1. A Short Story... The Lottery by Shirley Jackson

2. The Lottery 1. Describe the setting.
2. From which narrative style is the story told?
Describe in detail the mood/ tone/atmosphere in the story. Use evidence from the text to support your answer. Does this change?
Find a sentence (and copy it) that provides good visual imagery.
Discuss the theme.

3. The Lottery
Themes:
Rituals and traditions – The reluctance of people to reject outdated traditions, practices, rules, customs, laws, etc.
The “sacrificial lamb”- a scapegoat to bear the sins of the community, to ensure the prospect of good crops.
The human ‘animal’ – The dark side, the wickedness, potential for violence within people
Followers (lemmings) – How easily we give up / forfeit our individuality and follow the crowd…despite knowing it is wrong. The ‘mob’ mentality (Who could do such a thing?)

4. 7. Can you find examples of Irony? - The title itself
6. Can you find examples of foreshadowing. (Remember foreshadowing is the hinting or presage of something to come.)
- the “black” box
- Mrs. Delecroix’s lateness
7. Can you find examples of Irony?
- The title itself
- type of day (sunny, etc.)
8. Can you find examples of symbolism?
- The black box (death)
- stones

5. Analysis type questions…
Why does this village even have a lottery?
‘Old Man’ Warner says, “People ain’t the way they used to be.” Explain what he means by this.
Is the lottery a collective act of murder, or is it morally justified? Is tradition sufficient justification for such actions? How would you respond to cultures that are different from ours that perform "strange" rituals?

6. RAP
RAP Activity
A RAP is an ‘active’ reading strategy that has you interact with what you are reading. (Conscious of your “inner” voice)
3 Steps of RAP
1. Read a section of the text
2. Ask questions about what you have read
(Usually a ‘why’ question.)
3. Paraphrase (put into your own words/summarize the section)

7. Time to RAP… (Read, Ask, Paraphrase)
Create a test type question that looks at the setting. _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________.
. Paraphrase of Plot (summarize the plot…what is happening?)
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