What is the significance of Mr. Summers' name in "The Lottery"?
The significance of Mr. Summers’ name is that it highlights his central role in the lottery and the life of the village as a whole, as well as being deeply ironic.
Mr. Summers is the most important of all those who manage the lottery, which is held on June 27th, “a full-summer day.” He runs most of the things that the town does collectively, because he has “time and energy to devote to civic activities.” We see here a link between the name and the season it evokes, the summertime when people are most active and presumably happiest. He is the conductor of the lottery, the one who arranges it and declares it “open,” and the custodian of its implements when they are being prepared:
The night before the lottery, Mr. Summers and Mr. Graves made up the slips of paper and put them in the box, and it...
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was then taken to the safe of Mr. Summers’ coal company until Mr. Summers was ready to take it to the square next morning.
He is also the one who remarks significantly on Tessie’s near-absence from the ceremonies (“Thought we were going to have to get on without you”), and finally pronounces what amounts to the formal sentence of execution on Tessie when she proves to be the choice of the lottery for that year:
“It’s Tessie,” Mr. Summers said, and his voice was hushed. “Show us her paper, Bill.”
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“All right, folks,” Mr. Summers said. “Let’s finish quickly.”
Mr. Summers is thus the central person in the lottery and the village as a whole, its “sun” so to speak, in full control on this "full-summer" day. But his name is also ironic, in that this “summer” brings with it not only light and warmth, but also, for one character, darkness and death.
Describe Mr. Summers' responsibilities and how others react to him in "The Lottery".
Mr. Summers is described as a jovial man, who is in charge of organizing and conducting the annual lottery. Jackson writes that the villagers felt sorry for Mr. Summers because he had no children and his wife was a scold. Although Mr. Summers devotes his life to volunteering for various civic duties and is well-known throughout the town, the villagers keep their distance from him and remain aloof during the annual lottery ceremony. The narrator mentions that the villagers stand away from the black box and are hesitant to help Mr. Summers hold it in place while he stirs the slips of paper. It is implied that the villagers do not want to bear the responsibility for the death of one of their neighbors. While the entire community is complicit in the annual murder of an innocent villager, Mr. Summers is the bearer of death and is solely responsible for conducting the barbaric ritual. Despite Mr. Summer's appeal to create a new black box and suggestion to draw slips of paper instead of chips of wood, he is portrayed as a conformist, who blindly follows tradition like the vast majority of his community. Mr. Summers carries out his duties professionally and is depicted as a callous traditionalist, who suffers from alienation during the annual lottery ceremony.
In "The Lottery", what does Mr. Summers symbolize in the town?
Mr. Summers represents tradition and formality in "The Lottery." He is the one who stores the black box, helps make the slips of paper that annually go inside it, and marks the "winning" slip of paper with a black dot.
Readers are told that Mr. Summers also runs other important events in the village, such as square dances and the teen and Halloween programs, so he seems to be a stable pillar of the community. Even though much of the ritual of the lottery has been forgotten or discarded, Mr. Summers directs what is left of it. He gives an opening speech, formally questions the heads of households, urges people to come forward and draw their slips, calms Tessie's protests, and, once the "winner" is determined, says, "All right, folks. Let's finish quickly."
Though some in the crowd question the lottery, noting that some neighboring villages have stopped it, the drawing goes forward as always. And Mr. Summers (along with Mr. Graves) is right there leading it, as always. After each lottery, Mr. Summers is the one who agitates for building a new black box—that is, keeping the lottery alive and refreshed. Earlier, he was the one who argued for replacing the original wood chips with slips of paper. Mr. Summers is tradition, the force of inertia that keeps the lottery rolling, year after year, as much a fixture in the community as square dancing and Halloween.