It is no secret that our population is growing at an increasingly faster rate. Some might argue that the human growth rate is unnatural, and that we were never meant to reproduce in such big amounts, unnaturally dominating all other species in the world. Having said this, knowing the vast amount of people who exist in the world, one might think that it is quite impossible to truly control all these people, and that chaos is the rule of law. However, as with other species, humans have developed the ability to bring order to a large group of people through various ways, and one of these ways is mindless group-think.

Shirley Jackson cleverly explores this phenomenon in this short story. In a small American town, the community living there participates in an annual lottery. Participation is obligatory for every family in town, and the best case scenario for every person involved is to not be the unlucky person who ends up winning.

The narrative tone in this work starts off as quite sunny and serene, describing the trivial details of how the town prepares for this annual ritual. Everything is done casually, and one would think the people are preparing nothing more than a fruit market. As the story progresses, the true extent of how disturbed this community is begins to unravel,since they're willingly participating in an event that is horrifying, and no one really questions why they partake in it in the first place, scoffing at other towns for slowly abandoning this event.

This is a short exploration of how easy it can be to brainwash people into doing horrifying deeds, many times simply because it's accepted as a norm. Sometimes, all it takes is one rebellious mind to question why things happen, for an entire system to fall apart.

This was an interesting read, though nothing extraordinary. I was expecting the dark turn the story would take, since everything felt too serene, foreshadowing a storm after the eerie calm. As she has done in The Haunting of Hill House, Shirley Jackson does a good job in gradually dissolving a calm atmosphere and bringing about a tense one. If you are a fan of the author's atmospheric creativity, you will most likely enjoy this short work.


 “It's not the way it used to be... people ain't the way they used to be.”