Blast From the Past: The Lottery

28 October 2010
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In honor of Halloween, for this week’s “Blast from the Past”, let me offer you “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson. This chilling short story was first published in 1948 in the New Yorker. Much to the surprise of Jackson, it was greeted by an immediate uproar. The chilling nature of the story makes this fact quite understandable. If you have not read the story, I recommend you read it here before reading any further.  My article will spoil it for you.

Our setting is a small New England-like village. Everyone seems to know everyone and have intimate knowledge of the details of each other’s lives. The beginning of the story is that everyone is in a great rush to get to the town center. For what purpose, why the annual lottery of course. Everyone in town must take a slip of paper, from the wizened old man, to the youngest babe. In the background various people are picking up rocks, but the reader is not sure why. Then someone is picked. There is a rumble in the crowd. And the lucky winner is…stoned to death by the village!

That’s it, that’s all we know. There is no explanation, there are no more details. There is only this one strange excerpt of the day. The townsfolk know, and the unfortunate winner knows, but we the reader are never privy to the knowledge of what the lottery is for. We are led to believe this is something as old as time, maybe an ancient rite that insures a good year. The event is compared to the town “…square dances, the teen club, the Halloween program…”, in that it is all run by the same man. Just another annual event in town. Nothing so special to those inside the story. And they consider themselves civilized. Upon hearing that some villages have given up lotteries, Old Man Warner comments:

“Listening to the young folks, nothing’s good enough for them. Next thing you know, they’ll be wanting to go back to living in caves, nobody work any more, live hat way for a while. Used to be a saying about ‘Lottery in June, corn be heavy soon.’ First thing you know, we’d all be eating stewed chickweed and acorns. There’s always been a lottery,” he added petulantly.

But to the reader, the impact of the ending is quite jarring.

What makes this story a classic? English teachers are always in favor of bold tales that make a stark contract from which the time they came from. “The Lottery” was published in the late 40s, World War II had just ended. The popular movies of the time were musicals, westerns, and detective stories. People were still listening to folk songs and gospel on the radio. From my perspective here in the 21st century, it seems a little surprising that Jackson didn’t expect this to cause some kind of stir. America wanted to forget the war and the violence it had wrought upon the world. So the senseless violence and gruesome images painted in “The Lottery” would have been striking to the average American reader. Despite the uproar, or maybe because of it, “The Lottery” is one of the most popular and memorable short stories in contemporary literature.

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Blast from the Past

21 October 2010
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A classic is something everyone wants to have read, but nobody wants to read. – Mark Twain

Do you ever feel like if you were well versed in the classics, you would hold up your end of the conversation better? I hear that all the time from friends, but then they just don’t know where to start. For example, everyone knows they should read Ernest Hemingway, but where to start? Which one is the best, and most importantly, the easiest to read? Well dear reader, never fear! I am starting a new series on Thursdays called: Blast from the Past! In this series, we will explore the “classics”, in my humble opinion, that every cultured person should read. It will be a mix of novels and short stories, but I will try to introduce you to the “must reads” of the past few centuries. After all, the world of reading did not start with Harry Potter or the Da Vinci Code.

The week we will begin with Ernest Hemingway’s “Hills Like White Elephants”. This story is the story that made me want to become a writer. You can read the full story here. It’s rather short, only 3 or 4 pages. Go ahead, I’ll wait…

“Hills Like White Elephants” is an excellent example of Hemingway’s style. It has lean prose and all the action takes place in the dialogue. Legend has it that he used to just read his work over and over again, looking to see what words he could eliminate from sentences. There are no wasted words in Hemingway, and every word counts.

The whole actions of this story takes place in maybe a matter of ten to fifteen minutes. A couple is making small talk as they wait for a train. And then the dialogue takes a turn. There is something about to happen, something “simple”, just to “let the air in.” Here is where an excellent question arises. If I don’t tell you, is it possible to discern what the couple is discussing. Do you need to know what the are discussing to understand the importance of the matter? Shall I spoil it for you…well all right then. They are discussing an abortion. Does that change things? Does it add a new gravity to the story? But wasn’t the gravity all ready there?

That’s the beautiful thing about this story, it is so clean and neat, that you don’t need to know what they are discussing to understand that it is something important, something life changing. That’s what makes this story a classic. It is a glimpse of a moment, a human moment, and in that moment, so many things are hidden and revealed. But despite the time period, the story speaks to readers across the generations. Everyone has had these kinds of conversation, the ones where we are making decisions, and trying to act carefree, even though we know the decision will change the course of our life.

“Hills Like White Elephants” is the very definition of what a short story should be. It contains plot, character insight, climax, and epiphany, and it creates a whole world in less than 1500 words. It is beautiful. In short, I believe this story is perfection. Go ahead, drop this baby into some small talk.

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