The short story, “The Lottery” was written and published in 1948, three years after the end of the Second World War. During World War II, there was a system set up called the draft in which the government chooses groups of young men to fight at random. This was very scary and chosen at random for the young men. The draft, in a few ways, refers a lot to “The Lottery” and Shirley Jackson was surely influenced by the recent war in the making of this short story. It is a totally random and scary for the individuals called in both instances. One similarity between the two events was the necessity of it. On September 16th, 1940, President Roosevelt signed the STSA. This Selective Training and Service Act required all men ages 21 to 45 to register for this draft. This was similar to the lottery in the short story how Mr. Summers required everyone participated in the annual ritual. Going along with the fact that it was required, people found ways to get out of …show more content…
After signing up for the draft, the military randomly selected groups of men that met random requirements to serve in the army. This shows the anxiety the men had and the randomness also. The lottery was very related in this way. “Winning” the lottery was all by chance, just like the draft. Also, if one was chosen for the draft, than they would possibly die even if they were innocent. That is identical to the lottery whereas if someone were chosen, they would be doomed, it did not matter if the person was innocent or not. The draft is a random way to call society to serve and possibly die, similar to the lottery where one is randomly called to die. It’s also random to who gets called. It is a very scary way to do things and random in each similar occasion. Imagine anxiously awaiting whether a person is to die or not. It is a completely random chance for one to die. It would be very scary, especially because it has nothing to do with