Read this excerpt from "The Lottery" by Shirley Jackson. People began to look around to see the Hutchinsons. Bill Hutchinson was standing quiet, staring down at the paper in his hand. Suddenly, 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!”

“Be a good sport, Tessie,” Mrs. Delacroix called, and Mrs. Graves said, “All of us took the same chance.”

“Shut up, Tessie,” Bill Hutchinson said.

“Well, everyone,” Mr. Summers said, “that was done pretty fast, and now we’ve got to be hurrying a little more to get done in time.” He consulted his next list. “Bill,” he said, “you draw for the Hutchinson family. You got any other households in the Hutchinsons?”

“There’s Don and Eva,” Mrs. Hutchinson yelled. “Make them take their chance!”

“Daughters draw with their husbands’ families, Tessie,” Mr. Summers said gently. “You know that as well as anyone else.”

“It wasn’t fair,” Tessie said.

In Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery," how does the contrast between the characters’ view of the lottery and that of readers' impact the story?

The Hutchinsons' positive view of the lottery throughout the story differs from the readers' view of the lottery as suspicious from the very start to create humor as the story progresses.

Tessie's obviously negative view of the lottery after she wins conflicts with the readers' previous view of the lottery as rather mundane to create suspense about why Tessie gets so upset.

The way the women of the village celebrate and take pride in the lottery goes against the readers' view of it as a shameful event and gives the text its wacky tone.

The way the children of the town innocently approve of the lottery makes the readers' view of the lottery as foolish seem misguided and gives the story its conflict.