"The Lottery"
Shirley Jackson
The village in the story holds an annual lottery on June 27. In the modern world, the lottery is associated with positivity; people take a chance to earn a great deal of money. In the story, however, the lottery is a ritual stoning, which is definitely a negative thing. The term lottery means that there is a chance taken or there is some usage of odds or probability. In the story, every family takes a chance at drawing the paper with the black circle, while in today's society people take a chance at gaining money.
Why a group of people would nonchalantly kill someone every year does not really make sense. However, based on clues provided in the story, there was originally a purpose to the stoning: "Lottery in June, corn be heavy soon" (Jackson, 268). Though the community originally had a purpose for continuing the lottery, they now have no real reason to keep having the lottery. A main theme of the story is that it can be dangerous to blindly follow tradition. When following tradition blindly, people can easily be hurt for no reason at all.
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