Response to "The Lottery" (Annam)

"The Lottery" by Shirley Jackson is about an old tradition carried through to current times, where a townsperson is randomly chosen to be sacrificed by their own neighbors, by stoning. The fellow townspeople believe this will lead to a bountiful crop harvest and although it can be viewed as outdated, savage and cruel, the people of the town can't see past what they think of as normal. To them, its something that must be done to uphold tradition and an age old belief.

This story was undeniably ahead of its time when it was written, and the message and meaning behind it is quite controversial. You start off reading it, not really expecting something so brutal and haunting to eventually show itself. You read about young children gathering stones, and may even assume its a game. You witness as the lottery is about to begin and the townspeople gather, acting as if its something as mundane and time wasting as a routine check up at the dentist or running errands. But when someone is chosen to be the one, realization starts to occur when her screams and pleads are serious, and the stones the children gathered hold a severe purpose.

You not only question why things occur the way they do in this fictitious story, but what if this occured in reality? You must also wonder what you would do if you were in that position, as the one sacrificing or the one being sacrificed. Usually in the name of tradition or belief, people do extreme things. Sometimes, what is considered "normal" by some is unbelievable to others. I thought about all this long after I finished reading it, and stories that allow the reader to comtemplate and question beyond themselves have truly achieved something great.