Shirley Jackson The Lottery Summary

Paper One There is an ending to every great beginning. If the reader gets closure or not is a toss-up; It depends on how the author wants their story to go. The ending can make or break a story. In “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson, the ending can be deemed satisfying or not by the reader, that is up to how it is read. Mrs. Tessie Hutchinson’s name is read as the “winner” of the lottery and is stoned by the townspeople, which ends the story. The story goes through the rollercoaster effect of a plot line, ending with, “’It isn’t fair, it isn’t right,’ Mrs. Hutchinson screamed, and then they were upon her.” (Jackson 474). She did not want to win the lottery, but she did not want it to be her son who was stoned, either. With her angry, upsetting sacrifice, the story ends. There could have been many other ways the story ended. However, the author (Jackson) wrote the ending this way for a reason. It provides a subtle kind of closure without explaining her death, and that this is tradition. By ending here,

The ending is in perspective of anyone in the area. If the narrator shifted to use their omniscient powers from the children’s eyes, there would be a different light played on the activity taking place. To the children, it is just something that they’ve grown up doing, traditionally. They don’t like it, per se, but they do it anyways. All of Nancy Hutchinson’s friends were afraid it would be her, and when it wasn’t, they were relieved. Especially if the perspective shifted to describe how little Davy viewed seeing his mother get stoned. I know that this is more from a point of view standpoint, but it affects the ending. By keeping the children’s involvement at a minimum towards the end, Jackson is ensuring that they are innocently following tradition. They do not know what they are doing is morally wrong (how most people view it outside of their