Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery" Quiz

Answer: Summer

An annual lottery takes place in each village on June 27th. In some places where there is a large number of people, the lottery starts on June 26th and ends on June 27th. The weather is described as warm and a full summer day. Flowers are in full bloom and the grass is green. The lottery starts in the morning, at 10 a.m.

Answer: 300

As a practice, everyone in a village comes together on an annual basis for an event called the lottery. It is not yet known to the reader what the purpose of the lottery is. In this particular village, which is called small compared to others, there are approximately three hundred people.

As a result, the lottery can take place on one single day. The lottery starts at 10 a.m. and, because of the number of villagers, is finished by noon.

Answer: Mr Summers

Mr Summers is the coal man. He is depicted as friendly and round-faced. He has no children and his wife is described as a "scold." He runs many community activities such as the Halloween program, dances and the teen club. Mr Summers was able to change the original practice of having wood chips used in the annual ritual to slips of paper to make it more efficient to run the lottery.

Answer: Stones

The children of the village gather together first. School very recently finished for the year and the children are still talking about school. The boys gather together and make a pile of stones, each of the groups guarding their piles from other groups of boys.

The girls gather together, talking quietly to each other. The men gather next, followed by the women. Once everyone is assembled, each of the families join together before the beginning of the ritual. As the groups of people come together for the lottery, the mood is friendly but not raucous.

Answer: Mrs Hutchinson

Just as the lottery is about to start, Mrs Hutchinson comes quickly up the path and remarks to the woman next to her that she had almost forgotten what day it was. It wasn't until she noticed the children were gone that she realized and came along to the square.

The two women laugh at her forgetfulness. Mrs Hutchinson also makes a joke about leaving dishes in the sink as the crowd laughs softly with her.

Answer: Broke his leg

As the lottery begins, the mood turns more sober. Mr Summers asks if everyone is present and confirms that Mr Dunbar is not there as he has a broken leg. His wife, Mrs Dunbar, will participate for him. The Dunbars have a son but he is not old enough to step in for his dad. There are a set of formal and understood rules that are followed regarding family representation at the lottery.

Answer: Hutchinson

Mr Summers calls the family name of every family in the village and the man responsible for each family steps forward and draws a piece of paper from a box. They don't look at the paper until everyone has drawn. Once the markings on each piece of paper are revealed, one family has a piece of paper with a black spot on it.

They are the family who must move to the next step of the lottery. Mrs Hutchinson, previously joking with the crowd, is now visibly upset and calls the drawing of the paper unfair.

She asks for a re-draw, which does not happen.

Answer: 12

There are five members of the Hutchinson family who now must each draw a piece of paper from the box. It is still unknown what will happen to that person but the suspense is high as they each choose a slip of paper. There is Mr and Mrs Hutchinson (Bill and Tessie), Nancy who is 12 years old, Bill Jr. and "little Dave", who is too little to understand what is going on.

He excitedly picks a piece of paper but it is held for him by an adult until it is revealed what is on it. As Nancy picks her paper, there are murmurings from the school kids that they hope it isn't her.

Answer: Tessie

Mrs Hutchinson (Tessie) is the member of the family who reveals the slip of paper with a black dot on it. She is the last of the Hutchinson family to look at her piece of paper and it is obvious that it is her. Mr Hutchinson takes the paper out of her hand and confirms, holding it up for all to see. Tessie stands in the square still imploring with the villagers that what happened with the drawing wasn't fair but her pleads fall on deaf ears.

The ritual of the annual stoning of the chosen villager begins as Mrs Hutchinson screams.

Answer: The New Yorker

The short story was published in 1948 in "The New Yorker." It was not well received. People cancelled their subscriptions and hate mail was sent. Apparently it was the most mail the weekly magazine ever received about a story. The Union of South Africa banned the story. Letters that were addressed to the author, Shirley Jackson, were forwarded directly to her.

Despite the negative reception, the story gained a lot of popularity and was subject to quite a bit of analysis. It has also been adapted for radio, television, stage, as a ballet and on film.