Gwen Pickett The Lottery by Shirley Jackson

What are the specific conflicts in the story? Which characters are involved? How are the characters and conflicts connected? Are the conflicts internal or external both? Explain.

There is one specific conflict in The Lottery, and that is the lottery itself. How people were getting so worried over it, and the reaction Tessie had to everything was because of the lottery. Also, another conflict was the fact that the people were doing the lottery as a tradition. It brought anxiety and nervousness to people in the town when the lottery was going on, and when the lottery was over, the citizens didnt even think that what they did- kill a person- was wrong. Basically all of the characters are involved in the conflict of this story, considering the lottery involves everyone in the town. The characters that are most involved with the conflict would be Mr. Summers, since he conducts the lottery every year, and the Hutchinson family, specifically Tessie. Once Bill drew the paper with the black circle on it, a new conflict was created because the Hutchinson family realized that one of the members was going to be killed. Tessie then had a conflict of her own, which was denial. She didnt want to believe that Bill had drawn the paper with the black circle on it, and tried to get another chance at drawing again. The characters and the conflict are connected because the lottery had started with the citizens of the town, and they continued the tradition, as if it were a

holiday. When Mr. Adams was talking to Old Man Warner, he said that in the north village they were talking about giving up the lottery. To that, Old Man Warner replied, Pack of crazy fools. Next thing you know theyll be wanting to go back to living in caves. Old Man Warner said this as if the lottery was everything, and without it people would basically be living in the Stone Age again. The lottery had been going on for so long, it had become a part everyone. The lottery was an external conflict, since the whole thing determined who was going to be killed and everyone else took part in the killing. There was also internal conflict, though, for Tessie. When the Hutchinson family was said to draw again, she didnt want to believe it. She was having a battle that was between the truth and the denial she had, which Im sure other people involved in the lottery had. In the end, the lottery was such a conflict in itself, it caused conflict to everyone.