The Lottery Moral

The Lottery, by Shirley Jackson, is a very unusual short story that is obscure in explaining why such events are taking place.

“In this village, where there were only about three hundred people, the whole lottery took less than two hours, so it could begin at ten o’clock in the morning and still be through in time to allow the villagers to get home for noon dinner” (Jackson). In the short story, The Lottery, by Shirley Jackson is a story about a village that leads what would be considered a disturbing and brutal tradition each year among the villagers. The village tradition involves a drawing among each head of household and their family members to find out who wins the lottery each year. The drawing is totally undefined and all the villagers must participate. While most readers would presume that when someone wins the lottery they are being rewarded but in the condition of this village it is not the case. A villager winning the lottery results in death, more specifically the other villagers stone him/her to death.

In the short story, The Lottery, by Shirley Jackson, involves the employment of certain characters to explain how traditions and cultures of a community are not always considered morally positive traditions to hold. Jackson uses this ides to allow her audience to imagine a reality that they would not want to live in or be a part of. Shirley Jackson’s use of characters in the short story enables a better perception of how immoral this tradition is. For instance, Old Man Varner, who is known to be the oldest man in the entire village. Old Man Varner reveals that he has seen the Lottery drawing be conducted each year, seventy seven times. “They do say,” Mr. Adams said to Old Man Warner, who stood next to him, ‘that ov...

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...or anxious about the situation.

In summary, the short story The Lottery by Shirley Jackson was a very suspenseful and unusual story. The author had interesting ways to tell the reader about the events that take place and why. By using very descriptive details and focusing mainly on what exactly was taking place, the author offers the reader a sense of keenness to know what will happen at the end. Even though the author was not entirely clear about why the lottery was taking place and what the result would be, she is more than clear about the townsfolk’s feelings regarding the whole situation. This and many other details in the story enable the reader to think critically about the implicit meanings in the story. In all, I enjoyed reading this story a lot and would recommend this story to someone else who can read and think critically about the context of a story.