Gender analysis: the lottery - Essay Example

Everyone took their place beside their respective families. The lottery was headed by Mr. Summers and assisted by Mr. Graves. A black box sitting on a three-legged stool contains pieces of papers one of which is marked. The lottery is done in the town on a regular basis; hence, further formalities prior to the main event are not done anymore. Just in time before each head of the family draw a piece of paper from the black box, Mrs. Tess Hutchinson came in a hurry and joined her family in the crowd.

The lottery proceeded after Mr. Summers made sure that everyone who needed to draw was present otherwise well represented. Mr. Summers then called, in alphabetical order, the heads of the family to draw a piece of a paper from the black box. After this, the heads of the family opened their piece of papers together and it was Mr. Hutchinson who got the marked paper. As a result, the family of Mr. Hutchinson was singled out even though his wife, Mrs. Tess Hutchinson keeps on expressing her accuses and discontentment to the result. Mr. Summers rearranged the content of the box so that it would only contain five slips of paper: one for Mr.

Hutchinson, one for and one for each of their three children. The Hutchinsons draw a slip of paper one after the other and it was Mrs. Hutchinson who picked up the marked paper. Thus, the townsmen with her husband and children stoned Mrs. Hutchinson to death. Analysis In all societies, the biological distinction between men and women has been a basis of assigning social roles and images for each. More than appearance, femininity and masculinity transcended to the expectations of society of how an individual would behave (Haeberle).

In the story The Lottery these societal images and roles of being a man or a woman were implicated. The first gender distinction is in terms of leadership. According Martin Luther King, Jr., the ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy. This quote shows the place of a man in the governance spectrum—he is the leader while women take the follower side. The Lottery exhibited a patriarchal society—a system of society wherein leadership belongs to the male population.

Men represent and lead their community as well as represent and decide for their respective families. The story illustrated the first argument by having Mr. Summers as the one who leads the events in town, including the lottery, while the second is demonstrated in the event wherethe fate of each family is in the hands of the male household head. This scenario can be observed even at present times for it is apparent, that a male persona usually occupies the highest level of an organization, whether private or government, sectarian or not.

According The second distinction is in terms of how society portrays a man and a woman. This socially pre-determined image of feminine and masculine behavior is illustrated in The Lottery. First, a women’s image in the story shows her expected tasks in a house and how she socially behaves. At home, a woman is expected to attend to household chores while socially she is less controlled compared to her counterpart. A living doll, everywhere you look, it can sew, it can cook, it can talk, talk, talk (Plath).

Tardiness of Mrs. Hutchinson to a big event can be due to her busyness in doing the domesticated tasks she’s intended to do: cleaning, dishwashing. When it comes to discipline, women are known to chatting and exchanging gossips with their fellows while men are shown to be more formal and disciplined, talking meaningful topics with their comrades. The third distinction showed in the story is on how characterization is distributed by genderwherein the maltreated/ negative