Analyzing The Characters In Shirley Jackson's 'The Lottery'

In “The Witch” a boy named Johnny attempts to entertain himself by describing what is outside his window as he rides on the coach train with his mother and sister. However, his mother doesn’t pay very much attention to him so he decides to make up the witch to try and get her attention. This relates to the theme of how society judges people based on their actions. He said to his mother "There was a big old ugly old witch and I told her to go away and she went away.” This shows that he is trying to get his mother's attention. The mother does not pay much attention to Johnny and only begins to care about him when she hears the old man talking about what he did to his sister. Afterwards, instead of talking with Johnny and helping him comprehend what the old man said, his mother simply offers him a lollipop, tells him that the story is not real, and sends him back to his seat without acknowledging what the man said to Johnny. This relates back to the theme of how society judges people differently depending on their actions. People would have judged the mother very differently had she talked to Johnny instead of just trying to get him to be quite with food.

The reader has no idea in the beginning what the lottery actually is, a brutal ritual, since the lottery results in the winner being stoned to death by their “friends” and even their family. The villagers appear to be normal people, not killers, however the lottery is just something they do once a year. This helps to develop the theme of things are not always as they