![]() ![]() It’s probably best known today as a staple of American junior high/middle school literature classes. Jackson famously responded to this ban by saying that at least they understood the story. ![]() Jackson received much hate mail for it, readers unsubscribed from The New Yorker in disgust, and the story was banned in the Union of South Africa (the precursor to modern-day South Africa). The story is Shirley Jackson's meditation on the pointlessness of violence and the inhumanity in the world, in each and every person and their own neighbors. It would be any other quaint story if it weren't for the heavy symbolism. After all, this is their annual tradition, and a good harvest is at stake. ![]() The winner-in this instance, a woman-is surprised to be selected and protests that she really doesn't deserve the prize, but the whole community insists on giving it to her. It's time for the town's annual lottery, which consists of selecting a family, then an individual, from the slips of paper concealed inside a splintery black box which has been used many times before. A small American village of roughly three hundred people has prepared for this day as if it were another celebration, like a square dance or a Halloween program. "The Lottery" is a horror short story written by Shirley Jackson, first published in The New Yorker in 1948 and included in her collection The Lottery and Other Stories the following year. ![]()
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