Shirley Jackson "The Lottery" This review is about the short story and the interaction the townpeople had within each other.

Essay by ausha2 March 2004

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Jackson wrote this story to keep her readers in suspense the whole time. One can guess "The Lottery" meant a drawing for money, but a stoning?

This story seemed to take place in the 50's because of a small town where everybody knows each other, where kids played together, all the parents were married, no divorcee, only men were allowed to draw from the box, and everybody was polite. Every character was a protagonist, starting from the kids piling the stones to the parents gathering up in a group for the lottery hearing.

What stood out in the story was Old man Warner mentioning "Old pack of crazy fools (393)." When the townspeople said, at other towns the lottery had been banned. And Old man Warner himself had been participating for seventy-seven years and had never been hit! The reader wonders why the lottery was banned, when you can get something good from it, such as money.

In conclusion, Jackson did a beautiful job in keeping her readers believing the original. A group of townspeople nervous, anxious, hoping to get the winning ticket so they can go home richer, and wondering why this so called lottery was banned in other towns. But the point was not to get the winning ticket, but to not get it. It was a town tradition, that even if you were popular and you got the winning ticket of coal, no matter what, you'd get stoned, that's why this lottery took two hours.