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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. How do most of the villagers appear to regard the lottery?

2. What sound is heard as the papers are opened?

3. What is Jackson's first element of surprise in the story?

4. Why is everyone participating, even the Hutchinson children?

5. Who is to draw for the Watson family?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does Tessie try to widen the odds of her drawing the black dot?

2. What are the heads of families instructed to do with their slips of paper?

3. Why is everything so organized in the village for the lottery?

4. At what point in the story does Jackson raise the question of what's going on with her readers?

5. Why is Mr. Summers always in charge of the lottery every year?

6. How does the Martin family make the scene appear like a gathering of everyday families?

7. What time of the year is the lottery being held?

8. What do the villagers begin to do at that point?

9. Until she is knocked unconscious, what does Tessie keep trying to do?

10. Who is the second citizen of the village and what is his function in the lottery?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Write a paper on what you believe Shirley Jackson is satirizing in THE LOTTERY. Explain whether you think there is a religious undertone to the story.

Essay Topic 2

Write two or three paragraphs about how a tradition was defeated in the USA. [For example, you might write about Women's Suffrage and how they got the right to vote.]

Essay Topic 3

Write two or three paragraphs in which you discuss whether Tessie Hutchinson had a premonition that she would draw the black spot. Decide if you think Shirley Jackson had that idea in mind as she wrote THE LOTTERY.

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