I denne study guide kan du få hjælp til at analysere novellen "The Lottery" af Shirley Jackson, som findes i lærebogen Wider Contexts, s. 25-32. Udover analysehjælpen kan du finde et summary af teksten samt idéer til fortolkning og perspektivering.
Præsentation af teksten
Titel: “The Lottery” (1948)
Forfatter: Shirley Hardie Jackson
Genre: Short story
Shirley Jackson (1919-1965) var en amerikansk forfatter, som især blev kendt for sine værker indenfor horrorgenren. Mange betragter hendes roman The Haunting of Hill House (1959) som en af de største horrorklassikere i moderne tid.
Jacksons novelle "The Lottery" udkom første gang i tidsskriftet The New Yorker. Novellens kontroversielle indhold mødte voldsomme reaktioner hos samtidens læsere, og både redaktionen på The New Yorker og Shirley Jackson selv modtog et stort antal hadebreve i den forbindelse. I dag er "The Lottery" dog en meget berømt novelle, rost for sin brutale skildring af den menneskelige naturs mørke sider.
Nedenfor kan du læse et kort uddrag fra vores study guide til novellen:
The lottery is the most important symbol in the story, and it has multiple meanings. The lottery symbolises tradition, as it is a very old practice. The lottery is also a symbol of ignorance and conformity. Besides Old Man Warner (who believes that it might be a kind of harvest ritual), the rest of the villagers do not seem to know the original meaning of the lottery and go along with it because it is a “given” in their society.
Also, because the villagers (and, implicitly, the others who organise the lottery in their communities) seem to have no issue in killing their own community members, the lottery is also a symbol of the violence and brutality that humans are capable of, especially if this behaviour seems justified by spiritual beliefs. Finally, the lottery is also symbolic of the idea that the good of the many comes before the good of the individual.
The stones that the villagers use to kill Tessie Hutchinson could symbolise their traditional beliefs, which might originally have been tied to some kind of religion. Stoning people as punishment can be found in Biblical stories, as well in some cultures that still practice it today.
Finally, the stones can be a symbol of the villagers’ continued support for the lottery (and, implicitly, tradition), as all of them pick them up and throw them at Tessie. Readers can imagine that the lottery will continue in the future, and that giving it up will be a difficult process.
