Paper 2 - Character Analysis

Madiha Qazi

Instructor Name

Course Number

23 May 2019

Paper 2-Chracter Analysis

This piece of literature “the lottery” reflects symbolism. Working with ideas is the modus operandi of the writer Shirly Jackson. The lottery is a short fictional story that dwells on the phenomenon of traditions in American society. Here, Mr. Summers has a significant role in this fictional story. He is the one who manages the lottery in an unknown, fictious land. Mr. Summers is quite similar to his name and reflects the energy and enthusiasm of the summer season. The lottery revolves around a town where people are caught in a vicious circle of traditions and stick fast to them, no matter they are right or wrong. He is an old man in that society. Mr. Summers is a character that is a bit ironic and, witty and he has a kind of antagonism in his self that he reflects in the story. Thus, the character of Mr. Summers displays his ironic sense when he conducts an established ritual of lottery in the village.

Mr. Summers is the one who does not have much sympathy for his fellow beings. He is the one who exhibits his irony to other people in form of the acts on the paper slips. He is the one who picks the family and then issues his edicts for that family. He feels no remorse for his acts, or even whatever he writes on the paper just like the leader in the CITATION Kur61 \l 1033 (Vonnegut, Harrison Bergeron). For his, the tradition f running lottery is very important. For Mr. Summers, sacrificing a human life is more significant than changing a tradition. Even he adopts stoning to kill his own fellow-being in order to have benefits in the future. That is why, he is much focused on the management of lottery every year when all people gather together and follow their old ritual.

Mr. Summers is supposedly the chief of the village and one who loves to act arbitrarily. He is habitual of the power abuse and there is no power that can resist his authority in the village. He has complete control over the lives of the villagers and he is the one who makes them even intolerable acts. This is clear when he issues a notice about the death of someone in the village, no one has any power to resist his decision. Even his idea of lottery is unquestionable in the village where people are bound to sacrifice their loved one for the sake of crops upon his will. This shows the atrocious side of Mr. Summers as he is not empathic nor sympathetic towards any of his fellow-beings as it was also illustrated in CITATION Kur68 \l 1033 (Vonnegut, All the King's Horses"). He has the name Summers that is associated with energy and valor, but he is much frightening for his people. He enjoys his dominance and loves to put it in application as well.

In a nutshell, it is fairly suggested that the character of Mr. Summers by Shirley Jackson has a negative side attached to his personality. He likes to hurt others in the name of traditions and rituals such as the one like lottery. This negative personality or Mr. Summers depicts that people in dominant power do abuse their authority under the guise of different name as he is doing it for years in the name of sacred rituals. This is never healthy for a society, whether urban or rural like the one discussed in the story. Characters like Mr. Summers are easily found in the modern world where some leaders have dictatorial powers and they misuse it for anything they want. This antagonism has remained the dilemma for the healthy human civilization since ancient times.

Works Cited

BIBLIOGRAPHY Vonnegut, Kurt. All the King's Horses". 1968.

Vonnegut, Kurt. Harrison Bergeron. 1961.