“The Lottery” is a short story written by Shirley Jackson. The story revolves around the residents of this humble town who have concluded that a human life must be sacrificed annually in order for their crops to grow abundantly. This becomes problematic for protagonist Tessie who is chosen, helplessly begs for her life, but is inevitably killed due to town superstition. Consequently, Tessie’s failure to persuade her antagonists otherwise, highly regards Tessie as the most ineffective protagonist in a story. Tessie Hutchins would have been a more effective character had she realized that the town’s system was faulted in the first place. It is seen in the story that Tessie shows resentment towards the lottery once her own life is in danger, …show more content…
These hypothetical actions would make her a hero taking away from the self involved character that she really is. Another suggested measure to utilize Tessie as an effective character includes Tessie acting on her anti-lottery rebellion. Although Tessie dies at the end of the story, there is no real impact on her battle to stay alive, the story simply throws in her cries for help out of pity and desperation, characterizing how helpless Tessie is while further reflecting the brutality of the town. Tessie’s death is meaningless made to reflect more on the mindset of the town than the murder of the protagonist. Their actions in one paragraph of the story are more effective than Tessie’s countless attempts to save her own life, solidifying Tessie as a useless protagonist. The purpose of Tessie as a protagonist is to demonstrate how emotionally detached the town citizens are and give insight to how that mindset tailors the plot of the story. Throughout the story Tessie fails to save her own life, but the residents do far more than kill tessie, they kill her because this tradition has been