagers by emphasizing hierarchical social order. The social order emphasizes the consequences that will face anyone who resist it. The setup of this story brings the idea of capitalism which portrays the poor villagers as the masses. Because he is the mayor and controls the major enterprises in the area, Mr. Summer is regarded as a powerful man in the town (Jackson, p. 1334). Mr. Graves is the second on the social ladder and the second most powerful government official. He is a postmaster, and the post office is just next to the lottery. The third in control is Mr. Martin, who is a grocer. Just like in any capitalist world, the three men run the lottery business; when the lottery is closed, the key is kept by one of these. When running the lottery, one or all of the three men must be available. Mr. Summer is the man who opens the lottery and leads the activities.
Capitalist society is divided into “the haves” and “have nots,” the powerful and powerless. In this story, the statement is clear during the participation in the lottery exercise. During the lottery exercise, the first priority is offered to the postmaster, the grocer, and Mr. Summer. The three individuals are the only people entitled to administer the lottery. The second rule or priority is based on who has power in the village social hierarchy. And the remaining rule is anyone who chooses the slip in the lottery from the first to the third rounds. The class structure in the village is deluded during the lottery. The lottery has been practiced for so long that even Warner found it existed. Just like in any other capitalist society, there is an exploitation of the poor and powerless (Suwardi, p. 122). The black box carried by Mr. Summer during the lottery is not an original box used for the same exercise. The public is led to think that the lottery is open and fair and that anyone has a chance of winning. However, the truth is that Mr. Summer is familiar with the black-dot lottery paper, and his family is always spared from being murdered.
Character analysis
In the story, Mr. Summer runs the activity together with the two powerful men in the village. Mr. Summer is an outgoing man with a cheerful personality. Despite the lottery being framed as bad by some villagers, the exercise brings activeness to the village. The activeness is brought by Mr. Summer’s cheerful character, which makes the villager interested in participating.
Mr. Summer led the lottery activity with casual authority and self-importance. His presence in the activity translates to the credibility of the exercise because the villagers trust him (Nugraha, p. 35). The old man Warner is a charismatic and conservative man who follows the village traditions to the latter. When the villagers protested against the lottery activity, he told them the lottery had been in existence for years, even before he was born, so it could not end. The old man also associates the lottery with other traditions which mark civil society. When other villagers want to give up, he tells them that the exercise is a tradition and has existed for a long time. The old man is also secretive, he knows the black box used was not original, but he doesn’t tell other villagers.
Tessie Hutchinson is part of the masses who are easily exploited by the elites. Tessie is a housewife who accepts life as it comes to it is too late for her. She is excited, supports, and willing to participate in the lottery every year. She supports the exploitation that happens in the lottery and justifies how democratic it is. However, when her family name is drawn, Tessie protest that lottery is unfair. Tessie is willing to put up with the evil practice of the lottery, but she doesn’t want the evil to touch her. This character translates to any capitalist world where some poor people agree with exploiting the rich, but as soon as the practice touches them, they protest against its evil exploitation. Mr. Hutchinson is an upright man who accepts the fate of the lottery exercise. When his wife starts protesting, he tells her to shut up and face the consequence. Mr. Hutchinson believes that every game has consequences, and one should be ready for it. Based on the social order in the village, middle-class men have control over their families but not the village. For example, Bill Hutchinson has full authority over his family but abides by the rules put in place by the town mayor. Bill Hutchinson belongs to the middle-class people in the capitalist society. These people control the poor, but they cannot control the rich. In this story, Bill is portrayed as a compliant man who adheres to the lottery outcomes.
Style, tone, and language analysis
The tone of the story refers to the mood portrayed by the author in writing. The tone cannot be the same throughout the book; it keeps changing based on several factors, such as the scene and the character. At the start, the mood is calm, peaceful, and what one would call an everyday kind of mood. The author helps the reader see children playing, green grass scenery, and flowers blooming (Robinson, p. 43). However, this ends up with a deep analysis of the real activity of the lottery. The tone starts changing to show how horrible the activity is. For example, when Mrs. Hutchinson starts protesting about how unfair the exercise is and how village members are being stoned. The reader starts getting the irony in the story on how several people are supporting the lottery and how the poor engage in the activity happily, yet every year one person has to be stoned. This shows the high-level exploitation of the poor by the rich in a capitalist world.
The style used by Jackson is Journalistic and symbolic, as described below. The author uses a Journalistic tone to show calmness and normalness in the story. While reading the first few paragraphs of the book, the reader might think nothing horrible will happen (Hakaraia, p. 137). By using symbolism, the author describes the lottery with happy things such as winning and rewards. The author, therefore, later paints the story as a horrible thing that leads to death, whether one draws or not. The activity affects the households, which are social interactions. The negative consequence of the lottery game is stoning, which brings the symbolism of horror. The Language in Lottery follows proper syntax, word meaning, speech sound, and phonological qualities that are required in any literature. The historical evolution of language and child grammar are also discussed.
Work cited
Hakaraia, Teresa. “Shirley Jackson’s ‘The Lottery,’and William Empson’s Seven Types of Ambiguity.” Humanities 8.3 (2019): 137.
Jackson, Shirley. The lottery. Bergen Community College, 2021.
Nugraha, Intan S., and Sutiono Mahdi. “TRANSITIVITY SYSTEM ON BUILDING CHARACTER OF MR. SUMMERS IN THE LOTTERY BY SHIRLEY JACKSON.” Celtic: A Journal of Culture, English Language Teaching, Literature and Linguistics, vol. 7, no. 1, 2020, p. 35.
Robinson, Michael. “Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery” and Holocaust Literature.” Humanities 8.1 (2019): 35.
Suwardi, Albertus. “A MARXIST INTERPRETATION OF SHIRLEY JACKSON’S ‘THE LOTTERY’.” Journal of English and Education, vol. 4, no. 2, 2016, pp. 91-98.