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

Short Answer Questions

1. What are some villages rumored to be doing with their lottery?

2. What is revealing about the social order of the village?

3. Why does Tessie try to add her daughter's family to Bill Hutchinson's second drawing?

4. What is Tessie doing in the center of the circle of her friends, neighbors, and family?

5. Has there ever been any other breaks with tradition?

Short Essay Questions

1. In naming the holidays observed by the village, how does Jackson hint at the macabre nature of the lottery?

2. As Mr. Summers turns to face the gathered villagers, what disturbance occurs?

3. What is different about this year's lottery?

4. Where are the women and what are they doing?

5. Whose name was the first to be called up for the lottery?

6. Why have they made the switch to paper slips this year?

7. Who participates in the subsequent activity?

8. How are people dressed for this annual event?

9. Why does the first person called for the lists not appear?

10. What happens as the stoning begins?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

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.

Essay Topic 2

Write two or three paragraphs on the character of Mrs. Delacroix. Use your imagination to explain why she selected the largest stone she could find to throw at Tessie.

Essay Topic 3

Write two or three paragraphs about how a tradition was defeated in the USA. [For example, you might write about Women's Suffrage and how they got the right to vote.]

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This section contains 559 words (approx. 2 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample