A Reading on Shirley Jackson's Short Story "The Lottery"
             The Lottery was released in 1948 when the horror of the II. World War could be still felt in Europe. The inapprehensible monstrosity of this warfare was a shock, which had to be worked up in many ways. Every group in the society tried to assist at this task, so the artists. The Lottery is one of many artistic creations, which were constituted for the same reason, simply by trying to give an explanation for the brutality of the human kind. The idea behind the story of The Lottery is, that following traditions blindly is useless, abnormal or even deadly.
             The story itself on the literal level is simple. It takes place in a small –about 300 inhabitants- village, on a nice June day. The people of the town are gathering together for the lottery. First the children who just have finished school for the year. They behave like every normal child, they play, and talk about school but soon they begin to assemble stones without any given reason. Then the men arrive, also in an absolutely normal way talking about harvest, joking quietly. Shortly the women arrive greeting each other, exchanging gossips while the preparations for the lottery are made by Mr. Summers. The last resident who arrives is Mrs. Hutchinson, she chats a bit then joins her family. Mr. Summers calls the heads of the families in alphabetic order, and talks to them a few words while everyone takes a paper from the box. After all the families have drawn they look at the slips to see who got the one with
             the black mark. It is the Hutchinson family. After a second drawing Tessie Hutchinson draws the marked paper. Then the execution follows immediately, the villagers stone her dead.
             The story is finished, and we find ourselves sitting there, still shocked by its pointless brutality. But why are we so shocked? Because we expect a rational ending after a normal, may be a bit boring, simple story. W...