A. How the cartoon drawing to illustrate point of view in Ch. 5 occurs in literature can be found in the New Testament Gospels.  Although they vaguely know "the" story of the Gospels, many Christians are unaware of significant differences in details in parallel passages, or differences among the Gospels in material (incidents, persons, parables, etc.) included in one or more of the Gospels but not in one or more of the other Gospels.  A good example can be found by studying a "Conspectus" (parallel viewing of passages) of the account of the arrest of Jesus in the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke.  Click here.

1. Roberts and Jacobs make the point, especially in the sample essay on Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery," that the third-person dramatic or objective point of view is used to create the story's shocking surprise ending. But the follow-up question is why Jackson wants this shocking surprise ending: how does it relate to or help express or suggest any of the story's ideas or themes? How does the shocking surprise ending of the story, created by the story's use of third-person dramatic or objective point of view, relate to what the story is suggesting about ritualistic tradition, as represented by the lottery? Cf. Roberts' and Jacobs' study questions 1-5, following the story, as well as the R&J sample essay.

2. (a) Many literature textbooks include Jackson's "The Lottery," as well as a study question like Roberts' and Jacobs' number 4, following the story, referring to Leviticus 16. Which book in the Bible is Leviticus, and why does the book have this title? How does this book bear on the story? (b) How do chapters 6-7 of the book of Joshua in the Bible have a striking (in more than one sense of the word striking) applicability to the story, as well as Leviticus 16? (c) Most people today do not have as much familiarity with the Bible as they ought to, for either religious or cultural reasons (the Bible is frequently used or alluded to in literature, for example). Four study Bibles may be recommended as outstanding: The NIV Study Bible, The HarperCollins Study Bible, The Nelson Study Bible: New King James Version, and The New Jerusalem Bible (not the Reader's Edition, which lacks the extremely helpful notes). Even readers devoted to the King James version should have one of these Bibles for additional help in the accurate translation into modern English, as well as explanatory notes. For further information about the Bible, see my materials on it that can be accessed through my Humanities 2001 webpage on my ASU website.

3. (a) Why does Jackson make such a big deal about--that is, What might the significance or symbolism of the particular date on which the story is set, emphasized in the story's very first sentence (par. 1)? Look up the word solstice in your collegiate dictionary; what might the solstice have to do with the long-forgotten origin of the lottery? (b) How might Old Man Warner's recollection of an old saying about the lottery (par. 32) relate to the time or date the story is set? (c) How do a and b help suggest ideas about what the lottery stood for? How does it no longer stand for those things, and what is Jackson thus suggesting about some rites, rituals, and traditions? (d) What clues are there, e.g. in the reference to the farming paraphernalia of the village (par. 3), that the story is set in modern times? How does this bear on my study questions 1 and 3?

4. (a1) What might the significance or symbolism be of the villagers' mispronunciation of Dickie Delacroix's surname, which Jackson brings emphatically to our attention (par. 2)? How might 4a relate to question 1, above? (a2) What does Delacroix mean in French? How might this meaning connect to the story's Biblical allusions? (b) How are several of the other characters' names in the short story meaningful--e.g., Mr. Graves, Mr. Summers, Mr. and Mrs. Adams, Old Man Warner (mainly the surname)? (c) What humorous pun does Jackson work in, pointing to the onomastic symbolism of Mr. Graves' surname (par. 27)? (d) How does the list of villagers' names, read and referred to in the story, suggest that the village is Anglo-American, a sort of melting pot or cross-section of heritages? Thematic relevance of this?

5. (a) How does the reader misinterpret the reason the boys are gathering the stones in the opening of the story (par. 2)? How does the reader, the second time through the story, realize the ironic discrepancy between what he or she thought the stones were going to be used for (note Jackson's feint in her reference to how one group of boys "guarded it [pile of stones] against the raids of the other boys"[par. 2]), in contrast to what they are actually used for at the story's end? How might all this bear on study question 1, above? (b) How are the terms and concepts from social science acculturation and socialization illustrated by someone giving little Davy Hutchinson a few pebbles at the story's end (par. 76)? How might acculturation or socialization  bear on study question 1, above?

6. How do specifics and details in the description of the physical paraphernalia of the lottery help convey Jackson's themes about what the lottery represents, and about what our attitude should be toward it?

7. (a) What clues are there in the story that Tess Hutchinson isn't entirely truthful about why she, alone among the villagers, is late to the lottery (par. 8)? Unbeknownst to Tess Hutchinson, what unconscious or psychological forces may be at work causing her lateness, other than the reason she gives? (b) In what way or ways is Tess Hutchinson correct as well as incorrect, when she repeatedly asserts in the story that "it isn't fair" (pars. 45, 51, 79)?

8. (a) How are Mr. and Mrs. Adams roundabout in their criticism of the lottery (pars. 31-34)? Why are they roundabout, rather than direct? How are psychological and sociological forces or principles of conformity and peer pressure at work here? (b) How are several of the individual villagers' actions at the end of the story (pars. 74-78) in direct contrast to their opinions or attitudes toward the lottery expressed earlier in the story?  How do these particular villagers indicate a very different attitude toward or opinion of the lottery in what earlier paragraphs of the story (which paragraphs, particularly)? How are the psychological and sociological principles of negative versus positive reinforcement (before the lottery, just after the lottery) as well as a combination of hypostatization and superstition (what will happen because of objecting to the lottery) --- revealed by this contradiction? How does the change of behavior of these particular villagers and the forces at work help reveal why the lottery continues? (Look up "evil eye" in a general encyclopedia such as the Encyclopedia Britannica. How might information about this subject have a bearing on 8b?)

9. What modern slang term (which actually goes quite far back in the history of English) do the wives use for their husbands (pars. 8, 14, 25)? How might this bear on any of the story's ideas or themes?