English 1020-The lottery

The story's plot revolves around a sacrificial ritual event in a small village. It is a small village with an estimate of around three hundred people and every year they gather in the middle of the square for the lottery. This is a ritual that exists in other villages also, and it is very important. It is an event involving everyone in the village, from children to their parents and every household has to take part in it. The ritual involves all members of the household in the village picking pieces of paper from the black box and the one chosen has to be stoned to death. The story begins with the gathering of people in the square starting with the children who pile up stones to be used for the ritual. They are followed by the men, and then the women arrive. Mr. Summers who convenes the meetings together with Mr. Graves the postman arrive with the box and is placed in front of the crowd, and then the event begins. It begins by all the men first picking up the piece of paper, and they represent the household. It is a ritual that has existed for many years, and this is based on account of the oldest man in the event; Mr. Old Man Warner who states that it is his more than the seventieth ritual. It is a much respected ritual that people do not want to change the black box because of stories that it gets built from the old boxes and its roots are from the first box itself. However, some people are finding the ritual obsolete and are doing away with, but Old man Warner called them a bunch of fools. The plot of the story is linear helps describe a horror story that ends with a lot of suspense. It clearly brings out the theme of human sacrifice where the society identifies a scapegoat who would then give up his or her life for the sake of the community. From the story’s plot we also see how the author uses a lighthearted tone in the story to bring out an out of place as well as time ritual of death of innocent people for the sake of the society. It is a very shocking human sacrifice story of a woman who ends up being stoned to death by stones collected by some of her children in front of the whole town she is stoned and killed by her friends and family members in a very gothic manner. The story shows people in a folk town, and it can be seen clearly by the economic activity which is mostly farming. The story lacks adequate geographical specifics but shows the time during which the event takes place each year, and it does so in June the twenty-seventh. This is during the summer, and it is at this time that everyone in the village is available to participate in the ritual. The acts of human sacrifices have existed long before, but they are practices that have been left behind. This shows a little bit of backwardness for the village and their practices involving the death of their very own. It also shows that the village might have had some myth they believed in, whereby the death of one of them would be for the good of the society. In the story, the mood of the story is very lighthearted, and one could assume that the ritual of the lottery involved something good like a winner going home with a prize. However, the mood helps create the village people as good, committed, hardworking and loyal people who love each other and respect their community. But at the end of the story the atmosphere and the mood changes by the villages becoming murderous and evil. The perception of the people changes and shows clearly how good people can then turn evil. The mood also shows a backward society upholding a very obsolete myth and ritual that cost lives each year. The story lacks specifics of the reason for the sacrifices but here is still no legitimate reason to kill one of your own for the sake of the community. However, there is a little glimmer of hope as each year the excitement about the event is slowly fading away. Some villages elsewhere are also doing away with the ritual, but the Old folks don’t want to hear of it. They call the young people coming up with the idea of doing away with the ritual as fools. The story’s setting is based on a common practice that resembles the 19th century based on the way the people talk and their customs. The events are part of the people's civic duty for which they have to adhere to each passing year. The author of the story was effective in developing the story with a lot of suspense at the end and which help clarify the main theme of the story which is the human sacrifice. ? Reference Jackson, S. (1948). The Lottery. 7.