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.
In the short story โ€The Lotteryโ€ by Shirley Jackson, the lottery is a ceremony practiced by the people of the village. This is a yearly drawing held in which a member of the village gets stoned to death, so that the town will have a plentiful year for growing crops. Jackson conveys several messages about human nature in her short story. The most meaningful message she sends is how brutal and violent people can be to one another. Another significant message she sends is how tradition and custom can hold domination over people. Jackson also sends the message of how men treat women as objects. The main message that Jackson conveys in โ€The Lotteryโ€ is that people can be a part of such cruel activity and not think anything of it. The children went about the day as if this was normal, โ€School was recently over for the summer, and the feeling of liberty sat uneasily on most of them; they tended to gather together quietly for a while before they broke into boisterous play, and their talk was still of the classroom and the teacher, of books and reprimands.โ€ (213) All the villagers gather together annually to perform this horrible act of murder without questioning it. Mr. Summers, the conductor of the lottery states, โ€guess we better get started, get this over with, soโ€s we can go back to work.โ€ (215) This illustrates how they consider this horrible attack as normal. Old Man Warner mentions, โ€lottery in June, corn be heavy soon.โ€ (216) This confirms how the act of stoning people to death is thought of as an ordinary thing.