View a FREE sample

This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. Who is the first person called to draw for the lottery?

2. When Mr. Summers says it is time, what does everyone do?

3. What holiday is mentioned in the story that suggests this village is in America?

4. Where does Mrs. Hutchinson locate her husband and children?

5. What is on Tessie Hutchinson's paper?

Short Essay Questions

1. How do the children react to their school holiday?

2. How do the villagers know that Bill Hutchinson is holding the slip of paper with the black dot?

3. Describe the men as they assemble for the lottery.

4. At what point in the story does Jackson raise the question of what's going on with her readers?

5. What is THE LOTTERY meant to satirize?

6. Who is called after Mrs. Dunbar, showing that no one is left out of the lottery?

7. How does Jackson make the scene seem like a normal village fair?

8. Are other lotteries still being held in other villages?

9. Mostly the townspeople seem to look forward to the lottery. What comment is Jackson making on human nature at this point?

10. Describe the kind of morning it is on the day of the lottery.

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Write a paper where the towns people hold a meeting to decide if they will do away with the lottery. Use the characters from Shirley Jackson's story. Who, besides Old man Warner, will oppose the idea of doing away with it?

Essay Topic 2

Write a paper on surprise endings to short stories that are humorous instead of macabre. [If you do not know one, read O'Henry's THE RANSOM OF RED CHIEF for this assignment.]

Essay Topic 3

Write two or three paragraphs in which you discuss whether Tessie Hutchinson had a premonition that she would draw the black spot. Decide if you think Shirley Jackson had that idea in mind as she wrote THE LOTTERY.

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 539 words (approx. 2 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample