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The Lottery


When it is decided that Tessie was going to take her position in the traditions withheld in their town, she became quite outraged as very accurately depicted in the film. Tessie's hand tightly seized to the square piece of paper that would surely hold her grim fate waiting in its center in the form of a black dot. Her face became crestfallen and she seemed to search for some reasoning as to the turn or recent events. Those are not the words of Shirley Jackson, but rather a fairly accurate description of Tessie as viewed on screen. The literature could not place a mental picture of that magnitude, by just reading it, however, the film version gives a giant glass window into the tone of the scene.
             Psychologically speaking what Tessie was experiencing were the three stages of death being Denial, followed by Anger, and then finally Acceptance; granted no human being could accept the fate of being stoned to their death by various sized stones. Tessie's anger and outright selfishness went so far as for her to offer her daughter's life to be accounted for as well. When Mr. Summers is asked if there is anyone else in his family that should be considered for the drawing, Tessie cries out, "_______________________ _______________________" (Jackson 461, Movie).
             Had this much feeling and emotion been identified when Tessie says, "I almost forgot what day it was," reading the literature version of the story, one would understand just how important that scene was in the development of Tessie's character from the beginning of the story to the end.
             Shirley Jackson developed a character, Old Man Warner, that places a heavy significance on the meaning of the lottery and it's significance, and he says "Pack of crazy fools . . . listening to 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 that way for a while" (Jackson 461, Movie).


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