Invictus

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BY W I LLI AM E RNE S T H E NLE Y

Out of the night that covers me,

Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance

I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears

Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds and shall find me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,

How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate,
I am the captain of my soul.
 THE LOTTERY

BY: Shirley Jackson

SUMMARIZE

The villagers of a small town gather together in the square on June 27, a
beautiful day, for the town lottery. In other towns, the lottery takes longer,
but there are only 300 people in this village, so the lottery takes only two
hours. Village children, who have just finished school for the summer, run
around collecting stones. They put the stones in their pockets and make a
pile in the square. Men gather next, followed by the women. Parents call
their children over, and families stand together.

Mr. Summers runs the lottery because he has a lot of time to do things for
the village. He arrives in the square with the black box, followed by Mr.
Graves, the postmaster. This black box isn’t the original box used for the
lottery because the original was lost many years ago, even before the town
elder, Old Man Warner, was born. Mr. Summers always suggests that they
make a new box because the current one is shabby, but no one wants to fool
around with tradition. Mr. Summers did, however, convince the villagers to
replace the traditional wood chips with slips of paper.

Mr. Summers mixes up the slips of paper in the box. He and Mr. Graves
made the papers the night before and then locked up the box at Mr.
Summers’s coal company. Before the lottery can begin, they make a list of
all the families and households in the village. Mr. Summers is sworn in. Some
people remember that in the past there used to be a song and salute, but
these have been lost.

Tessie Hutchinson joins the crowd, flustered because she had forgotten that
today was the day of the lottery. She joins her husband and children at the
front of the crowd, and people joke about her late arrival. Mr. Summers asks
whether anyone is absent, and the crowd responds that Dunbar isn’t there.
Mr. Summers asks who will draw for Dunbar, and Mrs. Dunbar says she will
because she doesn’t have a son who’s old enough to do it for her. Mr.
Summers asks whether the Watson boy will draw, and he answers that he
will. Mr. Summers then asks to make sure that Old Man Warner is there too.

Mr. Summers reminds everyone about the lottery’s rules: he’ll read names,
and the family heads come up and draw a slip of paper. No one should look
at the paper until everyone has drawn. He calls all the names, greeting each
person as they come up to draw a paper. Mr. Adams tells Old Man Warner
that people in the north village might stop the lottery, and Old Man Warner
ridicules young people. He says that giving up the lottery could lead to a
return to living in caves. Mrs. Adams says the lottery has already been given
up in other villages, and Old Man Warner says that’s “nothing but trouble.”

Mr. Summers finishes calling names, and everyone opens his or her papers.
Word quickly gets around that Bill Hutchinson has “got it.” Tessie argues that
it wasn’t fair because Bill didn’t have enough time to select a paper. Mr.
Summers asks whether there are any other households in the Hutchinson
family, and Bill says no, because his married daughter draws with her
husband’s family. Mr. Summers asks how many kids Bill has, and he answers
that he has three. Tessie protests again that the lottery wasn’t fair.

Mr. Graves dumps the papers out of the box onto the ground and then puts
five papers in for the Hutchinsons. As Mr. Summers calls their names, each
member of the family comes up and draws a paper. When they open their
slips, they find that Tessie has drawn the paper with the black dot on it. Mr.
Summers instructs everyone to hurry up.

The villagers grab stones and run toward Tessie, who stands in a clearing in
the middle of the crowd. Tessie says it’s not fair and is hit in the head with a
stone. Everyone begins throwing stones at her.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ABOUT THE STORY:

"The Lottery" is a short story by Shirley Jackson that was first published in The New Yorker on
June 26, 1948. The story describes a fictional small American community which observes an
annual tradition known as "the lottery", which is intended to ensure a good harvest and purge
the town of bad omens.

The main theme of ''The Lottery'' is the power of tradition and ritual. The tradition of the lottery is
continued every year even though the original meaning behind the event has long been lost.
The lottery has been held for so long that the only information about its purpose comes from
hearsay.
 Mother to Son
BY LANG S T ON H U G H E S

Well, son, I’ll tell you:

Life for me ain’t been no crystal stair.
It’s had tacks in it,
And splinters,
And boards torn up,
And places with no carpet on the floor—
Bare.
But all the time
I’se been a-climbin’ on,
And reachin’ landin’s,
And turnin’ corners,
And sometimes goin’ in the dark
Where there ain’t been no light.
So boy, don’t you turn back.
Don’t you set down on the steps
’Cause you finds it’s kinder hard.
Don’t you fall now—
For I’se still goin’, honey,
I’se still climbin’,
And life for me ain’t been no crystal stair.
 Invictus
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BY W I LLI AM E RNE S T H E NLE Y

‘Invictus’ is Latin for ‘unconquerable’. Henley wrote this poem about

stoicism, courage and refusing to accept defeat while enduring a
severely testing time in hospital. He had contracted tuberculosis of
the bone in his youth, and the lower part of one of his legs was
amputated in his twenties. At one point, it was feared he might lose
his other leg.

Mother to Son
BY LANG S T ON H U G H E S

This poem is based on the idea of hope and encouragement to move forward in life, despite all
difficulties, and no matter how tough life may become. It is also the demonstration of the love a
mother has for her son. Behind this love, the poet emphasizes the idea of never giving up in any
situation.
The speaker gives her son advice about how to improve his lot in a racist society through an
extended metaphor about climbing a set of stairs. While white people can climb up a “crystal
stair”—meaning they enjoy a smooth and easy ascent—Black people are forced to take a
dangerous and dark staircase.