The Lottery

The short story of the ‘lottery’ by Shirley Jackson is an unusual story about government control, and fear. The story really makes you think a bit because of its confusing meaning and such.

            Through the story the reader gets the idea that the lottery is a good thing to win, but by the end of the story that the winning the lotto is defiantly not good. One theme in this story is government control. The reason for this is because the government the whole story had control over the people. They forced people to do things in the story, for example towards the end of the story this woman wins the lottery and everyone needs to simultaneously stone her. Even her best friend goes against her better judgment and stones her too, with a big rock. That shows that even if you are best friends with someone the government is still going to be in control.

            Another one of the themes in this story is fear. For example in the story nobody wants to be the pick for the lottery. They are afraid that they will be picked and they will be stoned to death. There seems to be even though it is not written, a sigh of relief when a family knows that they were not picked and none of the family is going to be stoned. But for the family does get picked the only thing that probably goes through their minds is fear, fear of being picked, and also fear of a family member they love being picked.

            Tradition is a theme that also plays out in this story. The lottery had been taking place for quite a while, and despite being afraid of it people still participate in it every year probably out of the control the government has. The people don’t like doing the lottery, but it was a tradition it had been taking place for a long time and nobody tried to stop it. The winner of the lottery every year would be stoned and killed by strangers and the people they care about. Those are just a couple themes in the story of the ‘lottery’ by Shirley Jackson.