Mr Summers in Shirley Jacksons The Lottery
In Shirley Jackson's American Gothic tale "The Lottery," the mostinteresting and revealing of all the characters is Mr. Summers, the so-called "conductor" of a bizarre and disturbing practice that takes placeyearly in an unidentified village somewhere in the Northeast. This Mr.Summers, a "round-faced, jovial man (who) ran the coal business" andgarnered the sympathies of his fellow villagers ". . . because he had nochildren and his wife was a scold," has obviously been the leader of the"lottery" for quite some time, for he alone knows the history of thispractice, due to his yearly insistence "about making a new box" to hold theslips of paper with the names of all the villagers. Exactly how many yearsthis "lottery" has been practiced is unknown, yet the old box hasapparently seen better times, for it is now shabby and is "no longercompletely black but splintered badly along one side. . . . an in some Thus, as the "conductor" of the "lottery", Mr. Summers could beviewed as "the master of the fates of his fellow villagers, due to being
Yet he also sees the ritualas something of great 2importance, due to his small talk with Mr. Summers, following the drawing of the slips of paper,states ". His style of dress makes it clear that he iseither a local businessman, such as a grocer or the owner of a hardwarestore, or a farmer from the nearby countryside. and now we've got to be hurrying a little more to get done intime" which reflects his need to conclude his role as the conductor of the"lottery" in order to re-assume his position as an ordinary member of hiscommunity. guess we better getstarted, get this over with so's we can go back to work" which shows thathe "considers the drawing quite mundane and as a chore that takes precioustime from his chosen profession" (Hattenhauer, 156); yet since his name isalso in the box, he wishes to "get this over" so that his fears can bealleviated when his name is not drawn from the box. But due to her skill as atalented storyteller, Shirley Jackson allows the reader to 3ponder this question alone and to consider the evils associated withcertain cultural manifestations. Summers's desire to "finishquickly" seems to indicate that he views the stoning of the unfortunatevictim, this time Tess Hutchinson, as an act of necessity, due to the age-old tradition of the ritual, part of which has been forgotten except forthe use of stones as lethal weapons. Summers is also responsible forthe box's safe-keeping and obviously played a major role in changing the"chips of wood that had been used for generations" to slips of paperbecause of the growing population of the village and the fact that slips ofpaper "fit more easily into the black box. Of course, the question remains as towhy Mr. Summers announces "All right, folks.
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