The Lottery

This marks my third time to be reading “The Lottery.” I read it twice in high school and wrote a paper on it my senior year. The first time I read the story, I never expected the ending. Jackson uses many descriptions to create an image of a warm, happy summer day, the kind of day that would make a person feel happy and carefree. The kids are playing and gathering normally and the adults are discussing regular topics, as if a stoning of a randomly chosen family were not about to take place.

Though the setting is misleading, it is apparent that the adults understand the situation more than the children. Even though they are making small talk, there is still a sense of apprehension in the air. This is apparent because the men “stood together, away from the pile of stones in the corner, and their jokes were quiet and they smiled rather than laughed.” These small motions were too subtle for me to catch the first time I read it, and I’m pretty sure I overlooked them again after reading it for a second time. This hesitation and fear among the townspeople becomes more apparent as the story progresses; marking their hesitation to even help the set up, possibly attempting to delay the ceremony.

After realizing what “the lottery” actually is, it is odd that Jackson compares it to the other social gatherings that take place in the town, such as the “square dances, the teen-age club, the Halloween program.” The tradition has been present for such a long time that the administrators of it seem to overlook how morbid the activity really is. The townspeople also try to go along with the activity as if it were any other social gathering, gossiping and chatting with friends and neighbors, though it is apparent that fear and nervousness is present in the back of all of their minds.

Jackson uses the box to foreshadow the kind of event that will soon be occurring, describing the very old black box as shabby and “no longer completely black but splintered badly along one side.” This dreary image is the most obvious sign that the lottery is far from the typical idea of a lottery. Most often, a lottery is selects a winner at random for a fantastic prize, such as money or vacations or other great things. However, even by the description of the box, from which a name will be drawn, it is evident that the “lottery” will have an ironic outcome.

The story is marked throughout by irony. The most obvious example is the outcome of the lottery itself. Another bit of irony was Tessie Hutchinson’s tardiness to the event and her mentioning such trivial matters such as doing the dishes when she would soon be facing the end of her life because she drew the piece of paper with a black dot on it.

After reading this story a few times, I have decided that I don’t enjoy it. Though the story is made to be ironic, the ending of the story is sickening. It is not very fair for one person to be stoned to death on the basis of drawing a slip of paper with a black dot on it. Just because it has become a tradition, does not make the practice justifiable.