After reading THE LOTTERY (1)

There is a lot written about this shortstory and I have selected two pieces/links from the web as a follow-up for those of you who would like to go a little bit more into the story itself and the authoress.


The first one is The Power of Symbols by Dr Randy Laist. He discusses the symbolism in Shirley Jackson's story.

The second link provides more information on the authoress and her story SHIRLEY JACKSON  You will be able to read about the background to The Lottery and Jackson's "response to questions about the 'meaning' of the story".


On a coming third post I will write about the way my advanced students and me will tackle this story from a language perspective. The use of verb tenses, adjectives and adverbs, and how the different paragraphs are laid out to walk the reader out of their comfort zone which previously set them in by both the title and the peaceful summer day-scenario. I can still recall the disturbance and unease Mrs Hutchinson's last words provoked in myself. Last but not least, when you read the story a second time, those stones the children are gathering playfully at the beginning become deadly premonitory.

My favourite shortstory: THE LOTTERY by Shirley Jackson

Ever since I did North American Contemporary Shortstory in my 4th year at university I have kept The Lottery as my favourite one. There are quite a few more I like but somehow this one got itself "the place" in my own top reading-list and even if others have come along and have also marked the path of my reading, what makes The Lottery so special to me is the disturbing unease I was left with when I finished its reading. Since I am trying not to give away the story itself, I will stop using adjectives to describe my opinion and suggest that you should read and listen to the story yourself -provided that you haven't read it yet!


If you google The Lottery by Shirley Jackson, you get 644,000 hits. After some browsing, I have chosen the links below to lead you into the story itself, both in text and audio, and also a film version uploaded on YouTube which, I must say, would never have been my choice. In my opinion some written stories should never be transferred into pictures for it is the reader's own vision that makes them so unique. This is what I also felt when I read Frankestein; the horror Mary Shelley wanted to convey when wording the creature's appearance would never match any visual image created on the screen.


This first link will direct you to the text courtesy of Classic Short Stories

Reading The Lottery

This second link features one of The New Yorker fiction podcasts, in which A. M. Homes reads the story and discusses it with The New Yorker's fiction editor Deborah Treisman:

Listening to The Lottery: Luck of the Draw 

Lastly, here are two YouTube links on which you can watch a film version of the story: