Summary Of Shirley Jackson's The Lottery

The horror that I felt when looking back upon this story, was only amplified by rereading it, knowing what the ceremony actually would entail. The unsuspecting reader begins the story thrown into a lovely summer seen in a quaint village. Details about children attending school, men and women chatting, lull the reader into contentment. Once the reveal is made, tiny, once insignificant details cast the story in completely new light, an awful one. This contrast between the relive happiness of the beginning, and the grimness at the end heightens the aspect of horror. Jokes and idle conversation is made just as the ceremony begins, making The Lottery seem run-of-the-mill, a chore. That is when the horror began. The annual slaying of a human being was turned into a chore for these people, that disgusted me, filled me with a rampant sense of injustice. Life is not valued in that society, it can’t be if they disregard it so readily. Familial love must be tamped down, stifled, in order for people to partake in the murder of their loved
If the town had been decorated, a feast had, and the execution done more humanely, in the name of some god; if the children had tearfully bid their mother goodbye, with smiles in their hearts for the honor she had been given, this would have been acceptable, if not palatable. If the citizens had been forced to it, by men with guns, and more power and might then they could ever hope to have; if Mr.Hutchinson had gone mad when his wife was chosen, and fought and holdered, it would have been heartbreaking, sickening in its sadness. The solidity of the people was shocking. The Lottery was simply something that needed doing, a line to check off of the honey-do list. Murder, gruesome murder, became normal to these people, it went unnoticed. This is what made it was horrific, and Shirley Jackson knew exactly what she was doing, and did an admirable job of