The Lottery Reaction Paper

Aldwin J. Taño Mrs. Erencio
IV.Copernicus Reaction Paper

[pic] by Shirley Jackson

The short story “The Lottery” was indeed a good, thrilling and bothering story by Shirley Jackson. Honestly, after reading the story, my first reaction was “oh my!” I did not expect that the lottery was a misfortune to someone who will win. The ending of the story was a surprise. Usually when you saw the word “lottery," the first thing that goes into your mind is “money.” But I was shocked with the finale of the story. Though, as I read the story, there were clues like black box and everyone is worried and they did not want to start it. But, I only realized it after reading the story.

Right after I finished reading the story, I wonder why they invented such a horrible tradition. Why do they have to punish their neighbors by throwing stone on her without a valid reason? Then, I came to think that maybe, it’s a way to eliminate a useless villager. But I think that tradition isn’t the right way to do that. I also wonder why is it that they are not feeling guilty after throwing stones to one of their townsfolk. The only answer that I can think is because it’s not their choice to punish Mrs. Hutchinson, it was chosen randomly. But still, the belief that if you will be punished randomly without a cause isn’t a good tradition. So that’s why some villages abandoned the lottery tradition. It is really unfair to Mrs. Hutchinson. She said that “it was unfair.” But, if she is not the one drew the paper with black spot; she wouldn’t say that it was unfair, so the only thing that unfair is the lottery.

Yet, if that is their tradition, I am respecting it. Just like the traditions of the Aztecs in South America. They sacrificed lives to their God for a good fortune to their civilization. So as I look to the other side of the story, I think their doing it to sacrifice a life for the benefit of the village. But still, I disagree with the tradition. Why would you kill someone that you knew your whole life? Why would you kill a friend? They could have sacrificed an animal like a cow or something else.

I feel sorry for Mrs. Hutchinson being the one who was chosen to be stoned to death. If I am one of the village people there, I already left the village and went to another place where the lottery tradition was already abandoned. I don’t want to be stoned to death especially by my love ones. But still, if I were Mrs. Hutchinson, I would try to attack or run to escape the unfairness of the tradition. But still no one opposes the principle, I don’t know why.

I also wonder what if little Dave was the one who picked the paper with black spot? Are they going to stone him to death? How horrible. For my opinion, they should stop the tradition because in the first place, it is a bad thing for the children to kill someone.

I felt like a major part of Jackson’s message is to demonstrate how powerful the practices of a community can determine the course of a human life. Jackson uses the shocking elements of her story to warn her readers that if they follow social practices blindly and neglect to question its principle, they sway the course of life.

For me, the lesson that I got from the story is that not all the traditions are good or not beneficiary. But, because it’s their belief, we should respect it. They should be the one to realize that this kind of tradition should be abandoned. We should not follow all the social practices and we should have the confidence to oppose it if we find it wrong or unfair,