My Response to Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery"

Abigail Retallick
Lottery Paragraph
Sophomore English
21 September 2007
The Lottery is a short story with unsaid purpose, well-developed characters, and a deadly tradition. Shirley Jackson uses unseen connotations to get her point across to her audience. A possible hidden meaning that our sophomore English class discussed was not following the herd. Another one was that not everything the mass population is doing is right. Jackson’s characters were normal humans. The whole village had separate personalities that painted the story with different aspects. The purpose of the lottery in the story was never stated. We know that it is an old ritualistic ceremony with most of the traditions forgotten and no longer used. The only things remaining from the original lottery are the black box and the stones. Is this old formality a sacrifice for innocent blood or is it and aged tradition that the only reason they still have it around is for familiarity? The Lottery is a thought invoking work that had some twisted parts and pondering concepts.