The Lottery
Lottery, The,title story of a collection by Shirley Jackson, first issued in The New Yorker and published in the book in 1949.
On the morning of June 27 of a recent year, the 300 townspeople of an American village prepare for the annual lottery in a mood of excitement. The tradition of the lottery is so old that some of its ritual has been forgotten and some has been changed, and its basic purpose is entirely unremembered, but all residents are present to take part in it when the civic-minded Mr. Summers, having been sworn in, hands a piece of paper to the head of each household. When it is discovered that the Hutchison family has drawn the marked slip, each member of the family—Bill, Tessie, and the three children—is given another slip. Silence prevails as suspense hovers over the proceedings. After resignedly protesting the unfairness of the first drawing, Tessie finds that she holds the marked slip. Set in a cleared space,...
[The entire page is 194 words long]
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