美国经典短篇小说The Lottery完整评析

Characteristics （蔡嘉懿）

Bobby, Harry Jones, Dickie Delacroix, Bobby Martin :

naïve, curious,(represents for the new generation that are destroyed by the feudatorial thoughts. )

Mr. Summers :

Pitiful (For he had no children and his wife was a scold),

Traditional , numb ( summers represents for the time),

brutal ( “ ‘ All right folks.’ Mr. Summer said, ‘ Let’s finish quickly’.”)

energetic : direct characterization (“ who had time and energy to devote to civic activities”)

Mr. Graves :

calm, serious, polite, rational

Baxter:

powerful, young, energetic (“Baxter, came forward to hold the box steady on the stool while Mr. Summers s tirred up the papers inside it.”)

Warner:

Old (the oldest man in the village),

brutal,（Old Man Warner was saying, "Come on, come on, everyone." ）

conservative,“Old Man Warner snorted, "Pack of crazy fools," he said. "Listening to the young folks, nothing's good enough for them. Next thing you know, they'll be wanting to go back to living in caves, nobody work any more, live that way for a while. Used to be a saying about 'Lottery in June, corn be heavy soon.'）

numb, "Seventy-seventh year I been in the lottery," Old Man Warner said as he went through the crowd. "Seventy-seventh time."

stubborn "Nothing but trouble in that," Old Man Warner said stoutly. "Pack of young fools." Mrs. Hutchinson:

tragic, ( She “won” the lottery)

helpless, (Everyone is happy that the person who won the lottery is not them. No one is feeling sad or unfair for her)

selfish（asked to let her daughter join the second round of lottery）

Mrs. Dunbar/ Mrs. Delacroix:

chilling, hypocritical, ( She talked to Mrs. Hutchinson so friendly before she was picked to be the person who was going to die. Then, she chose a big stone to kill her “friend”. )

brutal( she chose a big stone)

Waston:

brave, love his mother, responsible (draw the lottery for his mother)

Mr. Adams and Mrs. Adams:

Dare to question, aware of the bad of the lottery,( "They do say," Mr. Adams said to Old Man Warner, who stood next to him, "that over in the north village they're talking of giving up the lottery.")

Nancy and Bill:

cold and detached, selfish ( As they were happy when they knew they were not going to die)

Devices: （蔡嘉懿）

1.Indirect characterization: For example, Warner, the oldest man. The author uses his words to

describe him as a brutal, conservative, numb, stubborn man.

“Old Man Warner snorted, "Pack of crazy fools," he said. "Listening to the young folks, nothing's good enough for them. Next thing you know, they'll be wanting to go back to living in caves, nobody work any more, live that way for a while. Used to be a saying about 'Lottery in June, corn be heavy soon.’”Here, he believed the advantages of lottery, keeping the old conception instead of accepting new ideas.

2.Irony

(1)“Mrs. Delacroix said, "You're in time, though. They're still talking away up there."

"Seems like there's no time at all between lotteries any more," Mrs. Delacroix said to Mrs.

Graves in the back row. "Seems like we got through with the last one only last week."

From the quotation, we know that Mrs. Delacroix talked friendly to Mrs. Hutchinson, but later on she killed her with a big stone without any pity. Author uses ironic tone to express the detest of the folks who believe in old tradition and criticizes both the traditions and folks like Mrs. Delacroix.

(2) “Delacroix-- the villagers pronounced this name "Dellacroy"”the original meaning of

“Delacroix”is the Cross which represents for “Christianity”.Then, author uses irony of people’s mistake of pronouncing that word to criticize their misunderstanding of Christianity by doing Lottery.

3.Repetition

(1)“Tessie Hutchinson shouted to Mr. Summers, "You didn't give him time enough to take

any paper he wanted. I saw you. It wasn't fair!"”

"It isn't fair, it isn't right," Mrs. Hutchinson screamed and then they were upon her.

Here, the author uses the repetition of the words of Mrs. Hutchinson stating “unfair” to show her sorrow and fear. She better passes the message of the bad of the Lottery through emphasizing the pain .

(2)The black box

The author describe the black box over and over again in order to criticize the old tradition through the repetition of the black box.

4.Symbolize

(1)Mr. Summer is the name of one main character. “Summer” is the symbol of years and

passing time which is also ironically revealing that the folks are numb.

(2)the original meaning of “Delacroix”is the Cross which is the symbol for

“Christianity” .Then, author uses irony of people’s mistake of pronouncing that word to criticize their misunderstanding of Christianity by doing Lottery.

(3)The name “Graves” is the symbol of death.