Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery” is a short story about a small rural town with only about three hundred people conducting their annual lottery. The story begins on the morning of the designated day for the lottery. People begin to gather, acting calm as they pass the time making small talk, playing around, and gathering rocks. After some time passes Mr. Summers, the man running the lottery, makes sure everyone is either present or accounted for and the lottery finally begins. Representatives of the families in the town walk up to the old, damaged, black box to draw a slip of paper. As the last family draws their slip and the crowd becomes uneasy. It is revealed that the Hutchinson family drew the winning paper and Tessie Hutchinson, the woman of the house, begins to desperately protest her family being …show more content…
The Hutchinson family walks up to draw for a final winner, and Mr. Summers draws Tessie as the winner. The crowd begins to step away from Tessie as she desperately holds her hands out stating how it isn't fair until a stone hits her head. The story concludes as Tessie wins the ‘prize’ of the lottery, being stoned to death by her neighbors. The story is about the danger of blindly following traditions. It is easy to accidentally blindly follow traditions as they have so much power over people. They are an integral part of many cultures as they provide a sense of belonging that people crave. The town’s tradition, the lottery, holds so much power over the people because of this. Every member of the town and everyone they have ever known has taken part in the lottery. It has been a ritual for as long as the village has been there, “There was a story that the present box (for drawing names) had been made with some pieces of the box that had preceded it, the one that had been constructed when the first people settled down to make a village