The Lottery Argumentative Essay

1.In Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery,” a “lottery” is a tradition which takes place each year where the whole town gathers and the man of the house takes a folded slip from a black box. Once each man has a slip, they are allowed to unfold the paper, the man with a dot on his paper would then have his whole family take part in the process. After the whole family had chosen a slip the person with the dot would be stoned to death. The title is misleading considering the literal meaning of lottery is a distribution of prizes by chance. From reading the title I expected someone to win something the majority of people would want. On the contrary, the story presents a lottery in which no one wishes to be selected as the winner.

2. A scapegoat is
However, Old Man Warner who has been a part of the tradition for seventy-seven years knows the true meaning behind the tradition. He states the purpose when speaking to Mrs. Adams and telling her the old saying “Lottery in June, corn be heavy soon.” Essentially, the lottery is a sacrifice that is built on a mere coincidence in which the town has an abundance of corn if one person is killed for the
Mr. Summers, the person in charge of conducting the lottery was glad to devote his time and effort to the community. He had no problem in taking part of the ritual and in fact, wanted it done quickly in order for the townspeople to continue their afternoon. Old Man Warner strongly believed and participated in the ritual for seventy-seven years. He was against removing the ritual and called people who stopped them “crazy fools.” For instance, he made it clear when “ Listening to the young folks, nothing’s good enough for them.” Mr. and Mrs. Adams are the ones who informed Old Man Waren that other villages have stopped the lottery, implying that they too, may support the idea. Mrs. Hutchinson believed the lottery was not “fair,” regardless of her participation in the previous years. The villagers, in general, were excited about the lottery, they would prepare their rocks and stones hours before, and believed everyone took the same risk, so the lottery did not favor anyone in particular. The attitude which most closely reflects the point of the story is Mrs. Hutchinson due to the nature of what happened to her. She actively participated in the lottery before, she did not disagree with it because it did not affect her. However, the day came where she was chosen and had decided to speak out about the lottery not being fair, but it was too late. If she were to do so in past years, and she was not chosen, she possibly could have saved a life and her own. Mrs. Hutchinson’s