Blog 1: The Lottery

 The Lottery by Shirley Jackson, implores a barbaric ritual developed throughout time and still used in a more modern society. Upon early reading, the reference to the tradition as a lottery tricked me into believing that this would be an exciting game of luck, wealth, and good fortune. Quickly, this assumption was proved wrong. Quite the opposite, the ritual by the townspeople on June 27th has the folks excited, but not in a positive way, in fact, their anxiousness is out of hopefulness that their name won't be drawn for the lottery. The story makes it clear that the lottery brings death upon one if their name is pulled from the black, decaying box. So much irony at this point in the story has been revealed with the negative connotation of the term, "lottery," and ironic too, that once Tessie Hutchinson's name is selected, townspeople turn on her, who, just before, was seemingly in good nature with the other woman and people of the town. Upon Tessie's arrival to the lottery gathering late, "the people separated good-humoredly to let her through,"(Jackson,266).. Later, these people are stoning her without remorse or second thought. In this town, the lottery is accepted so much that, people are so steadfast to the tradition, that whoever's name is drawn, the killing of that person goes without rebuttal. After my completion of this story, all I can think is: How can no person stop this?