Characters Characters are imagined people. The author shows what they are like through their actions, speech, thoughts, attitudes, and background. Sometimes a writer also includes physical characteristics or names or relationships with other people. For example, in “The Lottery,” the description of Mr. Summers introduces the lottery official as someone with civic interests who wants to avoid slip-ups (paragraphs 4, 9, and 10).

Figures of Speech Figures of speech are lively or fresh expressions that vary the expected sequence or sense of words. Some common types of figurative language are simile, a comparison using like or as; metaphor, an implied comparison; and personification, the attribution of human qualities to nonhuman creatures or things. In “The Lottery,” three boys guard their pile of stones “against the raids” of others (paragraph 2).

Imagery Images are words or groups of words that refer to any sense experience: seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, touching, or feeling. The images in “The Lottery” help readers envision the “richly green” grass (paragraph 1), the smooth and round stones the children gather (paragraph 2), the “hush” that comes over the crowd (paragraph 19), and Mrs. Dunbar “gasping for breath” (paragraph 75).

Irony Irony results from readers’ sense of discrepancy. A simple kind of irony, sarcasm, occurs when you say one thing but mean the opposite: “I just love scrubbing the floor.” In literature, an ironic situation sets up a contrast or incongruity. In “The Lottery,” horrifying actions take place on a sunny June day in an ordinary village. Ironic dialogue occurs when a character says one thing, but the audience or reader is aware of another meaning. When Old Man Warner reacts to giving up the lottery as “wanting to go back to living in caves” (paragraph 32), he implies that such a change would return the villages to a more primitive life. His comment is ironic because the reader is aware that this lottery is a primitive ritual. A story has an ironic point of view when readers sense a difference between the author and the narrator or the character who perceives the story; Jackson, for instance, clearly does not condone the actions of the villagers.

Plot Plot is the arrangement of the events of the story—what happens to whom, where, when, and why. If the events follow each other logically and are in keeping with the characters, the plot is plausible, or believable. Although the ending of “The Lottery” at first may shock readers, the author uses foreshadowing, hints or clues such as the villagers’ nervousness about the lottery, to help readers understand future events or twists in the plot.

Most plots place the protagonist, or main character, in a conflict with the antagonist, some other person or group. In “The Lottery,” a reader might see Tessie as the protagonist and the villagers as the antagonist. Conflict consists of two forces trying to conquer each other or resist being conquered—not merely vaguely defined turmoil. External conflicts occur outside an individual—between two people, a person and a group (Tessie versus the villagers), two groups (lottery supporters and opponents), or even a character and the environment. Internal conflicts between two opposing forces or desires occur within an individual (such as fear versus hope as the lottery slips are drawn). The central conflict is the primary conflict for the protagonist that propels the action of the story. Events of the plot complicate the conflict (Tessie arrives late, Bill draws the slip) and lead to the climax, the moment when the outcome is inevitable (Tessie draws the black dot). This outcome is the resolution, or conclusion (the villagers stone Tessie). Some stories let events unfold without any apparent plot—action and change occur inside the characters.

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Point of View The point of view, the angle from which a story is told, might be the author’s or a character’s. The narrator is the one who tells the story and perceives the events, perhaps with limited knowledge or a part to play. Two common points of view are those of a first-person narrator (I), the speaker who tells the story, and a third-person narrator (he, she) who tells the story from an all-knowing perspective, from the perspective of a single character, or from numerous, shifting perspectives. The point of view may be omniscient (the speaker knows all and has access to every character’s thoughts and feelings); limited omniscient (the speaker knows the thoughts and feelings of one or more characters, but not all); or objective (the speaker observes the characters but cannot share their thoughts or feelings). In “The Lottery,” a third-person objective narrator seemingly looks on and reports what occurs without knowing what the characters think.

Setting Setting refers to the time and place of events and may include the season, the weather, and the people in the background. The setting often helps establish a literary work’s mood or atmosphere, the emotional climate that a reader senses. For example, the first sentence of “The Lottery” establishes its setting (paragraph 1).

Symbols Symbols are tangible objects, visible actions, or characters that hint at meanings beyond themselves. In “The Lottery,” the black box suggests outdated tradition, resistance to change, evil, cruelty, and more.

Theme A theme is a work’s main idea or insight—the author’s observation about life, society, or human nature. Sometimes you can sum up a theme in a sentence (“Human beings cannot live without illusion”); other times, a theme may be implied, hard to discern, or one of several in a work.

To state a theme, go beyond a work’s topic or subject by asking, What does the author say about this subject? Details from the story should support your statement of theme, and your theme should account for the details.“The Lottery” treats subjects such as the unexpected, scapegoating, outmoded rituals, and violence; one of its themes might be stated as “People are selfish, always looking out for number one.”