The Lottery

8 March 2000

"The Lottery"

Shirley Jackson wrote "The Lottery" in 1948, not long after the second World War. The horror of the Holocaust was still fresh in everyone's mind's. Jackson wrote this story to remind everyone that we are not so far from this world of sadistic human sacrifice. She created a town, very much like any American town, with the gathering of the towns people to celebrate some annual event. She wanted to shine a mirror on contemporary society, a reflection of humanity, or rather, inhumanity. One would think that she was protesting against the shallow hypocrites that rule the world.

The town sets up this lottery in a very practical way, there were several things that were a part of the ritual that the town allowed to fade from practice. But the town still saw it necessary to stone a citizen to death once a year just because that was the way it was always done. Shirley