The Victimization Of Women In Shirley Jackson's The Lottery
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The Lottery- The Victimization of Women
Topic Sentence: While men are important, influential figures in the community, women are weak, mindless, disposable items.
Chunk A: The women of the small town of three hundred are unimportant in their society. As the population shows up in the town square, Jackson describes the women as “wearing faded house dresses and sweaters” even though the short story’s setting is “June 27th,” a “clear and sunny… full-summer day.” All of the women wear the sweaters to cloak themselves so others see them each as a maid rather than an esteemed woman. None of the females are significant enough to be more than a housemaid. After arriving in their sweaters, the wives gather and gossip before going to “stand[ ] by their husbands.”…show more content… Males speak of agriculture because it concerns their society’s economic and political standing. Females speak of gossip because the women have nothing of significance to converse about, which is a reflection of their worth. Gossip is of no importance, like the women. The men’s status is blatantly higher than their female counterparts because they do not have the time to waste on meaningless chatter. Children and the men also arrive before the women do at the lottery, and Tessie Hutchinson, a woman, is the last one to appear in the square. The order of appearance indicates the priority the groups. Therefore, women are second to man and the last priority of the community. Bill Hutchinson does not even inform his wife that he is taking their children to the lottery or to remind her of the date because she is so low on his list of priorities. Tessie Hutchinson thus arrives late to the lottery and later becomes the unfortunate winner of the lottery. Because her life is of little value, the rest of the town’s population feels no remorse over stoning her to death. The woman’s purpose is to produce a family, which Tessie has