Shirley Jackson had no idea of the angry reaction The Lottery would receive when it first appeared in 1948. It tells how each year the otherwise ‘normal’ people in a small American farming town perform a gruesome ritual to ensure a favorable growing season. The major theme is how herd or mob mentality can drive people to do things they would never consider individually. Other themes include dystopia, gender roles, violence and cruelty (human sacrifice), acceptance (the blind following of tradition), and man’s inhumanity to man (the potential for evil in all of us).
Original Text / PDF / Audio (3,400 words)
Video Versions
2007 Film Adaption: A short video adaption produced by Aura Pictures which broadly follows the story-line but has some important differences. Can you find them? Watch and enjoy!
1969 Film Version: This short film produced by Encyclopedia Britannica Educational Corporation follows the story-line quite closely. Watch and enjoy!
Radio Play Version
As the name suggests, radio plays are special versions of stories modified to make entertaining listening over the radio. Sometimes the stories will be changed slightly, and often extra dialogue is included to make the story fit the program’s required broadcast time.
This play is from the 1951 season of NBC Presents: Short Story, a half-hour program which offered dramatizations of (then) well-known American short stories. To fit the half-hour format, the story was expanded by including conversations between families and townspeople both before and after the lottery was held. In addition, to add to the drama, a new character (a schoolmaster) was introduced who strongly objected to the lottery before being pressured into participating. For a pdf version of the script to read as you listen, click here.