In writing "The Lottery," Jackson wanted to peel back the outward layers of respectability of small-town American to reveal what she saw as the rotten heart beating underneath a veneer of civility. On the face, the village in the story looks like hundreds and thousands of others across the length and breadth of America. It appears to be a close-knit community with strong values, where everyone comes together each summer to participate in an age-old tradition that apparently brings happiness and excitement to everyone.

But on closer inspection it becomes clear that there's something rotten in this seemingly respectable village. For this age-old annual tradition is actually a bloody pagan ritual; an act of human sacrifice is carried out each year to ensure a bountiful harvest. All these outwardly respectable country folk are turning out on this bright sunny day in late June to witness and participate in an act of murder.

The dark heart of small-town America is a theme developed in a number of Jackson's other short stories, most notably "The Possibility of Evil". By the late 1940s, when Jackson wrote "The Lottery", this theme was given a political twist by the onset of the Cold War. During the early years of the Cold War, a mindless conformity to American society could be observed. Many people went along with the prevailing mood of anti-Communist hysteria for fear of being exposed as traitors or subversives.

How do you think author's historical and social context has affected the writing of "The Lottery" by Shirley Jackson?

Beyond the other solid answer, Jackson was writing in an era of increased conformity and fear of communism after World War II. Though Jackson's story predates Joseph McCarthy, pressures for conformity to a conservative worldview were already growing. For example, in 1947, President Truman demanded a loyalty oath from government employees, via Executive Order 9835, out of fear of possible communist infiltration of the government. In late 1947, the House Un-American Activities Committee held hearings on communism in Hollywood, and Hollywood responded by blacklisting ten hostile witnesses.

It is not too far a jump from late 1947 to 1948, and it is not too far of a leap from blacklisting (which destroyed careers) to a black box with the power to destroy lives. Clearly, by the time Jackson was penning her story, an atmosphere of not deviating from traditional ways of thinking and acting was taking hold in this country. Jackson's story about a group of people clinging to old-fashioned and destructive behaviors out of fear reflects what was going in the United States at this time.

How do you think author's historical and social context has affected the writing of "The Lottery" by Shirley Jackson?

Written in the wake of World War II and the ruthless killings and ethnic cleansing of millions of people, Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery" appeared in The New Yorker in 1948. The village created by Jackson parallels her village in Vermont. About these circumstances Jackson wrote,

I hoped by setting a particularly brutal ancient rite in the present and in my own village, to shock the story's readers with a graphic dramatization of the pointless violence and general inhumanity in their own lives.

Like many authors who wrote after World War II, Jackson was disillusioned about the United States and humanity in general.  Her story reflects this disillusionment as well as an underlying hope that by exposing the senseless cruelty of man to his fellow creatures, people might come to a realization of this terrible innate propensity for violence that humans possess.  Sadly, however, she received letters that indicated a lack of understanding of her purpose as well as requests for the names of villages where the lottery is a ritual.