137 and Billy, his face red and his feet overlarge, near knocked the box over as he got a paper out. “Tessie,” Mr. Summers said. She hesitated for a minute, looking around defiantly, and then set her lips and went up to the box. She snatched a paper out and held it behind her. “Bill,” Mr. Summers said, and Bill Hutchinson reached into the box and felt around, bringing his hand out at last with the slip of paper in it. The crowd was quiet. A girl whispered, “I hope it’s not Nancy,” and the sound of the whisper reached the edges of the crowd. […] “All right,” Mr. Summers said. “Open the papers. Harry, you open little Dave’s.” Mr. Graves opened the slip of paper and there was a general sigh through the crowd as he held it up and everyone could see that it was blank. Nancy and Bill, Jr., opened theirs at the same time, and both beamed and laughed, turning around to the crowd and holding their slips of paper above their heads. “Tessie,” Mr. Summers said. There was a pause, and then Mr. Summers looked at Bill Hutchinson, and Bill unfolded his paper and showed it. It was blank. “It’s Tessie,” Mr. Summers said, and his voice was hushed. “Show us her paper, Bill.” Bill Hutchinson went over to his wife and forced the slip of paper out of her hand. It had a black spot on it, the black spot Mr. Summers had made the night before with the heavy pencil in the coal company office. Bill Hutchinson held it up, and there was a stir in the crowd. “All right, folks,” Mr. Summers said. “Let’s finish quickly.” Although the villagers had forgotten the ritual and lost the original black box, they still remembered to use stones. The pile of stones the boys had made earlier was ready; there were stones on the ground with the blowing scraps of paper that had come out of the box. […] And someone gave little Davy Hutchinson a few pebbles. Tessie Hutchinson was in the center of a cleared space by now, and she held her hands out desperately as the villagers moved in on her. “It isn’t fair,” she said. A stone hit her on the side of the head. Old Man Warner was saying, “Come on, come on, everyone.” Steve Adams was in the front of the crowd of villagers, with Mrs. Graves beside him. “It isn’t fair, it isn’t right,” Mrs. Hutchinson screamed, and then they were upon her. Talk about the following questions in class: 1 Should traditions always be continued? In the story, nobody questions what is happening. 2 What do you think the author’s attitude towards tradition and change was? What in the story makes you think this? 3 What do you notice about the names the author uses? 4 Which of these statements best summarises the story for you? a Traditions should not be followed uncritically. b Groups may be wrong in their decisions. c People should stand up to authority when authority is wrong. d Everybody is capable of evil under pressure and needs to fight against this. Choose one of these activities to do in class or at home: 1 Imagine you are a tourist from Mars. What would you write about this ‘lottery’ in a letter home? 2 Think of three questions you would like to ask Ms Jackson, the author, in an interview. Then research her on the internet and write down what you believe her answers would be. 3 Watch a YouTube video about the story and write a summary of it for your classmates. 4 Work in groups to create a poster about The Lottery. You can include information about the author, the public’s reaction to the story when it was published in 1948, your own and your classmates’ opinions about it, follow-up adaptations (films, series), books with similar themes – and anything else you think is relevant. 6 7 Nur zu Prüfzwecken – Eigentum des Verlags öbv
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