Read this excerpt from "The Lottery" by Shirley Jackson.

Question

People began to look around to see the Hutchinsons. Bill Hutchinson was standing quiet, staring down at the paper in his hand. Suddenly, Tessie Hutchinson shouted to Mr. Summers, “You didn’t give him time enough to take any paper he wanted. I saw you. It wasn’t fair!”

“Be a good sport, Tessie,” Mrs. Delacroix called, and Mrs. Graves said, “All of us took the same chance.”

“Shut up, Tessie,” Bill Hutchinson said.

“Well, everyone,” Mr. Summers said, “that was done pretty fast, and now we’ve got to be hurrying a little more to get done in time.” He consulted his next list. “Bill,” he said, “you draw for the Hutchinson family. You got any other households in the Hutchinsons?”

“There’s Don and Eva,” Mrs. Hutchinson yelled. “Make them take their chance!”

“Daughters draw with their husbands’ families, Tessie,” Mr. Summers said gently. “You know that as well as anyone else.”

“It wasn’t fair,” Tessie said.

In Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery," how does the contrast between the characters’ view of the lottery and that of readers' impact the story?

The way the women of the village celebrate and take pride in the lottery goes against the readers' view of it as a shameful event and gives the text its wacky tone.
The way the women of the village celebrate and take pride in the lottery goes against the readers' view of it as a shameful event and gives the text its wacky tone.

The Hutchinsons' positive view of the lottery throughout the story differs from the readers' view of the lottery as suspicious from the very start to create humor as the story progresses.
The Hutchinsons' positive view of the lottery throughout the story differs from the readers' view of the lottery as suspicious from the very start to create humor as the story progresses.

Tessie's obviously negative view of the lottery after she wins conflicts with the readers' previous view of the lottery as rather mundane to create suspense about why Tessie gets so upset.
Tessie's obviously negative view of the lottery after she wins conflicts with the readers' previous view of the lottery as rather mundane to create suspense about why Tessie gets so upset.

The way the children of the town innocently approve of the lottery makes the readers' view of the lottery as foolish seem misguided and gives the story its conflict.

Answer 1

In Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery," the contrast between the characters' view of the lottery and the readers' view impacts the story by creating suspense and deepening the unsettling nature of the narrative. Among the options given, the most fitting analysis is:

Tessie's obviously negative view of the lottery after she wins conflicts with the readers' previous view of the lottery as rather mundane to create suspense about why Tessie gets so upset.

At the beginning of the story, the lottery seems like a standard, even trivial event in the lives of the townspeople, but as it unfolds, the readers, who have an understanding of the darker implications of the lottery, see the stark contrast in Tessie's response when her family is selected. Her outcry about fairness reveals the underlying horror of what the lottery truly signifies, thus creating a sense of suspense and intrigue. This shift in perspective effectively underlines the story's themes of conformity, tradition, and the human capacity for violence.