Win and Die?

Author's Note: My class and I read a short story of The Lottery by an author who lived in California and wrote this in 1948. Her name is Shirley Jackson and I believe this is a great, but saddening story.

In the short story "The Lottery" by the author of Shirley Jackson, Tessie Hutchinson one of the main characters in the village, was killed by stones and rocks that the other families and her children, had to throw at her. I thought this was kind of ironic because Tessie was late to the gathering, and she had gotten upset when her husband was picked. One sad moment that had happened in the story was when the younger boys in the family had cheered when they didn't get the black dot on their sheet of paper, but they just realized that their mother had to pay the price; of dying by rocks that they had to throw at her themselves.

I believe that the black box and the black dot for the lottery was a sign of death for anyone who entered their name in it. When you first begin to read the story, people most likely thought it would be an actual lottery where a family earned money and became rich. In this case, it was the exact opposite and I thought that was unbelievable and ironic for the story. Therefore one of the themes that I believe could fit for the short story would be the theme of survival. Why I thought of survival was because every year the villagers had to enter their family's name in this box and see if someone had to lose their life for this traditional event. If you weren't chosen, you could happily live your lives without the fear of having to be sacrificed for a inhuman tradition.

This story should have a happy ending, but sadly it is the exact opposite and it makes you think to yourself what happened back then, and then compare it to now. Are there still traditions like that, in the world? There is mostly likely a tradition or sacrifice in other countries, but I personally don't believe there are any in the United States.