Reflective Journal

David Gardner
Professor Hanscom
Introduction to Literature Lit 2000 [ 17 January 2013 ]
Reflective Journal on “The Lottery“ by Shirley Jackson
As this story begins it seems to be like any ordinary summer day in an ordinary little town. It seems to be annual local event for the whole community to gather and celebrate and gossip. But as the story progress there is a feeling of reservation among the hundreds of people that have gathered who were families of women and children and men. The piling of stones by the young boys gave a slight hint of what the outcome of this lottery was going to be. The beginning of the story when all the children and adults gathered in the town center reminded me of a recent movie The Hunger Games where the plot was a type of lottery where the children were chosen to fight for their families. Jackson’s description of the town, the time of year, children playing and adults talking with each other gave the sense of a traditional celebratory gathering that has been going on since before the oldest person in town, Mr. Warren, was born.
In the story there is a sense of an unspoken consensus, except for Mrs. Hutchinson, who speaks out, that this tradition is unfair and should be discontinued. But for the old man Warren this tradition should go on like it has been for years and years. In the real world though there are some traditions that need to modernized or done away with, such as like in my family it is traditional that everybody buys a General Motors product not a Ford. Even though each vehicle is of quality manufacturing and basically the same, in our family you are frowned upon if you purchase a Ford product. To this day I own two Chevrolet trucks, but since most of the older generation in my family are deceased, my siblings have given up on the tradition and purchase what they want, which is fine with me because everybody should be able to make their own choice on what vehicle to buy, but I still believe that Chevrolet is the better product and have re-started the tradition up with my children who own Chevrolets.
Being a person that partakes in the Florida Lottery each week, the story intrigue me at first, then as I read on I started to surmise that the story was not going to have a happy ending due to the stone gathering. I was somewhat disappointed because the mentality of most people thinks that when an individual wins the lottery they receive something special whether it is monetary or materialistic. As for this story the lottery winner gets death, which is neither exciting nor fun.