a formalist criticism: the lottery

THE LOTTERY by Shirley Jackson

A Formalist Criticism

The PLOT

ExpositionIt is warm June day in a

wholesome good natured town where the people are kind, polite & happy. The villagers are getting ready for the lottery, adults are finishing their chores early and children happily pick up stones.

Rising ActionThe Villagers are starting to

come for the Lottery. Tessie came late saying she almost forget but Mr. Summers commented they won’t start without her.

ClimaxThe drawing of the slips of paper is finished and the townspeople begin to unfold their papers with sighs of relief. The winner is declared as the Hutchinson Family and ultimately after the second drawing Tessie is declared the winner.

Falling Action

Tessie protests saying it’s unfair, the townspeople gather around her and stone her to death, thus completing their tradition.

DenouementThey still live their life according to their old tradition. They did not grieve for the lost loved one and simply forget her like the many other before her.

UNFOLDING CHARACTERS…

Old Man Warner

One of the many Ironies in the Story. Old Man means he’s been a witness of the tradition for years. Warner is the irony because he doesn’t warn people about their death, he simply watches.

Mr. Summers

It is summertime when they held the lottery. It suggests how powerful he is in controlling the lottery. Summer suggests a happy time, lively but Mr. Summers offers the opposite which is death.

Mr. Graves

He’s one of the people to lead the person to his own grave.

Specific Details of the

SettingsThe specification of details made the story more powerful in the end. It seems like an ordinary day for us as we read along the first paragraph. The atmosphere it built in the first paragraph made the impact of the irony greater because it seems like a happy day but in the end, it’s not. The specific details suggest that all through out the story, only the specific details will be revealed not the one we should really know. Because of the specific details, we didn’t notice things to be out of place. We overlooked at the things, we fail to know its hidden meaning from the very start.

SYMBOLISMS

Black Box

The box is the coffin in which all are condemned to death but only one will die. The fading or the faded color of the box symbolizes the fading tradition of their village and they are still using this box even though it is old and almost broken because they believe parts of it came from the original box of the tradition even though they haven’t witness it. It also symbolizes Old Man Warner which also ages. Then creating an analogy, Old Man Warner haven’t really witnessed the very tradition that’s why they only did what’s powerful in the tradition which is Violence. The pieces never came from the original box, they just like to believe it is.

Three-legged Stool

It serves as the foundation of the tradition itself. The three legs are Mr. Summer, Mr. Grave and Old Man Warner. They are the ones who organized the lottery. The three legs carry the box which means the three of them carry the tradition. Without them, they can no longer hold their tradition or the lottery.

Black Dot

o It symbolizes death. The white part of the paper symbolizes the population of their village or their community and the black dot on it symbolizes the person who'll die. Of all the people on their village, you are the ironically lucky one.

o This also symbolizes the flaw in the tradition that after all the goodness that person shows, once she was the one who picked it, they will only see her death, the black spot.

o This also symbolizes the town itself. Unlike any other towns nearby, they’re the only ones who held the tradition. They are the black spot.

Stone

oDeath and tradition. This suggests their way of killing based on their tradition.oThis also symbolizes the villagers. They are like stones. They are indifferent to the person they will kill as long as they can fulfill the tradition every year. They don’t care if that person is a family or a friend. They simply kill because of the tradition.

LotteryoLottery symbolizes life. Though some people think it’s unfair, you will never really know the time you will die and people will forget you.oIt also shows the effects of following traditions without people questioning it.

FORESHADOWING Children putting Stones in their pocket earlier in the

morn Tessie’s late arrival makes her apart from the crowd Observation of Mr. Summers saying Tessie may

think they’ll start without her People getting nervous and fidgety instead of

getting excited The people breathed a sigh of relief when their

paper is blank and the sisters beamed and laughed while theirs is also blank

Tessie’s protest of the lottery being unfair

IRONY

LotteryIt means for a

celebration after winning and it should be full of excitement but in the story, the people are nervous and death is what awaits to the so-called “winner”.

Old Man Warner

He doesn’t warn people of their death, he is simply indifferent to the person who will die for 77 years now. He doesn’t even want to stop the tradition after all all he witnessed.

Summer

It is supposed to be happy and full of life yet in the story it become a tragic time or time you don’t want to come because you’ll be facing death.

Specific Details

These specific details should be the one to make the story clearer but rather we become one with the villagers who blindly follows the tradition, we don’t know what’s going end not until the end.

SUBJECT MATTER THEMES

Reluctance of People to

Reject Outdated Traditions

People’s reluctance to reject outdated traditions shows their ignorance of their beliefs and them being blind followers of such injustices.

Wickedness of

Ordinary People

The wickedness of ordinary people is quite unexpected but devastating as what serial killers can do.

Following the Mob (Crowd)

Following the crowd isn’t always for the common good, sometimes it’s unreasonable.

Connecting Our Society to the Subject Matter

People in the society can be selfish, not grieving for other’s life since theirs is saved. Death sometimes doesn’t come naturally, sometimes it’s the people around us who wish to kill us just so they can live their lives like the ISIS who are indifferent to what their victims feel as long as they did what they ought to do.

Our society is full of ignorance and blinded with injustices because we are afraid of the changes just for example the K-12 program. We are still hesitant because it is a big change for us Filipinos, we complain because we’re already contented with our original practice even if there is a much better way for us to grow and develop.

Members:

Jewel Vanilli Punay Harold Masmela Jhedell Pablico Armando Sansano Pauline Alonzo Maureen Bernadette Guray