The Lottery | Summary

"The Lottery" by Shirley Jackson opens on a warm June day in a town of about three hundred people and describes an annual event in the town, a tradition that is apparently widespread among surrounding villages as well. Children arrive in the town square first and engage in "boisterous play." Some of the boys create a "great pile of stones in one corner of the square."

When the men of the village arrive they stand away from the stones, joke quietly, and smile instead of laugh. The women arrive next. As they join their husbands, they call to their children. One mother's voice...

[The entire page is 575 words long]

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