My response to Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery"

Elsa Schmiedbauer
The Lottery
Sophomore English
21 August 2007

Shirley Jackson’s work of literature entitled the Lottery is very well written, and it is a good story that you can learn from.
A unique mix of traditions, the drawing, and culture mark this story as a brilliant work of prose. The sacrifice at first passing, when reading the story, you don’t exactly understand its significance. Later, the stoning of the innocent affect people in two ways, the kids are taught the strange and barbaric ideas, and the person who is of course being stoned. Slips of paper contained in a black box seem important but you have no dreams as to why. When, the black dot of death shows up in the hands of that poor woman I was shocked, the significance hadn’t dawned on me yet. Religion is another key part of this story. The story doesn’t stop making you intrigued until the very end, most people ask why, why stone some random person, but it all ties in. Personally I liked the story with its mixed up mashed up customs, drawing of the winner, and there strange and foreign way of life.