Social Structure in The Lottery

A detailed Summary of Social Structure in The Lottery

"The Lottery" is Shirley Jackson's implication that the world of her lottery is our world, scaled down for the sake of the economy. The town in which the Lottery takes place contains a post office, a grocery store, a bank, a school system, a coal business; its women are all housewives as an alternative to jobs in a real workplace; and its men talk about "tractors and taxes". (pg 374) More importantly, however, the town exhibits the same socio-economic stratification that most people in our society today take for granted.

At the top of the social ladder in this town is its most powerful citizen Mr. Summers. Mr. Summers owns the largest business in town; the coal factory and is also its chief, since he has, as Jackson writes "time and energy to devote to civic activities". (pg 375) Mr. Graves is the next in line he is the second most powerful government official; its postmaster. Bellow him comes Mr. Martin, who has an advantage in his economic position of being a grocer for a town of three hundred. These three men who are the most powerful economically as well as politically are the men who run the lottery. These were the men who kept control of the lottery box during the off time also. It is no coincidence that the lottery takes

Tessie's rebellion begins with her late entrance to the lottery, a blunder that raises qualms of her resistance to everything the lottery stands for. She tells Mr. Summers that she was finishing cleaning her dishes and had forgotten what day it was. She even makes a remark about if she didn't finish the dishes it might have out her in violation of the towns worth ethic and neglect of her own job within the social division of the town. After this comment came a nervous laugh from the crowd, that indicates the extent to the villages commitment to their work ethic and power structure. When Mr. Summers calls her family's name, Tessie forces her husband "Get up there Bill" (pg 377). By doing this she inverts the power relation that holds in the village between husbands and wives. Her remark again prompted the crowd into a nervous laughter, which senses the taboo that she has violated. Her final social blunder is to question the rules of the lottery witch regulate women to an inferior status below their husband. Tessie yelled for her daughter Eva to take her turn, Eva however belongs to her husbands family according to the rules of the lottery.

Women in the town seem to be disenfranchised because male heads of households, as men in the work force, provide the link between a broader economy of the town and the economy of the households. Women have a distinctly lesser position in the socio-economic chain of command of the town. They make their first appearance "wearing faded blue house dresses..." (pg 374), this shows they did work, but because they work at home they men treat the women, and the women think of themselves as inferiors. Having now spoken about the power relations from within the families of the town, it is time to speak about the so called democratic illusion diverts their attention from the capitalist economic relations in which these relations of power are grounded.

All of these blunders set up Tessie as the lottery's likeliest victim. In stoning Tessie the townspeople treat her as their s

Some common words found in the essay are:
Tessie Hutchinson, Graves Martin, Summers Summers, Shirley Jackson's, Tessie Adam's, Eva Eva, tessie hutchinson, division labor, social division, capitalist social organization, social division labor, jackson's choice tessie, choice tessie hutchinson, male heads, draw lottery, rules participation, social organization, choice tessie, lottery takes, pg 374,

Approximate Word count = 1361
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: Novels