The Lottery
Blog Post 1
The story written by Shirley Jackson "The Lottery" paints an ambiguous picture with an ironic ending for one of the more interesting characters Tessie Hutchinson. I observed gender roles being present almost immediately when the text talked about boys old enough to loosely be called men "speaking for their mother". This ties into what was occurring at the time this story was written for a few reasons. My group and I discussed how at the time in the late 1940's when this was written World War 2 was in swing, meaning the draft had taken most of the men to serve. This translates to women having to go and work what were at the time thought of as men's jobs, such as a factory worker for instance. It was not popular, but necessary at the time. I relate them only choosing a woman to stone and never boys or men as Shirley Jacksons way of discussing the undertone of male sentiment at the time towards women, that being disdain, thinking they were beneath them, and quite replaceable. The story is ambiguous on purpose, never giving out too many details such as time, location, or further reasoning as to why they are sacrificing their women to have a more bountiful harvest. It's never discussed who they are sacrificing to, or perhaps even if they are living off the grid from the rest of the world, lost in another time of there own choosing. The irony of Mrs. Hutchinson being selected as a female centric victim, trying to appeal to their empathy and humanity for saving her life, falls on deaf ears. Much like how women's opinions are though of at the time Jackson wrote the story. Perhaps it is just a coincidence but that is my evidence as to why it might have been written and as to the who, concerning women's tenuous social place at the time.
-Josh Nowaczyk
While discussing "The Lottery" this past week with my group I would have to agree with Josh on most topics. He covered a lot of what we talked about in our discussion, I would however like to add.. When he is talking about Tessie Hutchinson and gender roles, there are specific things that happen in the story that point out how women are beneath men. Tessie is trying to speak up for her husband saying to Mr. Summers that he didn't give Bill, her husband, enough time to take any paper he wanted, In which Bill replies by telling Tessie to shut up. We also thought it was very ironic how Tessie ends up being the one stoned, because she was the one that said something. Even though everyone had to draw a slip. The story also resembles "The Hunger Games" in a way. But instead of them fighting other "districts", as they call them in The Hunger Games, they just have one person in their town to be chosen annually to be stoned.
-Mattisyn Woods