It'll be ok, until it's not (The Lottery)

 “‘Get up there, Bill,’ Mrs. Hutchinson said, and the people near her laughed.”

- Shirley Jackson, “The Lottery,” pg. 297. 

We meet Tessie Hutchinson early in “The Lottery,” much like many other characters - Jackson does a good job of making the town seem small and personable, something that adds a layer to the dark turn the narrative takes as friendly townspeople ultimately turn on one of their own. This is powerful, because it allows us to contrast people’s opinions of the lottery before and after the drawing is made. In Mrs. Hutchinson’s case, she first appears in the story as the final person to arrive for the drawing, having forgotten which day it was. Once she remembered, though, she “came a-running” - notably without any hesitation, fear, or ill will towards the lottery system. Later on, though, the people’s level of anxiety rises as everybody remembers that they could be the person chosen. During the drawing on page 297, the townspeople’s tension is so thick you could cut it with a knife - everybody is standing quietly, holding their breath, and “turning [the papers] over and over nervously.” Breaking the tension is none other than the future victim of the lottery, who jokingly prods her husband forward, prompting nervous laughter from the rest of the town. This sentence is notable because it once again shows that Mrs. Hutchinson is (relatively) at ease, making jokes, and not too nervous. Surely, surely, it won’t be her who is picked. This “won’t be me” attitude that Mrs. Hutchinson displays (until her family is drawn) is shared by the rest of the town, and it is the primary reason that these lotteries are able to continue despite the risk they pose to everybody. 

After the drawing is done, Mrs. Hutchinson’s attitude toward the lottery naturally sours considerably. Before the drawing, she’s completely open to it - the sentence that I’m analyzing shows that she even was attempting to make everybody else’s lottery experience more positive through her lighthearted joking. But after Mr. Hutchinson draws the paper with the black spot, Mrs. Hutchinson suddenly declares that “it wasn’t fair!” Everybody else tries to convince her that “all of us took the same chance,” even to “be a good sport” in the murder one of her family members. She continues to complain that “it isn’t fair” all the way up to the sentence in which she was struck by the first stone. Before the drawing, her thoughts of the lottery were just as positive, or at least ambivalent, as everybody else’s. Somebody was about to be killed, but she was willing to unsympathetically follow the tradition until it finally came for her. And, despite her cries, the rest of the townspeople (and even her own child) go through with the ritual, just as unfeeling and tradition-obeying as she was before the drawing. All they care about is “finish[ing] quickly” so they can go back to their lives - apparently unaware that they could easily “win” the lottery the next year. 

It is revealing that the person who Jackson selects to be killed in the lottery is the one who is, apparently, most excited to be there (with the possible exception of Old Man Warner). Mrs. Hutchinson runs to the lottery after realizing that she was late, and she attempts to jokingly break the tension of the moment. But this excitement for the lottery is not enough to save her. When the tension builds, she reminds everybody that there is nothing to be afraid of, that there is no way it will be them who are picked. And they weren’t, but she was, and then she was killed. The lottery system is structured so that every year it convinces exactly one person that the lottery is broken - and then promptly kills that person. Jackson is saying that the toxic and broken system will exist in perpetuity until somebody finally has the empathy that Mrs. Hutchinson lacks, and begins to hate the lottery even when they are not selected. 

In 1951, ‘The Lottery” was adapted to the radio. This NBC special included several additional scenes, depicting several townspeople as reluctant to partake in the lottery. In one of these scenes, the Hutchinsons discuss leaving town before the lottery takes place before ultimately deciding against this idea. I believe that adding these scenes diminishes the impact of the story because it removes the lesson made clear by Tessie’s exclamation as Bill goes to draw their paper - that nobody in the town, even the victim, is capable of recognizing before the lottery takes place that they are taking an unreasonable risk. The radio adaptation misses the powerful fact that the only person that speaks out against the lottery only does so because it was their own name that was called. Sure, everybody seems nervous as they grab their slips - but as long as somebody else gets the dot, there’s no reason to question the assumption that the lottery is a necessary part of the town’s calendar. Tessie Hutchinson’s transition from trying to put everybody at ease to deploring the lottery is sharp, sure - but because this transition only happens to one person each year, and that person is promptly killed, nobody is willing (or wanting) to speak out against this brutal tradition. The radio broadcast directly addresses this point with its closing few words: 

“Next year, maybe there won’t be a lottery. It’s up to all of us. Chances are, there will be, though.”