Character and Plot Analysis

Every summer in July, a village holds the lottery. Each member of the community is present at this meeting.  Families are standing together and Tessie Hutchinson arrives late to the meeting.  She is jolly and everybody in the village is talking as though nothing is wrong.  When Mr. Summers arrives and puts the black box on stage everybody quiets down and pays close attention. One by one each head male of every family nervously walks up to the box and grabs a slip of paper out of it.  Once every man has a slip of paper Mr. Summers shouts for everybody to unfold their slip.  As soon as the slips are unfolded the villagers are asking who has the black dot. They guess and wonder until somebody says Mr. Hutchinson has it.  The Hutchinson family is called forth and has to reselect slips of paper from the box but this time every member chooses one.  Tessie ends up “winning” the lottery by choosing the slip with the black dot.  She shouts and screams that it was all unfair but the villagers already were surrounding her and beat her to death with stones.

Tessie Hutchinson’s attitude changes drastically from the beginning of the story to the end.  She begins the story as a happy housewife who is eager to start the lottery.  When she arrives to the gathering she talks to her friends as if nothing is wrong.  Everybody is silent while husbands choose their slips of paper.  When she learns that her husband chose the slip containing the black dot on it she panics.  She shouts and tries to find a way so they can redo the drawing of the slips.  She wasn’t nervous and upset in the beginning but as soon as this unfortunate event doesn’t turn out in her favor she reacts in a hysterical way.  Tessie does not accept the fact that she “won” the lottery and is screaming while the villagers, including her family, turn on her and beat her to death with stones.