The Lottery

The slip of paper with a black point finally ends in the hands of Tessie Hutchinson. The sense of this ritual is that the person who gets this paper, is stoned to death by other villagers. So she almost forgets what day it is and finally she has to die. .
             .
             The oldest participant of the lottery is Old Man Warner who has been seventy- seventh year in it so for him it isn`t anything unusual. Through this character the author gives us a picture of villagers who think that this tradition is an inseparable part of their lifes and despite the fact that it is cruel and inhuman, they have never thought of giving up the lottery. The name of this character symbolizes that this man is there to warn others in order to prevent them from happening something bad. When Mr. Adams tells Warner that some people .
             in other village talk of giving up the lottery, he says: "Pack of crazy fools. Listening to the young folks, nothing`s good enough for them." (S. Jackson, New Yorker, 1948, p. 5) .
             He represents those villagers who are convinced that the lottery has a special meaning concerning the fertility and harvest. There used to be one saying which claimed: "Lottery.
             in June, corn be heavy soon." (S. Jackson, New Yorker, 1948, p. 5) The fact is that people already forgot the original purpose of this ritual but in spite of that they still keep on practising it. These townspeople, including Old Man Warner, believe that if they quit the lottery, something bad will happen. From this point of view, the tradition has a really strong position among people because for them it it something that they respect, maybe fear of but they still participate willingly in spite of the ritual`s inhumanity. .
             The lottery is conducted by Mr. Summers who has enough time and energy to devote to civic activities. He is a jovial man who runs the coal business and that is also the reason why he belongs to the most powerful men in the town.