"The Lottery" is something you don't want to win...

We would all love to win the lottery, right? What if it had a little twist to it though? Maybe the “prize” was something that you would never want. In the story of, “The Lottery”, by Shirley Jackson, an event, just like this one, occurs. It’s pretty sick, but it makes a great story. With the symbolism and the characters in the tale, there is no telling what else can occur in such a bizarre town.

There were a few symbols that really stood out to me. First off is the actual word lottery. When someone says it, what is the first thing that comes to mind? Trusting common sense, I would assume that we would think of a huge amount of money awarded out to someone that wins with an assortment of numbers chosen at random. Not in this story. What you win if you are the unlucky person…is death. For the oddest reason, they choose one person from the whole town to murder, each year. This symbol only speaks one word to me: crazy. This town is obviously not normal due to their obsession with killing their own neighbors with rocks. The second symbol is the dark black pencil mark in the middle of the paper. This paper was dreaded throughout the whole town. It meant a for-sure death; it meant a cruel one.

Just like the symbols in the story, the character were phsyco too! I mean, seriously, what kind of a place likes to kill people for a hobby? If they find this even the tiniest bit of amusing, they need serious mental help. I couldn’t even imagine doing this to anyone or anything. The people seem scared of this little “game”. Yet, they don’t even want to think about illegalizing it. Just like the people said, “Pack of crazy fools.” They were talking about the villages that had gotten rid of the “lottery”. If I were to be in this foolish town for just a second, I would grab my belongings and run for my life. I would not want to risk my life with a bunch of lunatics.

As for the townspeople and the symbols, they’re pretty chaotic. This just goes to show that we don’t appreciate many freedoms that we have in life now. They don’t have a choice whether they want to participate in this ridiculous hobby or not. Whereas now, they would never dare to make us fear losing our lives in such a horrible way. We have so many rights nowadays, that we don’t realize it.