Summary:
"The Lottery," a short story by Shirley Jackson, examines a different type of "lottery," where the "winner" is stoned to death.
Shirley Jackson, the author, begins with a public gathering on a fine day. All the villagers gather in the square, waiting to draw their annual lots. I have been puzzled since the very beginning. Why do the boys fill their pockets with stones? Why are there piles of stones in the corner? What are they used for? As I went on, I kept wondering: why do people appear so serious and nervous? The lottery seems so unusual that it has a special impact on all the people presented. Having finished the story, I suddenly came to realize that the lottery is indeed unusual. It does have something to do with gambling except that the prize is not money, but a person's life! There does be a crowd, but they don't congratulate the winner, but stone him to death!
"Lottery in June, corn be heavy soon." From the old man, who has been in the lottery for seventy-seventh time, I came to know that the lottery is to some extent a ceremony. People hold the ceremony annually in the hope that there would be a good harvest in the year. And the winner of the lottery is the sacrifice! They use a person as a sacrifice instead of a livestock!
Mrs. Hutchinson tries to involve her married daughter in the draw just in order to reduce her own chance for death. It is really disgusting for a mother to utter those words. Where is her conscience as a mother? Bill Hutchinson forces his wife to unfold the deadly paper and then stands by, completely indifferent. Where is his love as a husband? Someone talks about the neighborhood's abolishment of the lottery, but is absolutely vetoed by the seemingly authority. Then there has been no further objection at all. Where is their sense as human beings on earth? Finally the woman is dead. She is stoned to death by her village fellows, including her dear husband and son. So sarcastic. People's fanaticism to the lottery robs them of their conscience, their love, and even their sense.
The movie is even more shocking. However, different approaches, the same revelation. Jason go back to where his father used to live, trying to fulfill the old man's last wish to be buried with his dear wife. Everyone appears to be strange and hostile to him except a young, enthusiastic girl, Felice. They fall in love with each other, as romance goes. I have thought that the two of them may fight together against the barbaric custom and finally break it all. To my great disappointment, Felice tells Jason nothing about the ignorance of people in the village, she tells Jason nothing when she finds that her mother has secretly discarded the bone ash of Jason's father, and at last she tells nothing to the policeman to whom Jason has turned for help. It made me feel sick when she picks up a stone and ruthlessly throws it at her mother. She finally gives up to the tradition. She finally gives up her own morality, her conscience.
The sacrificed are considered as heroes of the whole village. How absurd that they are compared to soldiers! Soldiers sacrifice in the battles to protest their people from enemies, while the so-called heroes sacrifice in a shower of stones just to fulfill people's imagination that they can be better off by committing such a kind of murder!
Jason is eventually made silent for there's no one on earth believe what he says. But the end is open. We can expect that one day he makes all things clear. Just as Mrs. Hutchinson cried out at the end of the novel: it isn't right, it isn't fair!
This is the complete article, containing 612 words
(approx. 2 pages at 300 words per page).
