Death Unit 3

The Lottery
Shirley Jackson

In The Lottery, Shirley Jackson introduces the reader to different characters. One of these characters is introduced early on in the story. The literary technique being used is the use of a static character. Mr. Summers is a static character in The Lottery. At the beginning of the story, he is introduced as the man who runs all of the civic activities in the town. However, he does not come to be any sort of hero by any means by the end of the story. In fact, everyone in the town still views him as the lottery caller at the end of the story. "He was a round-faced, jovial man and he ran the coal business, and people were sorry for him, because he had no children and his wife was a scold"(Jackson, 264). Here, Mr. Summers is described as a typical man who has no characteristics that set him apart from any typical man. In a way, static chracters sort of fly under the radar throughout the stories in which they are presented. Mr. Summers most definitely is a static charcter in The Lottery because of his lack of change throughout the story.