After reading Shirley Jackson's story "The Lottery", a view on humanity was opened to me that I never gave too much thought to before. ... Jackson uses this story as a reflection of our human society. ... Jackson's story also emphasizes how we must face consequences in our society. ...In my opinion, this story is a way to demonstrate how everyone has a weakness inside them, but more significantly, an underlying evil. Even today, people follow what is done by others, and not what they truly believe in. In a way, depending on the ending, it is truly evil.
I find this story to be startling and eye-opening because it shows the reader (after having to do some thinking) that standing up for what you believe in is paramount and can mean the difference between good and evil.
The story attacks traditions and the seemingly mindless attitude humans have about our traditions. Of course we can see that the tradition of a stoning lottery is outrageous, but it could cause us to take an inward look at some of the other habits we have that are not healthy, but we do them just the same, in the name of tradition and the idea that "that is what we always do." There is no logical reason why we prepare and eat more food that we can even taste at Thanksgiving, but we do it every year.