The first time the reader sets eyes on the lottery, a short story by Shirley Jackson, the reader thinks of winning money because Jackson starts by showing how “the morning of June 27th was clear and sunny, with the fresh warmth of a full-summer day; the flowers were blossoming profusely and the grass was rich green.” This gives a reader a sense of peace and better expectations of the story. However, its ending leaves the readers in a state of shock with terrifying feelings. Tessie Hutchinson won the lottery but instead of celebrating her screamed saying it isn’t fair”. From the lottery, one can understand that Jackson wanted to show how some cultures have practices which people are ignorant of.
Most cultures have practices which violate human rights and people can’t get rid of it because they claim that it’s tradition. The lottery which was carried out every year was participated in by each member in that village. They stuck on it and didn’t want to let go of it. “Nothing but trouble in that,” Old Man Warner said. “Pack of young fools”. This older man in the village was encouraging the younger people to stick on lottery by saying that those who wanted to abandon it were fools., but in real sense the villagers also did because it was a tradition and didn’t know the reason for it. They had to kill a person every year which is really against human rights. Tessie Hutchinson who won the lottery on the seventy seventh time, “was in the center of a cleared space by now, and she held her hands out desperately as the villagers moved on her.” These villagers mercilessly stoned her to death not because she was any problem to them, but because of the ignorance they had about the lottery.
Not only do cultural practices violate human rights but also people practice them without knowing their reason and their origin. In the lottery, Jackson shows us how the children collected stones. “Martin had already stuffed his pockets full of stones, and the other boys soon followed his example.” These boys didn’t understand the use of this practice. They knew it was an annual practice, and they had to stone someone to death every year. The villagers as well as the boys also didn’t understand the use of the lottery. Old Man Warner said, ” All you know we’d all be eating stewed chickweed and acorns.” This does not really express the reason of killing a person every year because death of one person does not increase the amount of food to be consumed in that year. They did it because it was a tradition but were really ignorant of its reason and origin. Jackson wrote this story basing on what she saw around her because many people are ignorant of their cultural practices.
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Jackson also shows well how the lottery led to hatred among the villagers. Everyone wanted another person to win it, and even among family members because Tessie said, “There is Don and Eva, make them take their chance.” she didn’t want to win the lottery,so she wanted to include her married daughters. She didn’t mind that their were her own daughters, but wanted them to draw in order to decrease the chance of her winning the lottery, this shows how the lottery resulted in hatred of family members as well as other villagers because everyone wanted anyone else to be killed not him/herself. The stoning itself shows how the people in the village didn’t love another because one can’t kill a friend.
Delacroix, her best friend, “selected a stone so large that she had to pick it up with both hands,” and all the villagers did the same. Even her own family turned against her and “someone gave little Dave Hutchinson few pebbles” to stone her mom. all the villagers turned against her in a shortest period of time. Old warner was saying, “come on, come on, everyone”, and then all the villagers were upon her. Jackson shows how the lottery made people hate one another for no reason. The villagers were ignorant of that practice and had to stone Tessie without a second thought.
