Thought my old man was getting wood, then remembered its the 27th
Little Late today, folks.
Tension, event #2
Adam... Allen... Anderson...
Surprise, event #3
There's Don and Eva, Make them take a chance!.. I tell you it wasn't fair. You didn't give him time to choose!
At first, the men began to gather with their children, chatting about tractors, taxes, planting and rain; soon the women began to gather in their house clothes and getting their kids around them. Mr. Summers, the friendly man that conducts the lottery was running late and was followed by the postman. Minutes later, right when the lottery was about to be open, Mrs. Hutchinson came running. The mystery appears here in different ways, for example, when almost the whole town was together, Mr. Summers was no where to be seen. The reader not knowing what exactly the lottery is, creates mystery as well.
The tension began when the drawing out of the box was started; the tension was experienced when the towns people had to hold their paper without opening it until everyone was done getting theirs. For example, on lines 182-184 the narrator states, "By now, all through the crowd there were men holding the small folded papers in their large hands, turning them over and over." The idea of standing in the center of my town and drawing a paper to see who in the town will be executed is terrifying, and the tension of not knowing who is safe causes a lot of anxiety.
After everyone got a paper everyone was ready to open up, and those that had blank papers were looking around to see who had the marked one; once the women finished asking around, someone said from the crowd, "It's Hutchinson. It's Bill." As shocking as it was for everyone in the crowd, Mrs. Hutchinson began explaining how it wasn't fair and offered to re draw with their kids participating as well. Everyone was shocked, however Mr. Summers agreed for a redraw for their family. Was it worth it or not? You can only find out by reading a short story by Shirley Jackson, The Lottery.