BEFORE YOU READ: What do you think when you hear the word lottery? Have you ever played a lottery? Are they fair? Do you expect a prize? Is there dark side to rituals? [MAKING LITERATURE MATTER and LITERATURE AN INTRODUCTION TO FICTION, POETRY, DRAMA &WRTING] AFTER YOU READ: 1. At what point in the story did you suspect that something was amiss in this bucolic village? How does Jackson both prepare you for and surprise you with her ending? 2. Where do you think "The Lottery" takes place? What purpose do you suppose the writer has in making this setting appear so familiar and ordinary? 3. What details in paragraphs 2 and 3 foreshadow the ending of the story? 4. Take a close look at Jackson's description of the black wooden box (paragraph 5) and of the black spot on the fatal slip of paper (paragraph 72). What do these objects suggest to you? Are there any other symbols in the story? 5. What do you understand to be the writer's own attitude toward the lottery and the stoning? Exactly what in the story makes her attitude clear to us? 6. What do you make of Old Man Warner's saying, "Lottery in June, corn be heavy soon" (paragraph 32)? 7. Make list of characters' names in story. What symbolic significance might they have? 8. . What do the phrase "Lottery in June, corn be heavy soon" and the pile of stones suggest about the origins of the lottery? 9. Critics often mention scapegoating, man's inherent evil, and the destructive consequence of hanging on to ancient and outdated rituals as the principal themes of this story. Do You agree? What are some other themes suggested by the story? 10. . What contemporary issues does "The Lottery" suggest