Marc Guerrero
ENG 102
Dr. Lowery
13 Jan 2022
Reading #3: “The Lottery”
1. The story begins on a lovely summer day where the villagers assemble for the lottery
event. At first it appears like a festive event, but it will conclusion in a bad way.
When some time recently the lottery begins, the townspeople keep their separate from the
stool with the black box when Mr. Summers calls for offer assistance. Normally people
when they wait for the result of a lottery, they want to help others, not to distance
themselves. All the people in the town conversation around a person taking the ticket out
of the box, as if it were an awfully hard subject to do, and this is unusual. Jackson is
appearing that all through the moment the tickets are taken out of the box, a tense
sensation is made, despite the little jokes between them. When Tessie Hutchinson finally
cries and says it's not fair, we will be able already figure that something awful is going to
happen. She is at that point stoned by her neighbors.
2. This phrase proposes to us the relationship of the lottery with nature and with the
success and generation of the collect. The lottery is related with agriculture and with
plenitude and with the cycle of the year, it permits the community to protect itself from
big changes, which cause decay. The pile of stones at the beginning returns as the
predetermination chosen explicitly related to the behavior of children with the dangerous
wishes of grown-ups: "Although the neighbors had forgotten the ritual and had lost the
original black box, they still maintained the tradition of using stones. The pile of stones
that the children had collected before was prepared".
Guerrero 2
3. I agree that this story addresses the issues mentioned. The box represents the town
tradition. Although it is an ancient practice, the villagers do not want to remove this
ancient tradition. At one point in the story, one of the villagers comments that in some
places this tradition is no longer practiced and Mr. Warner, the oldest man in the town,
tells them that those who think that are crazy. One theme that history suggests is use of
fear to control a social group. Finally, another theme that this story shows us a lot the
human need to feel part of a group and how this need will sometimes make his morals
and ethics disappear.
4. A contemporary theme could be to reflect on how a person can act in extreme situations
or how the most inhuman instincts can emerge when it comes to protecting one's
individual survival. Another topic could be the need to belong to a social group, the fact
that people need to belong by following the rules or laws of the group, without
questioning them or making them, but complying with them in order not to be separated
from it. We can go into issues already mentioned in the previous question, such as raising
others like the death penalty.