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The Lottery - Online Term Paper

The Lottery

Residents of a New England village gather at 10 a.m. on June 27 in the square between the post office and the bank for the annual lottery. A bright sun is shining down on fragrant flowers and green lawns while the townspeople–more than 300 of them–await the arrival of Mr. Summers and the black wooden box from which everyone is to draw a folded slip of paper. Adults chat while children play a game in which they gather stones. Whoever draws the slip of paper with the black dot on it will receive all of the lottery proceeds.
Over the years, the lottery rules and trappings remained the same except for minor changes: Wood chips were replaced by the slips of paper, and ritual chants and ...

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day it was” until she noticed that her children had left her house and remembered it was the day of the lottery.
Each of the townspeople draws a folded slip of paper but does not open it until everyone has drawn. When the big moment arrives, it is Tessie Hutchinson who has the paper with the black dot. Everyone then closes in on her, picks up rocks–the “proceeds” of the lottery–and stones her to death.
The story presents the possibility that the lottery is dying out. For example, a passage in the seventh paragraph indicates that the villagers have already permitted certain parts of the lottery ritual to lapse:

[A]t one time, some people remembered, there had been a recital of some sort, performed by the official of the lottery, a perfunctory, tuneless chant that had been rattled off duly each year; some people believed that the official of the lottery used to stand just so when he said or sang it, others believed that he was supposed to walk among the people, but years and ...

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The Lottery. (2011, May 9). Retrieved January 6, 2026, from http://www.essayworld.com/essays/The-Lottery/98994

"The Lottery." Essayworld.com. Essayworld.com, 9 May. 2011. Web. 6 Jan. 2026. <http://www.essayworld.com/essays/The-Lottery/98994>

"The Lottery." Essayworld.com. May 9, 2011. Accessed January 6, 2026. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/The-Lottery/98994.

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PAPER DETAILS

Added: 5/9/2011 09:18:16 AM
Submitted By: finaleD
Category: English
Type: Free Paper
Words: 490
Pages: 2

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