Short story project due February 19

As indicated in standard 9-10.W.TTP.3 about narrative writing, students must be able to engage the
reader from a fictional or nonfictional text. With that being said, you will complete this project by doing
the following:

1. Select a short story from our unit that you liked or interested you.
2. Change the point of view of the story to one of the supporting characters.

How should this story look?

1. Know what happened in the story. For this aspect, you must remain true to the original
narrative. We will go over an example of this in class with “The Lottery.”
a. What was the original setting?
b. What was the conflict?
c. What was the climax?
d. How was the conflict resolved?
2. As you are writing from the other character’s point of view, ask yourself the following questions
to better develop the alternative narrative:
a. What did you notice about the main character?
b. What would your alternative main character say about the main character?
c. What was your view of the conflict? How will your character reflect your tone?
d. What was your view of the resolution? How would your character address the
resolution and the fate of the main character?

Example Student
Flowers
Honors English II
19 February 2019
An Alternate Theory of “The Lottery”
Mrs. Delacroix waited patiently for the lottery to begin. The square was filling up with
people and the children who as always were running around. There was a feeling of
nervousness yet madness in the air. Then again, it felt that way every time it was lottery day.
Mrs. Delacroix decided that being around Mrs. Graves, one of the officiants’ wives of the
lottery, would be in her best interest. Though she was not a superstitious woman, there was
something about being near one of the officiants’ wives that made her feel safe, even if it was
Mrs. Graves. While she stood there half-listening to the old bird, Mrs. Delacroix noticed that
Tessie Hutchinson was creeping up. Mrs. Delacroix shook her head and thought, “Why does she
always think she is the exception to the rule? I wonder what her excuse will be this year.”
“Thought my old man was out back stacking wood,” Mrs. Hutchinson went on, “and
then I looked out the window and the kids was gone, and then I remembered it was the twenty-
seventh and came a-running.” She dried her hands on her apron, and Mrs. Delacroix said,
“You’re in time, though. They’re still talking away up there.”
Mrs. Delacroix felt Tessie Hutchinson touch her arm and wander up the crowd. She
heard the calls and jesting about Tessie’s arrival. “How embarrassing for Bill!” Mrs. Delacroix
thought. “I would never dream of being late to this. It’s a crying shame and so disrespectful!”
Mrs. Graves began babbling about Mr. Graves’s job at the post office. She was most
excited about having new people move into town because then Mr. Graves would have to hire
another person to help him run the post office. “Maybe one day, he’ll get to retire,” Mrs.
Graves cheerfully said.
“Retiring sounds nice,” Mrs. Delacroix chimed in. Mrs. Graves actually wasn’t a bad
person to wait around with, just a boring one to be near. Mrs. Delacroix looked around the
crowd and saw people she had come to know personally. Wives were gossiping about children,
and the men were speaking of agricultural concerns. It seemed normal despite the things to
come.
As the ceremony began, or what was left of a ceremony much to her dismay, Mrs.
Delacroix watched other people whisper and talk about the ceremony. She was most disturbed
to overhear Mr. Adam’s conversation with Old Man Warner.
“They do say,” Mr. Adams said to Old Man Warner, who stood next to him, “that over in
the north village they’re talking of giving up the lottery.”
Old Man Warner snorted. “Pack of crazy fools,” he said. “Listening to the young folks,
nothing’s good enough for them. Next thing you know, they’ll be wanting to go back to living in
caves, nobody work any more, live that way for a while. Used to be a saying about ‘Lottery in
June, corn be heavy soon.’ First thing you know, we’d all be eating stewed chickweed and
acorns. There’s always been a lottery,” he added petulantly.10 “Bad enough to see young Joe
Summers up there joking with everybody.”
“Some places have already quit lotteries,” Mrs. Adams said.
“Nothing but trouble in that,” Old Man Warner said stoutly. “Pack of young fools.”
“Exactly!” Mrs. Delacroix whispered.
“What’s that?” Mrs. Graves asked.
“Oh, nothing,” Mrs. Delacroix quickly stated. “I just remembered something I will need
to do after the drawing. So many things to do and so little time to get them done.”
“True,” Mrs. Graves stated. “Oh! There goes Mr. Graves now.”
Mrs. Delacroix watched Mr. Graves come from behind the box and draw a slip of paper.
Time seemed to go slowly by. Mr. Summers, the official of the ceremony, was having a good
time talking to each person who drew a slip of paper. Other people began to murmur that it
was taking longer to complete this portion of the ceremony.
Mr. Summers announced, “It’s time to look at the papers.”
Mrs. Delacroix’s heart pounded. Could this be the year? The anticipation was enough to
kill her!
“It’s Bill Hutchinson,” someone whispered near her.
“It’s not fair!” Tessie shouted. “You didn’t give him a chance.”
 “Be a good sport, Tessie,” Mrs. Delacroix called, and Mrs. Graves said, “All of us took the
same chance.”
“Color me shocked!” Mrs. Delacroix thought and looked slyly over at Mrs. Graves.
“Maybe the old bird isn’t such a boring person after all.”
“Shut up, Tessie,” Bill Hutchinson said.
Anticipation ran through the crowd. The air felt electrified with what was to come. Who
would it be? Mrs. Delacroix felt a surge of happiness run through her, but she quickly made
sure that no one else saw this happiness. “Please let it be Tessie,” Mrs. Delacroix chanted in her
head. “Please let it be her! I don’t think I could hurt little Dave or Bill Jr. or Nancy. They’re just
children.”
“There’s Don and Eva,” Mrs. Hutchinson yelled. “Make them take their chance!”
A murmur went through the crowd. She knew the rules. They all did. Why was she
throwing her daughter and son-in-law into the mix?
“I always knew something wasn’t quite right about her,” Mrs. Graves whispered.
“The nerve of her saying such a thing!” Mrs. Dunbar stated.
Everyone waited for Mr. Summers to set the record straight.
“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.
“I guess not, Joe,” Bill Hutchinson said regretfully. “My daughter draws with her
husband’s family, that’s only fair. And I’ve got no other family except the kids.”
“Then, as far as drawing for families is concerned, it’s you,” Mr. Summers said in
explanation, “and as far as drawing for households is concerned, that’s you, too. Right?”
“Right,” Bill Hutchinson said.
People whispered about who it could be. Girls hoped their friend Nancy wouldn’t be
called. Some protested quietly that involving children, especially little Dave, was barbaric. Old
Man Warner heard the comments and growled, “People aren’t what they used to be.”
Mrs. Graves was nervous and twisted her apron in her hands. Mrs. Delacroix patted her
shoulder. The air grew thick with tension as each of the Hutchinson family drew a slip of paper.
Was it the desire to get the lottery over with for refuge in normalcy or the disgust to participate
in group murder that made people anxious?
Each of the children revealed their slips of paper. A collective sigh went through the
crowd once the children revealed none of them had the black mark on their slips of paper. Bill
opened his and looked painfully at Tessie. Tessie, however, refused to open hers. Bill had to
take the paper from her hand and show Mr. Summers the black mark. People began to
murmur about the results.
“Just as I suspected,” Mrs. Delacroix reflected. “She will get what’s coming to her.”
“All right, folks,” Mr. Summers said, “let’s finish quickly.”
It was as though a surge of energy jerked the crowd into action. The little boys, who had
just earlier created a pile of stones, rushed over and began to grab them by the armful. Other
people began stooping and picking up various sized rocks. One thing was for certain, while they
had forgotten the ceremonial procedures leading up to the lottery, people had not forgotten
their part in the lottery itself. It came naturally. Sometimes, old scores would be settled at this
moment, and so it was for Mrs. Delacroix.
Mrs. Delacroix selected a stone so large she had to pick it up with both hands and
turned to Mrs. Dunbar. “Come on,” she said. “Hurry up.” She felt excited and thrilled. The rock’s
weight mattered not to her. The thought of exacting sweet revenge after taking the man she
loved from afar as a girl and seeing Tessie’s children not be as in tune with tradition as she
would have raised them to be made her see red. She huffed and puffed as the rock’s weight
grew heavier. It seemed as though some force were trying to prevent her from lifting the rock
and doing what she wanted to do the most—smash it on Tessie Hutchinson’s thick skull.
“It’s not fair,” Tessie shouted.
A rock hit Tessie in the head, but that did not stop her from saying again, “It’s not fair.”
At last, the crowd had cleared enough for Mrs. Delacroix to come up to Tessie with her
own large rock. In a flit of fear and then anger, Tessie Hutchinson looked up at Mrs. Delacroix
and said, “You did this!”
“Sorry, darling,” Mrs. Delacroix cooed. “You’re number’s up. I guess you shouldn’t have
angered the box by being late again or taken what should have been mine.”
People turned away from what was to come. The rock came sailing down onto Tessie’s
head.
It was days before people would talk about June 27th. More talk about ending the
lottery spread throughout the town. Old Man Warner passed away, having escaped the
drawing again. What made sense before that fateful day now became a mixed bag of fear,
anxiety, anger, and disgust. Who was to say that people were not using the lottery as a way to
exact murder upon someone else? More questions about the lottery’s origin swept through the
town. Change was needed, and Mrs. Delacroix’s actions only proved that some traditions aren’t
worth keeping.